Did you know that preschools play a vital role in brain development?
Here we look at the importance of preschool education in a child’s cognitive development and how preschools in the country can improve
According to data from various studies, it has been found that the first thousand days of a baby's life play a crucial role in brain development.
Based on this, many countries have invested in pre-schools knowing that the long-term result will be significant, especially in terms of developing the cognitive and socio-emotional abilities of children who will one day be the future. Moreover, growing research also reveals that the early foundations of these abilities are linked to healthy brain development.
The nurturing of preschool goers is thus very important and the interaction that takes place in the classrooms with peers and adults should be carefully monitored.
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The government of Bangladesh has taken a laudable step towards introducing two years of preschool instead of a year – this has been approved by the National Curriculum Coordination Committee. This means the learners would complete two years to learn cognitive and socio-emotional skills through play.
Dr Sam Wang and Dr Sandra Aamodt, who research rigorously on brain development say that the 19th-century kindergarten movement (which popularised the concept of preschool education) is based on the idea that playtime and other similar activities help gain cognitive, perceptual, social and emotional skills that largely enhances brain development.
However, the play-based active learning that is encouraged in the preschools of Bangladesh is not completely aligned with the experiential learning widely known as 'learning by doing,' which ought to be an integral part of the system.
Around the world, learners who are earning top scores in reading, science and mathematics in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) exams are those who have been taught with the playful and experiential approach before the second grade.
Riding bicycles or swimming are great examples of learning by doing. Children learn to think, pay attention and retain information which are great cognitive abilities that lay the foundations for adult cognitive functions. Visual art is also a way through which a child's cognitive abilities such as reasoning and imagination can be developed. It can also nurture socio-emotional abilities.
But as learning by doing is something that is kept for secondary schools in Bangladesh, children face enormous difficulties in developing cognitive and socio-emotional abilities even when preschools are play-based.
No doubt many people think that preschools indirectly emphasise learning by doing. In reality, the existing schools are not prepared to deliver a curriculum that is based on the playful and experiential approach that is popular in many countries around the world.
France for example is very focused on developing life skills like swimming and riding a bike because of the impact it has on the long-term development of a child's brain. They are also very persistent in teaching visual arts to preschoolers knowing that in the long run, this too will develop the neural connections necessary to solve unknown problems.
Nonetheless, are the teachers of Bangladesh ready to adhere to the playful and experiential approach in developing children? The answer is educators are still in doubt about their visual knowledge and ability to deliver visual art experiences to children.
While educators may consider art, swimming and riding a bike as important aspects of childhood, they do not entirely see the purpose of learning these. Some educators see these activities as a way to keep children busy, others believe these activities are a form of therapy instead of a tool for development.
Providing teachers training on playful and experiential approaches is therefore extremely important to not only change their views but also to engage them actively in the development of cognitive and socio-emotional abilities of children. Government organisations are already giving face-to-face training to the teachers of primary and secondary schools, but less is known about the training of teachers in preschools.
Furthermore, this training is cost-intensive and due to resource constraints, it takes 5 to 6 years to update the knowledge and skills of every teacher in the system.
Access to Innovate (a2i Bangladesh) introduced the Teachers' Portal which has replaced the notion of training, monitoring and mentoring to a great extent. Through this online platform, every member-educator can connect with 'teacher-educators' and mentors who are accessible seven days a week as opposed to traditional trainers who are available only at the time of training and that too once every few years.
If the same platform can be used to train preschool teachers, then the teachers can learn from mentors and even peers and feel confident about their teaching even when they are in the remotest part of the country. On the platform, they can also upload their content and get feedback from mentors thereby continuously developing their skills and improving their content.
Along with teachers, the government and non-governmental organisations have a role to play but will just their engagement suffice? Or do others have a role to play? Some questions need to be answered, particularly how to equip classrooms with meaningful educational toys and bicycles because if not done in a meaningful way, it will not have a meaningful impact on the child's brain development.
Lamia Shams is a Senior Research and Communications Associate in Research and Policy Integration for Development (RAPID). She could be contacted at: lamiashams007@gmail.com
Alize Zaidi is an Educator. She can be contacted at: alize.syd@gmail.com
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.
