| CODE | EPE1002 | ||||||||||||||||
| TITLE | Enriching and Interpreting Children's Symbolic Repertoire | ||||||||||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 01 - Year 1 in Modular Undergraduate Course | ||||||||||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 5 | ||||||||||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 4 | ||||||||||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Early Childhood and Primary Education | ||||||||||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | The eagerness and necessity to understand and relate to reality leads humans to construct symbols and symbol systems. In this sense, narratives, images, music and other cultural objects offer the possibility to explore, express and access fundamental existential questions, as well as such sensations as awe, a sense of the beautiful and developing such emotions and attitudes as gratefulness, and the need of others. This study-unit explores the relevance of the notion of symbolic resources for children’s holistic development. It is being argued that the vaster the repertoire of symbols that children are exposed to, the better they are equipped to face life issues, to integrate knowledge and to grow holistically. Study-unit Aims: Given that "teachers teach who they are as much as what they know" (Palmer 2008), this study-unit helps pre-service teachers to explore different ways of conceptualizing reality and of building a personal symbolic repertoire. Students will be challenged to conceptualize reality in a holistic manner rather than in a fragmented manner and they will be encouraged to see the interconnectedness between different domains of knowledge as well as between tangible reality and symbolic reality. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: i. discuss the relevance of the concept of symbolic resource in early childhood education; ii. deconstruct the symbolic knowledge of various cultural objects; iii. use and Transfer knowledge in the ECEC context. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: i. show alertness to how different cultural tools may be used in the ECEC context; ii. search and build a personal symbolic repertoire from various areas of knowledge; iii. use concept maps; iv. identify children's symbolic repertoire through documentation; v. identify the contextual symbolic repertoire available in a local community. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Supplementary Texts: DeLoache, J. S. (1995). Early understanding and use of symbols: The model model. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 109-113. Glăveanu, V. P. (2009). The cultural genesis of creativity: an emerging paradigm. Revista de psihologie şcolară, 2(4), 50-63. Jonassen, D. H., Beissner, K., & Yacci, M. (1993). Structural knowledge: Techniques for representing, conveying, and acquiring structural knowledge. Psychology Press. Kingston, P. W. (2001). The unfulfilled promise of cultural capital theory. Sociology of education, 88-99. Moriarty, M. W. (2009). Evaluating children's use of symbol in some recent research. International Journal of Children's Spirituality, 14(1), 47-61. Palmer, P. J. (2007). The courage to teach: Exploring the inner landscape of a teacher's life. Jossey-Bass. Tan, A. G. (2013). Psychology of Cultivating Creativity in Teaching and Learning. In A.G. Tan (Ed). Creativity, Talent and Excellence (pp. 27-42). Netherlands:Springer. Main Texts: Fuller, B., & Hannum, E. (Eds.). (2002). Schooling and social capital in diverse cultures (Vol. 13). Emerald. Zittoun, T. (2006). Transitions: Development through symbolic resources. Information Age Pub Incorporated. Zittoun, T., Duveen, G., Gillespie, A., Ivinson, G., & Psaltis, C. (2003). The use of symbolic resources in developmental transitions. Culture & Psychology, 9(4), 415-448. |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture, Fieldwork and Independent Study | ||||||||||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Adrian Mario Gellel |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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