A Study Into The Effectiveness Of The Intervention Approaches Being Used In Behavior Modification Among Ece Learners: The Case Of The Tshabalala Cluster In Mzilikazi

Abstract

Children are experimental beings who rely on their environments. Through active interaction with their surroundings, they are able to make sense of their actions. According to Karcher (2004) this is mostly seen in kindergarten where children learn by touching, seeing and tasting objects so that they become aware of meanings derived from the objects they interact with. Piaget was of the opinion that the educational environment should promote learning through mediums that allow the children to touch, smell, see and sometimes taste objects so that their cognitive abilities are developed. Without active interaction with their surroundings, pupils will always perceive academic concepts as abstract than concrete. This is the meaning derived from the postulation that ―Children are active learners‖. Cook and Cook (2005) allude that ―Children actively seek to understand their environment and actively initiate events simply to see how things work‖. The assumption here is that they develop cognitively through such actions as modelling and dramatization. The implication on the teaching and learning process is that children should be allowed to actively interact with their surroundings so that they retain knowledge. In a classroom situation this means that they should be allowed to use a variety of aids so that the content they learn becomes inherent and innate. The implication here is that charts and other visual material that addresses violence should be plastered around the classroom and the school. A simple chart on rules of conduct in the classroom that simply says ―NO FIGHTING‖ can go a long way in communicating to young infants who at this stage require continual reminders of instruction.This is supported by Piaget‘s principle of the Object Permanence Concept (OPC) under the sensorimotor Stage which states that objects, events, and people continue to exist even when they are out of a line of sensory input or motor action (Twining 2000).Piaget was of the notion that object interaction as a factor enables children to retain some form of mental knowledge about important information and develop cognitively.