On Monday and Tuesday we met our new tutor, Nadia, who came to
teach us more about the history of Danish Pedagogy and the key terms and
concepts associated with Danish Pedagogy. We spent the first part of the
morning getting to know Nadia, after she was then curious to find out more
about us as class. Instead of asking us to introduce ourselves to her, Nadia
wanted us to describe the person sitting next to us to really see how much we
knew about each other. I was sitting next to Lara which was lucky as I have
spent a lot of time with her during my time here in Denmark. This result of
this activity was a testimony to the friendships we have made within the class
and it was nice to see how well we have really got to know each other in such a
short time.
Throughout the Pedagogy class Nadia showed us short film
clips of routines within Early Years settings in England, Hungary and of course
Denmark. It was interesting to see both the similarities and differences between
the role of the adult within these settings and routines. In England, the
pedagogues encourage holistic development of the children, for example the
development of fine motor skills by encouraging the correct use of cutlery and
also language development by having little conversations with the children and introducing
new vocabulary. In Denmark, the pedagogues greatly encourage independence and
the children are able to do a lot for themselves, for example, a child spilt
his drink and immediately got up and cleaned it himself. I think encouraging independence
is very beneficial for the children and something I would like to promote when
I am on placement at home.
'The traveller who has once been from home is wiser than he
who has never left his own doorstep' - Margaret Mead
On Friday, we were given a free day so me and the other
girls from Ireland decided to visit the Spring Centre in Riis Skov. The Spring
Centre had two main halls, each with built in trampolines, sponge pits and
other gymnastic style equipment. In one room, which was for the younger
children, there was such things like, climbing apparatus and ledges fixed to
the wall were they could jump off and land on soft mattresses. For the first
half an hour we were able to sit in with a group of young children, aged around
two to six years old, it was interesting to see how the children were left to
their own devices, left to roam wherever they wanted and they seemed happy
enough to do so. It was also unusual for me to see that such young children
were able to play in the same vicinity as the older ones whom I would have
thought played roughly or more dangerously, but the older children always took
great care around the younger ones which was lovely to see. After sitting in
with the younger children we were able to go to the other hall which was free
for just us to play about in, and that we did!
'You can discover more about a person in an hour of play
than in a year of conversation.' - Richard Lingard
Later that evening, Ana in our class invited us to a party
in her dorm that she was having with some of her flatmates. In the early hours
of the morning, we headed back to Skjoldhøj and decided we weren’t ready for
bed so continued the party yet again in the Skjoldhøj Bar, in which we have yet
to have a disappointing night.
After wakening quite late on Saturday, Kate and I thought it
would be nice host a small gathering for the ones in our class. We always rave
about our Irish Stew and how nothing can compare to it, so we decided to make
some for them, so they could see for themselves. However cooking for nine
people is a lot harder than it looks but we pulled it off and thankfully everyone
seemed to enjoy it! We played a few games and then once again headed to the Skjoldhøj
bar to end off a great night.
References:
Margaret Mead - http://matadornetwork.com/bnt/the-next-50-most-inspiring-travel-quotes-of-all-time/
Richard Lingard - http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/play
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