CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
6.3 Recommendations for further research
One important consideration would be to include in the control group more preschool centres that use different curriculum approaches, for example, the thematic approach which is typical in Singapore as well as other approaches such as
187 Montessori and Project Approach. Comparison of the Bright Start Cognitive Curriculum was somewhat limited in this study, and made with only two centres with „integrated thematic curriculum‟.
Future studies may consider extending the sample size of children to include the different developmental levels, that is children from ages four to six years and to involve more centres in the Bright Start cognitive curriculum implementation.
At present, there are no assessments available that directly assess the curriculum goals that the Bright Start Cognitive Curriculum sets out to achieve, and without the assessment component, the curriculum is incomplete. Further research in developing appropriate curriculum-based assessment is necessary. According to Lidz (2004), curriculum-based measure provides information on what students know, and to what degree have they mastered the content. Curriculum-based measure (CBM) informs teachers, programme planners and administrators of the success of an instructional or intervention procedure. When used for diagnostic purpose, CBM can help to identify individual learners‟ needs and monitor their responsiveness to the intervention.
Further studies may examine the role of peer mediation in the Bright Start Cognitive Curriculum. In Albert Bandura‟s social learning theory, social influences in the environment play an important role in the development of the child (Thomas,1992). Children learn by observing peers who serve as role models. An advantage of having children mediate learning to their peers, is that it allows and encourages children to use the cognitive functions in a meaningful way such as to engage in arguments, share ideas, and work together (Hartup, 1985; Seng, Pou, Tan, 2003; Dangwal & Kapur, 2009). Hence, further studies can look into the specific influence of peers (Tzuriel & Shamir, 2007) and how it might enhance or limit the effectiveness of the implementation of the Bright Start Cognitive Curriculum.
188 Future studies may also examine the pedagogical style of teachers who develop into thinking teachers through adopting a MLE teaching style approach, specifically how does this approach help teachers to become more aware of their own thinking processes, disposed to think and reason, and enjoy practicing the skills of thinking (Green, 2006).
In adopting a different approach to teaching, and in this case, the mediated teaching style, teachers need time and support to become competent in using this approach and make optimal use of the programme and materials designed to teach thinking (Green, 2006). Teachers cannot be expected to apply programmes and ideas with insight and judgement of those who took years to develop them; nonetheless, a process may have begun, that will eventually result in individual teachers becoming, in their own unique ways, „mediated learning experience teachers‟ (Green, 2006).
In future implementation of Bright Start Cognitive Curriculum, it may help teachers to firstly have an orientation towards the practice of mediating learning to children before launching into the Bright Start implementation. This would give teachers time, opportunity and a „real‟ context to adjust to and apply a new paradigm of curriculum delivery. Teachers may also have more opportunities to become equipped with additional relevant techniques and skills, such as asking questions and eliciting answers.
So far the Bright Start programme has been incorporated into the integrated thematic curriculum implementation; where children were exposed to the mediated learning style of delivery for about eight hours per week. This could have posed a disadvantage for the children because it may not have been intensive, continual and consistent (Ramey and Ramey, 2004). In this study, opportunities for application of cognitive functions were regularly disrupted when children switched to integrated thematic curriculum where the teachers did not mediate the cognitive functions consistently. So, future studies may consider adopting a whole centre approach where the Bright Start cognitive curriculum is the main curriculum of the centre,
189 and daily teacher-child interaction serve as the basis for mediating the use of cognitive functions. When thinking is part of the daily routine, children build up positive attitudes toward thinking and learning (Salmon, 2007).
In a typical integrated thematic curriculum, the focus is on themes such as plants and animals, and skills such as comparison and classification are not explicitly emphasised. However, the emphasis would now be directed towards fundamental cognitive functions that underlie content learning, such as self regulation, comparison, classification etc. The themes would then serve as learning contexts where cognitive functions could be applied, for example, grouping plants, comparing living and non-living things. Cognitive functions now serve as a framework for developing content lessons, which are also contexts for „bridging‟. It is through application that the concepts are learned and made secure to the extent that it is examined, tested, applied and tried out in a variety of contexts (Haywood, Brooks and Burns, 1992).
6.4 Summary :
In this last chapter of the thesis, the limitations of the research study highlighting the choice of outcome measures, research method and ways to limit some potential biases have been addressed. In addition, some recommendations including the role of peer mediation, examining the pedagogical style of the teachers through adopting the MLE approach and adopting a whole centre approach where the Bright Start Cognitive Curriculum is the main curriculum, have been suggested for future studies.
6.5 Conclusion :
There is a growing trend in schools to move away from the traditional rote learning towards the development of critical thinking as they prepare students for the knowledge-based economy (Danubrata & Tan, 2010). At the International Conference on Early Childhood Education 2010 that took place in Sinagpore, this research study was presented to preschool educators and government officials from
190 the Ministry of Education, and the effects of the Bright Start cognitive curriculum has drawn a lot of interest from the audience participants. The Bright Start cognitive curriculum is timely in the light of changes in education in the East Asia and Southeast Asia contexts. As it is usually the trend in this country, the government will support the cause if effectiveness is witnessed and proven. Hence, more research studies should be carried out to shed light on the effectiveness of a cognitive approach to early childhood education as has been shown in this research study on the Bright Start cognitive curriculum.
191
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