Change and Transition in Children's Education

Running head: CHANGE AND TRANSITION IN CHILDREN’S EDUCATION
CHANGE AND TRANSITION IN CHILDREN’S EDUCATION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

CHANGE AND TRANSITION IN CHILDREN’S EDUCATION
\
1
Introduction
Transition is like big shoes
My school period is what I would consider the phase where most of my transition
experience comes from. I have always been a reserved child and never felt inclined towards
making too many friends. Therefore, when I was first moved from kinder to 1st grade, I felt
like this was a huge transition. I had three very close friends in my kinder and at that age, it
was a huge understanding for me that we would be friends for a long time. However, as soon
as I shifted to 1st grade, two of my friends moved to a different school while only one of them
remained behind. The first few days were very overwhelming as I was experiencing an array
of emotions not knowing how to deal with them. I was sure that my friend was also feeling
the same. First of all, there was an excitement of moving to a higher grade and getting to
learn newer things, but at the same time, there also was the primary grief of not being able to
stay in contact with my other two friends. Furthermore, there was also a fear of how the new
study system was going to be and how the teachers were going to behave with us. I was also
nervous seeing all the new faces in the class. Overall, this was a huge shift for me and the
first few days I was having a lot of emotional and cognitive compatibility issues. However, as
things started to fall in place, I started feeling more and more comfortable with the class. The
first thing that I did was make two new friends and along with my friend from kinder, we

CHANGE AND TRANSITION IN CHILDREN’S EDUCATION
\
2
played together during recess. That happened on the third day of the new class. Once that
happened and I started to feel more relaxed and settled into the new classroom setting, I
started developing interest towards the new prospects, which included that of learning
something new and interacting with more people, gathering more knowledge and experience,
making new friends, get good grades in school and stay on good terms with the teachers.
This initial transition was an important lesson in my life which made me realise that
the current setting I was in would be temporary and will not last. In this essay, I will therefore
attempt to discuss the relevance and consequences of transition in the life of a student using
the pasture depicted above as a metaphorical guide, and supported by the Ecological Systems
Theory by Bronfenbrenner as well as other relevant scholarly articles and curriculum
documents.
Rationale for the image
The primary reason why the particular image as depicted above is selected is that it
acts as a metaphor, depicting that transition can be something that a person grows into. The
key significance of a metaphor is that it helps to fill any form of conceptual gap between the
abstract understanding and the theoretical practice (Monk, 2004). Metaphors help us
understand the concept in greater detail and is usually a container for two concepts that are
not related to each other in any way. The two different types of concepts in a conceptual
metaphor are the target and the source (Landau, Robinson & Meir, 2014). While the former
refers to the actual concept that the individual is attempting to understand but is unable to
because of its abstractness and complexity of comprehension, the latter is a much simpler,
experientially relatable and easier to grasp concept that is used to understand the target
(Landau, Robinson & Meir, 2014)
Just like a child can wear his father’s big shoes expecting that they would fit his feet one day,
for me, transition felt like an opportunity that I can use to grow and fit the requirement of the