A  picture of attachment theory

A BIT ABOUT ATTACHMENT THEORY

I chose this picture as it illustrates attachment theory. The baby is safe and secure in the arms of a trusted adult. They are face-to-face and making eye contact. The baby knows that the adult is interested in them and can quickly respond to their needs. The baby’s intrinsic need for emotional bonding with a safe adult is met, enabling the baby to develop relationships with others. All children want and need to feel safe and secure. Attachment theory helps explain this.

I chose the topic of attachment because it is vital that Early Childhood Educators (ECE’S) understand the basis of attachment for young children. ECE’s need to be able to assess their own interactions with children in order to provide the best possible environment for children. Some children do not develop secure attachment with a trusted adult and challenging behaviors can be seen. It is important ECE”S recognize the behaviour for what it is and respond to the child in a warm, caring and appropriate way. In addition, ECE’s are often a source of support for families and can share information and strategies with parents.

Attachment theory is taught at the beginning of the course. The theory emphasizes that it is usually the mother who is the primary caregiver. This tends to be true in our Western, North American society. In some cultures, people in addition to the mother meet the emotional needs of the baby. Alternate worldviews of attachment are also discussed in the course. Here is a link to an article that highlights an alternative view.

A BIT ABOUT LUMI

I thought Lumi was great! It was a tool that I have been needing with my online courses. I am definitely going to use Lumi once the Fall term begins. I am always looking for ways to break through the barrier of the computer screen.  Youtube videos are more interactive and engaging with Lumi. I am curious to see if students can work on a Lumi video together in a breakout room. I use breakout rooms as much as possible as it is an opportunity for connections to be made between students. I can’t wait to try thiis idea out.

BUT I STRUGGLED

I struggled to get the timing of the interactive videos just right. It was difficult to embed the activities in the correct spot. Part of the issue was the video I chose it there were no natural breaks between concepts. I also found it a bit “clunky” but I think this will improve with practice.

MY VIDEO

I chose to make a Lumi video on the attachment theory as it is a fundamental concept to the course. Students need to understand the types of attachment and how they are manifested in young children. I was thinking about the student who would have missed the class on attachment theory. What do I want that student to know? How can it be learned asynchronously? I didn’t want the student to only watch a recording of the class on attachment; I wanted the student to be able to engage with the concepts. I have more in mind for the asynchronous class on attachment theory. For now, and for better or worse, here is my video. I welcome comments on ways to make it better!

https://app.Lumi.education/run/w0kUBe

Course Overview

This course is designed for adult learners enrolled in the Early Learning program at Yukon University. It provides techniques and theories to foster the development of self-esteem, self-control, and social skills in young children. Students will learn to guide young children in order to develop a healthy and positive self-concept in the child. Emphasis is guiding young children to become self-responsible, competent, independent, and cooperative. The course will take 14 weeks to complete.

Course Rational

This is a fully online course of synchronous classes. It is not possible for students to travel to Whitehorse for class on a weekly basis, necessitating the need for online learning.

The students must complete Early Learning courses for certification purposes to ensure employment at the Early Learning Centers. If the courses are not successfully completed, students may be unable to continue working in their chosen field.

In addition, a fully online course has challenges. Students often have demands from their personal life that cause them to be absent from class. Flexibility for instruction must be built into the design of courses. There must be opportunities for students to learn course material outside class time through asynchronous methods.

The Students

Photo by Andrea Piaquadio from Pexels

 The students are adult learners who are currently working in an Early Learning Centre in a rural Yukon community. The majority of the students are women and have graduated from high school. All classes are in the evening after the students have completed work for the day. Most students are parents and join the class via Zoom from their homes.

A brief needs assessment was completed to determine opportunities and limitations for learners: The normative need is that all students pass the course to obtain 3 credits.

Comparative needs are that the students could have taken a different amount of courses at the time of enrollment in EL 130.

Felt needs are remote learners typically request flexibility in course delivery.

Expressed needs differ for every student. Generally speaking, all students wish to complete the course with a targeted final mark.

Future needs are EL 130 prepares students for future 200 courses in the program, notably Program Planning and Exceptional Children.

Critical incident needs would occur when Internet access fails. Depending on the outage length, a make-up class must be scheduled, or an asynchronous class may need to occur.

Course Format

 The course is 14 weeks long. Synchronous classes are held in the evenings, one night a week. Each class is 3 hours long. The course is made of the following weekly lessons:

Week 1:  Course Overview and Introductions

Week 2:  Social and emotional development across age groups

Week 3:  Attachment

Week 4: Self-identity

Week 5: Self-esteem

Week 6:  Emotions and self-regulation

Week 7:  Self-regulation and co-regulation

Week 8:  Indirect guidance -the environment

Week 9:  Indirect guidance- building a community

Week 10:  Direct guidance- democracy

Week 11:  Direct guidance- role of the educator

Week 12:  Direct guidance- continued

Week 13:  Social-Emotional Group presentations

Week 14:  Tea and talk to co-construct mark for assignments

Course Tools

 Yukon University uses Moodle as a platform for all online learning classes. I have taught this course in the past and I will be teaching this course in the Fall, I have chosen to build my course using Moodle. In addition, Zoom, Jamboard, Youtube, Canva, Flipgrid, and the Science of Early Childhood website will be used as teaching and learning tools.

Course Toolset

 Course Content and Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives:

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• Identify the major developmental theories as they relate to child guidance
• List a variety of developmentally appropriate approaches for guiding young children’s behaviors
• Explain the development of self-concept and characteristics of self-esteem
• Demonstrate practical, effective and flexible guidance strategies in fostering a positive and realistic self-concept and self-esteem in children
• Demonstrate strategies and techniques that promote problem-solving and foster the development of self-control, self-discipline, self-motivation and responsibility in children
• Know the diversity issues in the context of First Nation and other Canadian cultures related to child guidance, Including family, gender and ability

Content

The learning objectives will be supported by examining the following questions:

 Compelling Question

• What is child guidance?

Supporting Questions

• What role does the environment play in child guidance?
• How is social and emotional learning connected to child guidance?
• What role do children, educators, and the community play in guidance strategies in early childhood?
• How is culture connected to child guidance and social and emotional learning?

Assessment Strategies

 Assessments will be formative and summative to give students various ways to receive feedback.

Considerations for Common Concerns

Connectivity issues are a common concern as only one fiber optic line for the Yukon exists. Connectivity can be randomly lost, and reconnection can be slow. One community can sometimes lose connectivity, and an outage cannot affect others. This can cause students to be unable to join the class while others can attend.

The students have worked all day and have families to care for. Often students must leave the Zoom class to care for their children. In addition, community events such as a funeral can make class attendance difficult.

Students are often motivated to learn and wish to attend class. At times, events outside their control can make attendance in class difficult. Flexibility must be built into course delivery.

Link to ADDIE template

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1szNax001Bl6yWxS_-MIUTgDPHMX5vhPbfgbRkxv50QI/edit?usp=sharing

I am an outlier in this course. I am the only Yukoner in the crowd and the only one not teaching in a school. This influenced my decision on the topic for the course development assignment. I am an Instructor in the Early Learning Program at Yukon University and teach adult learners. I chose one of my favorite courses, EL 130 Guiding Young Children. I wish to improve upon what I am already doing by examining what I have done and how that can be improved. I will teach the course again this Fall, and I want to apply what I learn from this course to the offering.

This course is fully online, as I teach students who live in rural communities and can not travel to Whitehorse. As a face-to-face version of this course is offered in Whitehorse, a hybrid delivery model is not used. The other instructor (who teaches on campus) and I collaborate and assign the same assignments, yet we have different teaching experiences. One of the challenges of online teaching is the barrier of the computer can make it difficult to create relationships with other people in the Zoom meeting, It is particularly challenging to assist the students in forming relationships with each other, as people from multiple rural communities enroll in the course.

The course’s main objective is that students will learn to guide young children to develop a healthy and positive self-concept. A compelling question to be answered by the students as the course develops is “What is child guidance?”

Since that is rather vague, supporting questions of

• What role does the environment play in child guidance?
• How is social and emotional learning connected to child guidance?
• What role do children, educators and community play in guidance strategies in early childhood?
• How is culture connected to child guidance and social and emotional learning?

The last question regarding the role of culture is very important as it is a goal of the EL program that multiple voices are heard. The course attempts to offer a holistic worldview that is less Eurocentric and more encompassing of multiple belief systems.

I am curious to see how I improve upon this course. There are some challenges to teaching a fully online course but there are also many possibilities to try different things. I am excited to try to create a new, improved version!