Nurturing children to continuous learners : the mediation for sensitizing caregivers/teachers

• Main Author: Li, Jenny Jenyi.
• Other Authors: National Institute of Education
• Format: Research Report
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Education::Theory and practice of education
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/42322
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This study examined the quality of both emotional and cognitive components of the meditational process in a kindergarten. It looked at how to improve the quality of adult’s facilitation in children’s learning and attempting the possibility of applying the Mediational Intervention for Sensitizing Caregivers/teachers (MISC). The main framework of MISC includes elements of focusing, affecting, expanding, rewarding, and regulating, which was developed upon Vygotsky’s and his followers’ theoretical ideas. MISC was introduced to Singapore by Professor Pnina Klein whose work has been supported by international organizations such as World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF. MISC is widely practiced in Israel, as well as in USA, Portugal, Ethiopia, Norway, Sweden and Indonesia. The framework of MISC was referenced when examined how children negotiate their learning under adult’s mediation. Videotape analyses of adult-child interaction in local early childhood learning center were conducted to identify criteria of significant incidence behaviors based on the elements of MISC. It is shared in the study regarding perspectives of MISC being a method for analyzing behaviors of children and caregivers/teachers in their existing interaction and teaching practices. For example, the compatible features of MISC with ongoing educational programs or with their traditional way of teaching. It stands a better chance of sustaining the long-term effects on caregivers’/teachers’ behaviors, which indeed, is Singapore striving to produce developing learners to meet the demands of global community.