Constructive Guidance and Discipline by Marjorie V. Fields, Patricia A. Meritt & Debbie M. Fields, Seventh Edition
What Have You Learned?
You should have completed reading the entire textbook before beginning this assignment. Constructive Guidance and Discipline by Marjorie V. Fields, Patricia A. Meritt & Debbie M. Fields, Seventh Edition
As an early childhood educator, it will be important that you be able to articulate a coherent philosophy of guidance. You may be called upon to explain your ideas to parents, school administrators, other early childhood educators, and classroom volunteers.
This course began with a review of how children grow and develop discussed in chapters 1-3. You studied how physical and emotional development affect child behavior and how intellectual and social development affect discipline.
Next the focus was on approaches to discipline discussed in chapters 4-10. Approaches you learned about include:
Creating a learning environment to prevent discipline problems
Planning a Program/Curriculum that is developmentally appropriate and will prevent discipline problems
Teaching desirable behavior through example/modeling
Using communication strategies for effective discipline
Helping children understand and accept discipline
Behaviorism-Does it have a place in early childhood education?
Punishment-Does it have a place in early childhood education?
In the third part of the course, the focus is on matching discipline causes to discipline approaches. The four major causes are covered in chapters 11-14 and then how to analyze discipline problems is discussed in chapter 15. Those four major topics include:
Childlike behaviors (missing skills)
Unmet needs
Diverse neesd: academic, social, cultural, and linguistic
Stress and vulnerabilities
After the in depth exploration of guidance of young children this semester, the goal is that you will have learned more about effective ways to guide and discipline children. This assignment will take some deep thinking to put into words what you have learned over this semester and any changes in your thinking about guidance that have occurred.
Before beginning to write, go back to the Introduction Module and read your original Philosophy of Guidance Statement. Remember this is your personal philosophy. While you will need to provide the rationale for your philosophy in each section, you will write much of the philosophy in “first person.”
Format for your philosophy statement
No cover page is required.
Because this paper is easily identified as your paper in this course with this instructor, there is no need to take up several lines at the beginning of the paper to put this identifying information. It will not be counted in the 3 full page count. Start with the title.
Submit as a Word document.
This paper must be written in COMPLETE sentences and in your OWN WORDS and not copied from your textbook or the internet.
Deductions will be made for writing mechanics, grammar, and spelling errors. Those who are planning a professional career working with children and families are expected to be effective communicators both orally and in writing.
This statement must be a minimum of 3 full pages in length.
Margins must be 1 inch.
Paper must be typed, double-spaced, with a 12 point font.
Content of philosophy statement
Title of Paper: My Philosophy of Guidance and Discipline in an Early Childhood Classroom
You must include required subheadings in the paper to include your beliefs on the following:
Introduction
Physical Environment
Program and Curriculum
Modeling Desired Behavior
Communication Strategies
Consequences
Behavior Modification
Punishment
How I Choose the Appropriate Discipline Approach
Conclusion
