‘Pay attention to early childhood education’
A five-day professional development workshop for Montessori teachers, school owners and administrators has ended in Accra with a call on parents to pay more attention to early childhood education.
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The training, which was organised by the Early Childhood Association of Ghana, in collaboration with the Montessori Foundation of Ghana, was to explore new ways of using the Montessori methods of teaching to develop the skills of the toddler, nurture the infant brain and redirect the child’s behaviour.
The Chairperson of the newly launched Montessori Foundation of Ghana and Executive Director of Mount Eagle Sure Start Institute, Mrs Antionette Ami Ashong, said the formative years of the child’s life were the most critical stages in his/her life and parents needed to pay close attention to their development at that stage.
Using teaching methods
She said using teaching methods such as the Montessori method which had proven to be effective over the years, would give infants a good start to their education, adding that with the recent addition of Montessori materials to some schools, she was optimistic that the workshop would impact on the implementation of the Montessori philosophy in the school system in Ghana.
The Chair of Montessori Programmes and Faculty in College of Education at Sarasota University, Dr Melissa Carol Kaulbach, who is leading the workshop facilitators, said the training would help participants develop new ideas that would provide a different lens to observe and evaluate students.
Different perspective
“Once administrators, teachers and students understand the talents of others, they can see a different perspective and perhaps avoid conflict and find opportunities to understand and appreciate others,” she said.
Dr Kaulbach added that the first step in the approach was discovering talents and how to apply them in particular areas while harnessing those skills and their potential for strengths.
An educator and technology advocate, Diana L Wagner, also stressed the need for teachers to take advantage of the technology available to help their pupils develop.
