Undergraduate - UnitEDF1038 - Introduction to the early childhood education field

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2014 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered, or view unit timetables.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Education
Offered	Berwick First semester 2014 (Day) Peninsula First semester 2014 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Dr Susanne Garvis (Berwick); Ms Marie Hammer (Peninsula)

Synopsis

This unit introduces students to the field of early childhood education through examining both practice guidelines and principles including the professional code of ethics and other curriculum and policy documents. Students explore foundational philosophies (e.g. Dewey, Steiner, Montessori, Pestalozzi) that inform current early childhood education. Through studying philosophies and contemporary approaches to early childhood education locally and internationally, students develop insights into programs such as the Golden Key Schools, Forest Schools, the Reggio Emilia approach and Developmental Education in the Netherlands. Understandings of daily practice will be informed by United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child to uphold the rights of the child and ethical considerations for respectful, meaningful and quality education and care for children. Through critique and analysis of current local practices, students develop their own personal philosophy of early childhood education.

Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this unit students should be able to:

demonstrate understandings of foundational philosophies and contemporary international programs that have informed current local early childhood education practices
demonstrate understanding of policy, practice guidelines and principles in key early childhood education documents
prepare a well-informed personal philosophy that reflects foundational philosophy and contemporary models of early childhood education.

Assessment

Group task: reflective essay and presentation on contemporary approaches to early childhood education (2000 words, 50%)
Essay: personal teaching and learning philosophy (2000 words, 50%)

Chief examiner(s)

Dr Hilary Monk

Workload requirements

Minimum total expected workload equals 12 hours per week comprising:

(a.) Contact hours for on-campus students:

2 hours per week

(b.) Additional requirements:

10 hours of independent study per week

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Education - Early childhood and early childhood-primary