Humanistic Perspective in Early Childhood Education

A Visit to Tzu Chi Kindergarten in Penang

Tzu Chi and Me

I have heard about good deeds of Tzu Chi many years ago through their charity events and recycle activities. The are well known for helping the poor and the needy. The first time I stepped into Tzu Chi Kindergarten (Bayan Lepas Branch) was to inquire about the enrolment of my child. I was turned away because the list has been filled up. I was told that to secure a place in Tzu Chi Kindergarten, I should fill up the name during pregnancy and there is a priority for their volunteers. Oh... well.... I felt the monthly fees and miscellaneous fees are relatively high for me. I decided to home-school my child at the end. 

Years later, I was still very impressed by Tzu Chi charity work to the community. So, I decided to enrol my child into their Humanity School in SJKC Chong Cheng so that we can learn and giving back to the society. I paid a relatively high miscellaneous fees for this. Unfortunately, we did not "survive" till the end. 

The fees made me think that Tzu Chi education is for rich people... 

I am glad that Dr Kim has arranged this visit for us to further understand the humanistic philosophy of Tzu Chi. To me, it is also a chance to change my perception on Tzu Chi education.

The Visit

It was a drizzling day. I was late and rushed. I missed the chance to admire the large green lawn and the beautiful building at the front because I entered directly through the basement carpark. I only managed to pay respect to the Buddha from the bottom of my heart. The teachers and the volunteers are very helpful and kind. From the arrangement of the photo session to tea break followed by the presentations and sharing, we can feel that they have put in effort in every little thing and do it diligently (用心). Everything is very well organised and the snacks and souvenirs were a surprise. 

Daily Routine

Daily Outdoor Activities (40 mins) 

- Physical exercise and recycling activity

- connectivity with nature

Thematic/Subject Teaching (120 mins) 

- 5-6 themes according to Jing Si Aphorism and English and Bahasa Malaysia subjects

Corner Exploration (60 mins) 

- development of Multiple Intelligence

- DIY, role play, cooking, blocks, craft and reading corners.

- Teachers will discuss with the children what will they do in the Corner Exploration classroom.

- Children have the freedom to choose on what to do and record down their exploration after the session. 

Corner Exploration Classroom

Humanistic lesson (40 mins)

- needle and thread

- tea serving

- flower arrangement

From the teachers' presentation, I believe all the aspects in KSPK are well taken care. This is certainly a holistic education. 

Triangular Relationship: Student, Teacher, Parent

I was totally agreed to the importance to work together with parents in children education to maximise the learning outcome. Tzu Chi encourage regular parent-child bonding in various activities such as Graduation ceremony, Sports day, Ex-graduate parent-child alumni, parent child reading record etc. 

What about parents who are suffering from financial hardship and every hour counts to earn a living? They need to make a choice.

Enrolment

According to Tzu Chi, the enrolment of children is at first come first serve basis and only families who register during the Open Day and stay back for the sharing session will be selected. 

We was informed that 20% of Tzu Chi's students were subsidized and the school intended to increase to 100%  and target the Bottom 40% (B40) community. This is a really good intention to promote equality in education for all. However, the school is located at the neighbourhood where the majority are from the medium 40%  (M40) and Top 20% (T20). To reach out to B40, more effort need to be done. The B40 is not aware of the open day, the subsidize and may feel inferior in front of this gorgeous building. 

Experiential Learning

There are three special activities for experiential learning: 

i) "Pregnancy" experience carried out by the 6 years old students. For example:
1st month pregnancy : the children have to take care of the "baby" like the drops of water hold in a banana leaf
2nd month pregnancy: the children have to take care of the "baby" like the biscuits in a bag

5th month pregnancy: the children have to carry a balloon in their stomach for daily activities to experience the inconvenience and difficulties
The list goes on until giving birth, take care of a crying baby, changing diapers etc

As filial piety is an important aspects in humanistic education, the above activity will teach the children to love and respect their parents. Besides, birthday was treated as "Mother 's Suffering Day". Children learnt to serve tea and washing mothers' feet to show gratitude and respect to their mother. This looks like a very eastern (Chinese) approach. Children who were brought up at the other end of the world (Western) at a very different way may found this awkward and unacceptable. 

ii) Vegetarian Passport Activity (one month free vegetarian lunches and dinners)
- children fly in a space ship to vegetarian planet where all the animals are happy

iii) Plantation area - the children plant, take care, cook and eat the vegetables

Health Screening

Tzu Chi has partnered with pediatricians, doctors, dentists and therapists in the Health Screening session for newly enrolled children. The early detection of health related problem will be treated. Currently, Tzu Chi accept special needs children with condition. They also have a special team trained (and still developing and expanding) for the special needs children. So, Tzu Chi is aiming at inclusive education too.

Sustainable Development Goal 4:

'To ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all". 

Tzu Chi has a very good ECE philosophy. Although it has yet to be termed as successful inclusive education,  they are on the right path in this matter.

However, on the part of "equitable right" to education, 

• If B40 is the target group, teachers' readiness is an important issue. 
• Besides, how to reach out to the B40 children in need? 
• Will there be an adjustment in the level of parental commitment?
• The diversity and differences in children's background will definitely challenge the present pedagogy and practices. 

Finally, thank you for the warmth hospitality!!

Presentation by Jordan Chan Wei Ern, 11 years old:
"Earthworm Hotel"

Tzu Chi Teachers in white shirts; Tzu Chi volunteers in brown vest

Education for Orang Asli

BACKGROUND

The Ministry of Rural and Regional Development has entrusted the Department of Orang Asli Affairs (JHEOA), now the Department of Orang Asli Development (JAKOA) to oversee the educational programs for OA. The OA education was formalized in 1952 (Edo, 2012). Since then, educating the community has been one of the Government’s priorities (MOE, 2013). After almost 50 years, in 2001, the Orang Asli literacy rate was only 51% (MOEM 2008) compared to the national rate of 93.9% (SHUAKAM 2006). Moreover, majority of the OA students will drop out of school after completed their studies in the primary school with only 2% have been successful in advancing their higher education (Ms Ita is one of them graduated from UUM).

Why is it so hard for the OA to access to education? Our group was assigned to find out the challenges and barriers to OA education. Let's have a quick look.

CHALLENGES AND BARRIERS

Health, Family and Culture

40% of OA children by age 2 are malnourished. The brain development for children is very important for their future development. When the basic need (food) is not met, education became irrelevant. 

The older generation are sceptical about sending their children to school because they already sufficient with their traditional way of life (hunting, fishing, live with the natural resources in the jungle). As such, the parents viewed their children's attendance to school and the academic result not as important as an helping hand at home. Extra expenses in school and communication barriers also hinder OA from continue study. Further, some OA children with no birth certificate are unable to enrol in national school. 

Location

Some OA village located in very remote area and the journey to school is too far and inaccessible. This was worsen during bad weather. Hence, the children unable to attend to school regularly and punctually. This will certainly affect their studies. Although some schools provide shuttle services, but a return trip takes 3-4 hours and the service is irregular with bad maintenance of the vehicles.

The Relevance of Education to OA

Younger generation OA learn through informal learning experiences (life skills in the jungle, spiritual ceremony) from older generation. The children are unable to apply the knowledge they learnt from school at home. As such, there is a discontinuity from the educational needs as expected in the school and what is expected at home. This made them felt lack of motivation to be in school.

School and Learning Environment

The government continually emphasizing ‘‘the need for integration and assimilation of the Orang Asli within the mainstream society’’. Thus, teachers work hard to ensure OA children able to "fit" into education system rather than exploring how the present education system can accommodate their needs.

There are about 78 hostels in the peninsula for school-going OA children who live in remote villages. There are unfortunate cases happened in hostel that worried the OA parent. Further, the young children who feel insecure being away from parent will rather dropout and go home. 

OA children experienced the sense of being different for the first time when they were in school. School activities are time-regulated, competitive, at a different language and in an enclosed classroom but the environment in the village or jungle is so different.

Peers, Teachers and Pedagogy 

OA often being called names or taunted at their behaviors for being "Orang Asli".

Some teachers have negative attitude towards OA children. The teaching method is inappropriate to the status, ability and way of thinking of OA children. 

The teaching approach in mainstream may not suitable for OA children in view of their background. 

"BE GOOD NEWS TO THE POOR" - Ms Ita (Semai) from Malaysian Care Corporation

Ms Ita, an Orang Asli from Semai tribe was invited by Dr Kim to share her work with the OA in Tapah, Perak. Despite all the above challenges and barriers to education for OA, she has completed her degree with UUM with perseverance and positive attitude. She told us that although her parents were illiterate, they are very supportive in her education. As such, she do believe education can help the OA community to have a better life but with appropriate method and curriculum.

Malaysian CARE is a non-profit Christian social work organisation registered in Malaysia since 1979. They are committed to serve the poor and needy irrespective of religion and ethnicity. Read more about their Rural & Urban Community Development here:

https://www.malaysiancare.org/about-us/our-services/rural-urban-community-development/

We was informed by Ms Ita that there are actually 18+1 OA tribe in Malaysia in which TEOQ tribe was not in the list. According to JAKOA, there are 178 thousand OA population in Malaysia but a statistic released by another NGO shown 270K population. Nevertheless, they are the minority group in Malaysia whose voice were not represented, right being neglected and their natural resource from the jungle was taken away by others. 

Besides the awareness program of land's right, Malaysian Care is focus on the empowerment and OA's rights in the following areas: 

• Education (both parents and children)
• Economic
• Social
• Political
• Environment
• Basic facilities
• Culture
• Religion

The education challenges and dropout issues discussed by Ms Ita were similar to our previous discussion. She added that, the top management of JAKOA are not staffed by OA people and only 5% of the staff are OA. Hence, the non-OA staff definitely cannot understand the needs and struggle better than OA. 

Ms Ita also reiterated that OA community is humble and peaceful. One of the reason a family move away from a place is because of conflict. They don't fight. 

The community learning centres were set up in the OA village. As such, there will be no problem in accessibility for the children. However, there is still no water supply and electricity in the village (after 62 years of independence and millions (maybe billions) of allocation... this is not from Ita, I just curious) and the villagers have to carried the water manually from a far away river! The schools were led by OA teachers which were trained by Malaysian Care so that they can deliver the knowledge in mother toungue and are more culturally sensitive. The name of the programs are in OA language i.e Deek Penanty (House of Knowledge), Si Nui Bor & Benaneq (Youth Camp) etc to create sense of belonging among them. 

Thank you Ms Ita for the insightful sharing and presentation. She is a brave and dedicated girl with a big heart to give back to her own community. The road to an equitable quality education is still a long way to go. All the best to Ms Ita and OA community!

Ms Ita (Front row: 5th from the right)

Guest Speaker: Teacher Stella, A Rohingya Refugee School Teacher

Background

The Rohingya people are a Muslim minority group residing in the Western State of Rakhine, Myanmar. They were denied citizenship from the new Citizenship Law (135 ethnic group in the list) passed in 1982. Since then, Rohingya have faced systemic persecution and discrimination for decades. The 2015 refugee crisis has caused mass migration of Rohingya to many parts of the world include Penang. 

Teacher Stella's Sharing

Looking at those helpless children and families, Teacher Stella decided to teach in the refugee school. Besides teaching them to read, write and count (3M), teacher Stella also teach the elder children practical skills such as filling in forms, calling ambulance, applying for UNHCR services/cards and basic computer skills. The children also exposed to art, poem and drama to express their feelings and emotions. They even form a choral speaking group and all the members can speak good English.

Teacher Stella said the parents were very happy with the children achievements in school and the enrolment is always over subscribe. As such, Teacher Stella imposed a requirement for the children to attend early childhood education with Good Start Pre-school before enrol in the primary school with her. She mentioned that Good Start provide the children a good foundation to start elementary school.

Teenagers who has finished elementary school has no place to further study. They may engaged themselves in gangsterism or become an extremist due to bad influence. In view of this problem, Teacher Stella decided to start a secondary school for these teenagers to continue study. The school will include vocational skills in their curriculum to prepare the young adults with proper living skill when they graduated. May she be blessed with good luck and good people in setting up the school.

Teacher Stella has a beautiful soul. She was not only teach the children, she also care for them and help their family whenever she were called for. She has been fought for a child in a child marriage case. She was frustrated when at the end the girl still get married at young age. However, she still loves her and continue doing what she think is right for other children.

It is very important to provide the refugee children with proper education. Besides 3M, the children were taught manners and discipline. Teachers helped them to get prepared and whenever there is an opportunity to settle down, those who are literate will be in advantage. In 5-10 years time, if this batch of grown adults has zero skills, no direction of what to do next but yet still have to survived in an unfavorable situation, what will be the first thing come to their mind? I cannot imagine the chaos in community and the insecurity among Malaysians at that time.

So, thank you teacher Stella and all the good Samaritans for your sacrifices and contributions!

Teacher Stella: third from the right

Reggio Emilia vs Forest School

100 Languages of Learning and Play

 ~There are infinite ways that children express themselves, explore the environment, connect their thoughts and feels. 

Background

Reggio Emilia School was started as School for People after World War II in Italy by Loris Malaguzi. The philosophy was based on principles of respect, responsibility and community. 

After writing a very long post on Forest School, I realised there are many similarities between Reggio Emilia Approach and Forest School Approach. 

Viewed of Child
Both approach viewed children as competent and believe in children innate curiosity to understand the world around them. The children are rich in potential and are able to choose, initiate and drive their own learning process. All voices are equally value. 

Role of Teacher/Adult

With the view of children being so powerful, the teachers/adults in both approach play a role as an observer and learn alongside the children. Teachers provide an environment opportunity to children to inspire them to learn and grow in knowledge and skills. They just act as a compass to accompany the children in their discovery journey. 

However, Teachers in Reggio Emilia are required to document her observation about the strength and interest of the children in the form of photography, video, conversation transcript or visual medium like paint, drawing and clay. The documentation is a way of assessment and advocacy. Besides recording the children's activities and displaying their work in a portfolio, teachers in Reggio also revisits previous project. 

Curriculum

As both approach also children-centered, there is no fix curriculum. It all spontaneous and depends on the children interest and the discovery of the day. Both approach also believe that children has Multiple Intelligence (MI) and should not measure their performance solely based on one or a few intelligence. Project is done to cater all 8 MI.

Reggio and Forest are both project based learning. Children make decision to conduct the research of their own interest. However, Reggio make learning visible by documenting the project. 

Environment

Reggio schools are function as "living organism"with enough provocation to support child's learning and invite children to undertake extended exploration. There are certain corners/areas such as construction area, house play area,  reading area, table of games, buletin board and an art area called Atelier. The Atelier is the unique feature of Reggio approach for the children to master techniques in multiple symbolic format (drawing, painting, clay etc).

Whereas Forest (or other nature setting) is the ready made nature environment for Forest school. Environment is the 3rd teacher for both approach as children explore and learn through the environment and its surroundings. 

Conclusion: 

• There is no specific outcome for children learning in both schools
• Mistakes are allowed as part of the learning process. Children are no afraid of bad eveluation and willing to take risk and challenges.
• The curriculum is personalised
• Materials used are open ended
• Assessment process is multi directional

Since there are so many similarities in both approach, I definitely agreed that Reggio Emilia as well as Forest Approach is useful and relevant for children in 21st Century. 

Forest School - A school without ceiling and walls

Background

This idea was started by Ella Flatau in Denmark in 1950 where a daily hike in the woods and climbing the mountain were part of the curriculum. Nowadays, this approach has growing in popularity not only in Scandinavian countries but also in United Kingdom and many parts of the world in different setting that reflects the children learning needs.

In forest school, the children either go to the wood (park/garden/beach and other nature setting) daily or on a regular basis to observe changes of the environment. The changes can be man/animal made (tracks, chewed fruits or seeds, nest etc) or seasonal (colours of leaves, temperature etc). The children will perform investigation and research on the topic of the hands-on learning experiences and constructing their understanding and knowledge of the experiences. 

Playing sands at the beach

A walk in the wood with Forest Guide

My outdoor learning story

Wandering wild and experience the wonder of nature formed a major part of my childhood memory. Maybe because of this reason, I prefer the Forest School Approach above others  (Waldorf, Montessori and Reggio Emilia).

Playmates 1980's

Unfortunately, I do not have a single photo of us playing. When I was little, me and my cousins used to roam freely in the bushes near my Ah Gong (paternal-grandfather) and Ah Po (paternal-grandmother)'s house. The adults are too busy with house chores while we children created our play land in the bushes. We climbed the guava tree and enjoyed the fruits while sitting on the branches; we trapped the spiders in the matches box for fighting game; we plucked wild flowers and leaves for our little kitchen; we used the stems of the casava plant to make jewelleries... the list goes on. 

My Ah Ma (my maternal-grandmother) lived in "forest". My siblings were grown up winding through the trees and playing in the woods for prolonged periods. As such, we appreciate the natural beauty of the environment and strongly believe outdoor learning is a real-life first hand experience that is essential in every childhood.

This view was taken in 2016 in front of my Ah Ma's house

7 Pedagogical Principles of Forest School

i) each child is unique and competent 

    - Howard Gardner Multiple Intelligence Theory

ii)  promote holistic development 

      - physical, social, emotional, spiritual, intellectual, creative

iii) children are active and interactive learners  

      - changing, adjusting, rearranging their understanding

iv) children need real-life first hand experiences 

      - through sensory development

v) child-led, adult supported approach 

    - fun and unhurried learner-centered process

    - to create a community for being, developmental and learning

vi) children need time to experiment and develop independent thinking 

      - long term/regular visit to the nature (forest, beach, park etc) 

      - open ended play time

      - repeat the cycle of planning-observation-adaptation-review: create own idea

vii) learning comes from social interactions

       - discover the joy of fellowship

       - establish a culture and social world with peers

Barriers of Outdoor Learning for 21st Century children

Time spent outside is at a premium due to the following factors: 

i) parental fear - diseases, hygiene, safety, strangers, crime

Source: parenting-basics.blogspot.com

ii) reduction of play time in school - packed curriculum, devoted to indoor activities

iii) limited accessibility to natural outdoor spaces - children alienation from nature

iv) natural or man made phenomena - severe weather; polluted environment

21st Century Children (OECD)

Children have better health care, better public safety and better support for their physical and mental well being due to: 

i)   parents playing an active role in their education

ii)  safer environment

iii) parents stay in constant touch with children

Children have potential physical, social and psychological challenges due to: 

i)  higher level of stress (push to do more)

ii) obesity problem

iii)new risk using technology (cyber bully)

Is Forest School approach useful for children in 21st Century?

21st century children are easily obsessed to the technology and end up sitting in the same spot for hours. Unlike traditional school who required a child to sit in the redefined classroom or chair for the entire learning process, Forest school sent children out to play in the mud, climbing trees and doing all sorts of activities which made them feel free and happy. The forest children are energetic and active. As such, obesity is unlikely to happen to them. Moreover, the happiness in learning remain in them and this positive feeling help children dealing with emotional problem caused by own distressed mood. 

These real-life first hand activities the children did in outdoor learning refine their gross and fine motor skills as well as other sensory development. Further, listening to the animal and movement sounds in the forest increase their concentration and made the children more observant.  Focus and observant are two very important attitude to be able to perform well in school and work. 

Besides, children deal with their own feeling everyday in the wood. They may fear of dark, small creatures, fires or height but all these fear will eventually disappeared because of regular visits to the nature and repetition (practise) done on the activities with similar nature. Children may feel sad when they discover a dead or injured creature but when they understand that is the nature of life, the will be more grateful to the living things around them. Children experienced the changed of negative feeling and fluctuation of mood. This kind of exposures will strengthen their ability to deal with stress later in life. 

On top of that, children are viewed as unique and competent in Forest School. Adults believe in their ability to do certain tasks (climbing a tree, setting up fire etc) and acknowledged that every child is different. By understanding their own potential and limitation, they can develop emotional intelligence and plan for future. 

In addition, under child-led and adult support practice, children were trained to think independently and and at the same time has the opportunity to take supported risk. They are authorized to choose, initiate and drive their own learning process. This approach  activate their own desire to learn and trained the children to make justifiable decision based on the risk-benefit factor surrounding them. In the fast changing global economy, making quick and sound decision is very important. Further, there is no more spoon feed education in future. Information sharing become so convenience with access to internet. Thus, it is very important to be able to learn in an active and interactive way to remain competent in the emergent society. 

Last but not least, environmental issues will deteriorate in future. Connections with the nature since young has build up a relationship between children and the nature. Thus, it is least likely for this future generation to compromise nature issues for development. They will certainly taking seriously the ecological impact to ensure sustainable site management of the surroundings before development took place. 

All the above has fostered a resilience, confidence, independent and creative learners and this is the Holistic Development promoted by Forest School Approach. So relevant, isn't it?

My connection with nature - Pulau Jerejak