Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 3

On the World Forum Radio Podcast I listened to George Forman an emeritus professor at the University of Massachusetts and author of several books on Piaget. While studying for his doctoral degree he had the opportunity to observe children playing outside. Through the study of Piaget, he became interested in play. As he was observing one day a little boy, a two-year-old caught his attention. He was dragging a large fireplace log behind him. As his attention was distracted to other things outside he let go of the log and left it in a vertical position. When the little boy looked back at the log he was totally surprised and apparently filled with wonderment to see that the log was now standing.

Dr. Forman shared that watching this boy served as an epiphany for him. The boy was caught up in the idea of what the log was doing rather than what it was. This helped to form his study into children thinking and looking at things for how they change or do not change as opposed to what they are. Looking at things in action as verbs instead of what they are as nouns. Forman shares that “what has guided his writing and thinking of early education and curriculum is to help children understand how to change things from one state to another” (Forman, 2016). This is how he describes his pedagogy in a nutshell.

On UNESCO’s website in the education window under the icon of Quality an article under the caption Papua New Guinea’s Vernacular Language Preschool Programme shares with the reader how “parents on Bougainville Island, in North Solomons Province, expressed concern that the English-only school system was alienating their children from their own language and culture” (UNESCO, 2016). The government agreed with a proposal of the parents to education the children before attending formal school in the native language for a period of one to two years. “Community members and elders, even those who could not read and write themselves, were invited into the classrooms to pass on important cultural knowledge and information to the children” (UNESCO, 2016). This informally taught the children the importance of their traditions and culture. As a result of the pre-school in the language of the children they were found to be “better prepared cognitively, developmentally and academically to transfer the learning of skills in their own language to learning in English” (UNESCO, 2016).

References

Forman, G. (2016) World Forum Radio Podcast Retrieved from http://www.viaway.com/view/3871587/world-forum-radio-george-forman

UNESCO (2016). Papua New Guinea’s Vernacular Language Preschool Programme Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001373/137383e.pdf