The learning environment plays a critical part in a daycare child's learning process. For example, you do not expect much learning to happen in an environment that is noisy and distracted with toys lying all over the place. So how do we create a positive learning environment which encourages learning?
Creating a positive learning climate requires some planning and work on the part of the daycare giver. For an environment to be conducive for learning, you need to look at a number of factors:
Involving the learners – Studies seems to suggest that your daycare children learn better when his involvement is high. Which means allow your daycare children to provide inputs with regards to the choice of topic and schedule, encourage them to ask questions and discuss and be involved in hands on activities related to the topics.
Use a variety of learning method – Do not limit yourself to one method when delivering a topic to your daycare children. Use a combination of role plays, demonstrations, discussions, activities and audio visual aids to make learning more interesting.
Provide feedback and boost their self esteem – Let your daycare children know where he is doing well and encourage behaviours which lead towards a positive learning attitude. Praise the child when he is doing a fantastic job, when the child asks question, react positively, let the parents know how well the child is progressing in school and encourage them to reinforce his learning at home.
Treat each daycare child as an individual – Recognise and acknowledge the individual differences of the different daycare children. Encourage your daycare children to learn from each other and ensure that all the daycare children participate actively in all the activities.
