Nursery Teacher Training Courses: 5 Common Questions

Nursery teachers have the responsibility of shaping and developing and nurturing young learners and contribute to their holistic development. The teaching environment remains playful for conservative process of teaching may create lack of interest in the young minds. For acquiring expertise in these nursery teacher training is necessary.

Though a good number of teacher training institutes provide nursery teacher training courses, there are a few common questions clouding the minds of the aspirants. Remember, to be a nursery teacher you have to possess not only knowledge about your subject but also other topics including child psychology. In the following article these questions will be answered so that you can clear all your doubts before opting for the career of a nursery teacher.

1. How is nursery different from Montessori?

To be very truthful, these two are quite different. Montessori teaching is centred on the ideals as proposed by the Italian educator Maria Montessori and starts training children from age as early as 2 years and continues till 5 years. The educational approach is different here. But in nursery classes, no such specific educational philosophy is used. Also, it caters to the age group of 3 to 5 years. There is no implementation of “prepared environment” in nursery classes while Montessori training involves this so that the interests of children are stimulated. But nursery education involves some prior set syllabus that is taught to the children in an informative yet playful way.

2. What are taught in the nursery teacher training course?

Though the teacher training courses offered by various teacher training institutes vary with regards to the contents, the basic areas covered remain the same. When you choose a course offering training on nursery teaching, you have to undergo both theoretical lectures and practical trainings. The course curriculum of this training programme includes:

• Pre-primary education, its history and philosophy
• Psychology of nursery children
• Educational theories and how to implement them
• Latest techniques of teaching
• Nursery education and the methods and materials associated with it
• Health and care of children
• Lesson planning
• Student handling methods
• Project planning
• Rhyme recitation, storytelling and developing play activities

3. What are the eligibility criteria for enrolling into nursery teacher training course?

For being a successful nursery teacher, your academic excellence is not all that is important. You have to possess some extra skill for acquiring success in this field. Following are the key skill set that you should have in you:

• Ability to identify the rudimentary skills is important. This includes speech, communication and physical condition of the children.
• Providing assistance to children in solving mathematical problems through storytelling, games or other creative measures
• Excellent communication skill so that the children’s needs can be well-understood and they can communicate with the teacher about their problems
• Ability to evoke curiosity among the young minds and develop knowledge accordingly
• Ability to work in a team and contribute to the work of others also as all will be oriented towards the child development
• Volunteer helpers and other teaching members in developing lesson plan or other relevant works
• Motivational skill is important so that children are encouraged to try and learn new things
• Providing pastoral support and developing an excellent productive learning environment

4. What do you have to do as a nursery teacher?

Being a nursery teacher is more than only teaching the young learners. You have to gauge the cognitive development of the children attending your class and design your lesson plan accordingly. As the children are in their preschool age, nursery training prepares them for the next step of attending elementary school. Through attractive methods of teaching such as play activities, singing, rhyming and storytelling you have to nurture their knowledge. T the same time as a nursery teacher it is your job to teach the little ones good habits. Thus being proficient in what you are doing is important. Being friendly and easily accessible is of utmost importance for creating a student-friendly ambience. Only thus you can understand the behavioural traits of the individual child, proceed accordingly and develop a connection with the children.

5. What career options are there after completing nursery teacher training?

With the advancement of time, parents are becoming increasingly aware about the importance of nursery training for children. Thus being a nursery teacher has immense scopes of employment in the education sector. The possible careers that you can explore are:

• Nursery teacher
• Nursery in-charge
• Tuition teacher
• Coordinator

Enabling children to learn to read, write and communicate effectively is the biggest responsibility of the nursery teachers. Is this career option in your mind? We would recommend not to delay any more ad enrol today with some teacher training programmes. Also, if you can grab an international teaching diploma, you can get placed cross the globe. So, hurry up!

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