Why I Chose Early Childhood Education as a Career

Introduction

To start with "Why I Chose Early Childhood Education as a Career" essay, where I will explaine why based on self-reflection whether am I suitable for being a teacher. Near the end of high school I kept asking myself, do I really want to be an early childhood teacher? I once dreamt to be a designer, owning a studio where I can create and teach children to draw. I also had the opportunity to teach young children ballet as a ballet teaching assistant, which I enjoyed very much. Noticing my enthusiasm for teaching children, my parents and friends encouraged me to throw myself into the early childhood industry. This made me wonder: does my love for children imply that I want to become an early childhood teacher? Am I suitable for the job despite what the people around me say? It took me a long time to decide between early childhood education and design as my major course.

Am I Suitable to Be an Early Childhood Teacher?

I constantly hesitated until I made a resolution to study early childhood education. The major reason why I chose this course was because of my parents. They believe I have the patience, compassion, comprehensive thinking to be a teacher, so they kept encouraging me. I never realized I had those strengths. Martin Seligman and his team studied all religions and philosophical traditions, and be sure to create 24 characters from six virtues advantage. Through Seligman’s study, I discovered some of my strengths. For instance, the virtue of courage: persistence, integrity, and vitality, and the virtue of humanity: love and kindness. Some may not agree, but I think having these strengths are important to be a teacher. For vitality, a teacher needs plenty of energy to be active to drive children’s learning. For love and kindness, a teacher should love every children even if they are naughty, clever or need any special care. You have to be kind and patient when teaching them. After understanding my strengths, my confidence increased and I slowly trusted myself to be a good teacher. Also I would love to use my abilities to inspire children’s learning in a more creative way.

How to Use my Abilities to Inspire Children?

To continue why I chose early childhood education as a career essay, as forementioned, I was a teaching assistant. It was always heartwarming to see the pure and innocent smiles on the children’s faces and witnessing their improvement gave me an irreplaceable sense of achievement that I never found in any other fields. Also, my experience from teaching inspired me in the field of visual arts. As a visual art lover, I wish to make good use of my ability to inspire children’s ways of learning .

Kolb explain that learning is the process of creating knowledge through the variation of experience. David Kolb issued his learning style theory in 1984. It is expressed as “four-stage cycle of learning“, showing different people have different learning styles and explaining a cycle of experiential learning that applied to us. Kolb’s model is based on two levels: “four-stage cycle“ and “four-type definition of learning styles”. The first level, four-stage cycle, includes “Concrete Experience” (to have a new experience), “Reflective Observation” (to review on the experience), “Abstract Conceptualization“ (to conclude what one has learnt), and “Active Experimentation“ (to practice what one has learnt). The second level, four-type definition of learning style, includes diverging, assimilating, converging, and accommodating to explain different people have different learning styles.

Instead of just using words to teach young children, I think using pictures allows young children to learn easily as Kolb said learn by an experience and try out what you have learnt can increase their understanding. Therefore, I would like to merge visual art elements into my teaching to provide them with a more relaxed and playful learning environment, assisting their growth as creative and artistic individuals.

Conclusion

I was concerned about whether I qualify as an early childhood teacher. As John M. Grohol, Psy.D. explained that our personality is a complex system of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that appearance how we interconnected with others and the world around us.

One famous system called “Big Five” that covered a personality trait “Neuroticism”. It means a person with this trait will get nervous and anxious easily and has less confidence, that is exactly me. Therefore, through the understanding of my own character strengths, it made me more affirm myself and I believe I can improve through hard work. Furthermore, the enlightenment of Kolb’s learning style, I have a notion on make good use of my ability to inspire children’s learning with creative and enjoyable ways. This made me more interested in this industry and built up my confidence on having my own ideas on teaching which can help in my future career. To end up why I love being a preschool teacher essay, instead of denying my capability, I decided to trust myself “I can be a good childhood teacher!” and to attempt bravely. I hope I will be able to get my degree in teaching at George Washington University - that will be the main path for my future dream career.

Reference

• Grohol, J. M. (2019, May 30). The Big Five Personality Traits. Retrieved from https://psychcentral.com/lib/the-big-five-personality-traits/.
• Home. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.businessballs.com/self-awareness/kolbs-learning-styles/.
• Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experimental learning: experience as the source of learning and development [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235701029_Experiential_Learning_Experience_As_The_Source_Of_Learning_And_Development]. Retrieved from http://www.learningfromexperience.com/images/uploads/process-of-experiential-learning.pdf
• Mcleod, S. (2017, February 5). Kolb's Learning Styles and Experiential Learning Cycle. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/learning-kolb.html.
• Raad, B. de. (2000). The big five personality factors: the psycholexical approach to personality [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232576768_The_Big_Five_Personality_Factors_The_psycholexical_approach_to_personality].
• The Classification of Character Strengths and Virtues. (2019, July 16). Retrieved from https://positivepsychology.com/classification-character-strengths-virtues/.