Preschool in Three Cultures Paper
Preschool in Three Cultures
Ronhaly Avila
EDP 3004
Children learn to act in accordance to their culture due to what their parents teach them and what they learn in school. Different countries have their own way of cooking, driving and most important, teaching. A child who is in a preschool in America, will not experience the same cultural activities as a child in China or Japan. The video Preschool in Three Cultures Revisited demonstrates how preschools in these three countries teach their students in accordance to their culture. This video also shows different Behaviorism and Constructivism aspects for each school. John Watson once said “Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select—doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors”. What Watson meant by this is that behaviorism can be measured, trained and changed through conditioning which come about through interaction with everyone and everything around you. While watching Preschool in Three Cultures, China I noticed a couple of examples of behaviorism. The scene which I believe demonstrated the most behaviorist approach was when all the children in the Chinese preschool went to the bathroom. There is what seems to be a narrow hole in the ground of the bathroom. The children all line up and squat at the same time to us the bathroom. This way of using the facilities makes the children have a set schedule to use the bathroom and avoids interruptions during the lesson. If a child needs to use the bathroom outside of the set schedule, they are allowed but the teacher still tries to train all the students to follow these guidelines. While the American teachers watched the video of the children using the bathroom, they found it
Ronhaly Avila
EDP 3004
Children learn to act in accordance to their culture due to what their parents teach them and what they learn in school. Different countries have their own way of cooking, driving and most important, teaching. A child who is in a preschool in America, will not experience the same cultural activities as a child in China or Japan. The video Preschool in Three Cultures Revisited demonstrates how preschools in these three countries teach their students in accordance to their culture. This video also shows different Behaviorism and Constructivism aspects for each school. John Watson once said “Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select—doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors”. What Watson meant by this is that behaviorism can be measured, trained and changed through conditioning which come about through interaction with everyone and everything around you. While watching Preschool in Three Cultures, China I noticed a couple of examples of behaviorism. The scene which I believe demonstrated the most behaviorist approach was when all the children in the Chinese preschool went to the bathroom. There is what seems to be a narrow hole in the ground of the bathroom. The children all line up and squat at the same time to us the bathroom. This way of using the facilities makes the children have a set schedule to use the bathroom and avoids interruptions during the lesson. If a child needs to use the bathroom outside of the set schedule, they are allowed but the teacher still tries to train all the students to follow these guidelines. While the American teachers watched the video of the children using the bathroom, they found it