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Engaging and Assessing Learners (ECP) 4 (EDUC91075)
Graduate courseworkPoints: 12.5Not available in 2022
From 2023 most subjects will be taught on campus only with flexible options limited to a select number of postgraduate programs and individual subjects.
To learn more, visit COVID-19 course and subject delivery.
Overview
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This subject examines ways in which children (birth to Year 6), childhoods, their families, and communities are constructed in Australian communities and society. This subject will highlight teachers’ professional responsibilities towards children, their families and the community. The focus of this subject is on investigating a strengths-based image of the child, their families, and their communities. Topics include historical and contemporary constructions of the child and childhoods, working with families, equity, inclusion, diversity, policy, curriculum frameworks, ethics, contemporary theories and perspectives, transitions, advocacy, reciprocal relationships with families and communities and professional roles and responsibilities.
The placement component will provide Teacher Candidates with the opportunity to synthesise their learning gained throughout the course with a focus on children, childhood and families. Additionally, Teacher Candidates will have the opportunity of demonstrating their understanding of the characteristics of professional knowledge, clinical praxis and engagement for professional accountability in an early childhood setting. Teacher Candidates will reflect critically on the ways in which educational theory and research informs practice.
This subject includes a Clinical Teaching Practicum (Placement) in an Early Childhood/Primary setting. During the placement, Teacher Candidates will demonstrate the nexus between theory and the practice of teaching, drawing on a range of theoretical perspectives and contemporary research to support their teaching practice. Teacher Candidates are supported by experienced Clinical Specialists and Mentor Teachers. A series of seminars will be held which explore Candidates’ developing professional knowledge, practice and engagement.
Intended learning outcomes
On completion of this subject, Teacher Candidates should be able to:
- Engage with historical views of children and childhoods to support understandings of contemporary constructions of the child and how they learn.
- Articulate relationships between contemporary society, constructions of childhoods and childhood pedagogies.
- Utilise contemporary theories to inform and develop pedagogical practices that affirm respectful, responsive and reciprocal relationships with children, families and communities.
- Develop an understanding of children's transitions and continuity of learning from early childhood to primary to secondary schooling.
- Conceptualise and articulate the role of the educator in developing strengths-based alternative pedagogies that honour the child.
- Design and implement relevant curriculum pedagogy for a diverse range of children and assessment tools informed by theory and research, and critically reflect on teaching and learning outcomes.
- Demonstrate professional knowledge, professional practice and professional engagement by drawing on a range of theoretical perspectives and contemporary research to support teaching practice.
Generic skills
This subject will develop the following set of key transferable skills:
- Clinical reasoning and evidence-based practice.
- Critical and creative thinking.
- Creativity and innovation.
- Teamwork and professional collaboration.
- Learning to learn and metacognition.
- Responsiveness to a changing knowledge base.
- Reflection for continuous improvement.
- Linking theory and practice.
- Inquiry and research.
- Active and participatory citizenship.
- Ethical and intercultural understanding.
Last updated: 10 February 2024
Eligibility and requirements
Prerequisites
Code | Name | Teaching period | Credit Points |
---|---|---|---|
EDUC91070 | Engaging and Assessing Learners (ECP) 3 | Not available in 2024 |
12.5 |
Corequisites
None
Non-allowed subjects
None
Inherent requirements (core participation requirements)
The University of Melbourne is committed to providing students with reasonable adjustments to assessment and participation under the Disability Standards for Education (2005), and the Assessment and Results Policy (MPF1326). Students are expected to meet the core participation requirements for their course. These can be viewed under Entry and Participation Requirements for the course outlines in the Handbook.
Further details on how to seek academic adjustments can be found on the Student Equity and Disability Support website: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/student-equity/home
Last updated: 10 February 2024
Assessment
Description | Timing | Percentage |
---|---|---|
Clinical Teaching Practicum (placement): Demonstration of clinical teaching practice against Australian Professional Standards for Teachers at the Graduate level (2000 words equivalent)
| Throughout the placement | 40% |
Oral and Written Position Statement: The professional roles and responsibilities of teachers towards children, families and communities
| Mid semester | 60% |
Clinical Teaching ePortfolio: Clinical Teaching Practicum-related resources and documentation Hurdle requirement: A satisfactory Clinical Teaching ePortfolio must be developed and maintained with fully documented lesson plans, lesson observations, reflections and evaluations and relevant school/centre curriculum documents. | Throughout the placement | N/A |
Clinical Teaching Practicum Attendance Hurdle requirement: 100% attendance on all placement days. 100% attendance at all Clinical Teaching Practicum seminars. | Throughout the placement | N/A |
Coursework Attendance Hurdle requirement: A minimum of 80% attendance at, or engagement with, all sessions identified as coursework contact hours (may include lectures, tutorials, and workshops, both synchronous and asynchronous). | Throughout the teaching period | N/A |
Last updated: 10 February 2024
Dates & times
Not available in 2022
Time commitment details
Total time commitment: 190 hours. Contact hours: 15 days of Clinical Teaching Practicum in an early childhood education and care setting (inclusive of placement and seminars), and 24 hours of coursework (16 hours of on-campus classes, and 8 hours of asynchronous online activities).
Additional delivery details
This subject will be available in Semester 2, 2023.
Last updated: 10 February 2024
Further information
- Texts
Prescribed texts
There are no specifically prescribed texts for this subject.Recommended texts and other resources
Arndt, S. (2018). Early childhood teacher cultural Otherness and belonging. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 19(4), 392-403. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/1463949118783382
Biesta, G. (2016). Improving education through research? From effectiveness, causality and technology to purpose, complexity and culture. Policy Futures in Education, 14, 194-210. doi:10.1177/1478210315613900
Mitchell, L. (2010). Constructions of childhood in early childhood education policy debate in New Zealand. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 11(4), 328-341
Moss, P., & Dahlberg, G. (2008). Beyond Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care – Languages of Evaluation. New Zealand Journal of Teachers’ Work, 5(1), 3-12.
Moss, P. (2010). We cannot continue as we are: the educator in an education for survival. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 11(1), 8-19.
Myers, C. Y. (2016). Becoming “babies” in real time: Temporal emergence in the classroom mangle. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 17(4), 421-430. doi:DOI: 10.1177/1463949116677926
Salazar Perez, M., & Saavedra, C. M. (2018). Black and Chicana feminisms: Journeys toward spirituality and reconnection. In M. Bloch, B. B. Swadener, & G. S. Cannella (Eds.), Reconceptualizing early childhood education and care - A reader: Critical questions, new imaginaries & social activism (pp. 129-138). New York, NY:
Peter Lang. Smith, K., Tesar, M., & Myers, C. Y. (2016). Edu-capitalism and the governing of early childhood education and care in Australia, New Zealand and the United States. Global Studies of Childhood, 6(1), 123-135
Srinivasan, P. (2014). Early Childhood in Postcolonial Australia: Children’s Contested Identities. New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan.
Taylor, A. (2013). Reconfiguring the natures of childhood. Oxon, UK: Routledge.
Tesar, M., & Koro-Ljungberg, M. (2015). Cute, creepy and sublime unnamed childhood monstrosities. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 1-11. doi:10.1080/01596306.2015.1075708
Townsend-Cross, M. (2004). Indigenous Australian perspectives in early childhood education. Australia Journal of Early Childhood, 29(4), 1-6.
Urban, M. (2015). From ‘closing the gap’ to an ethics of affirmation. Reconceptualising the role of early childhood services in times of uncertainty. European Journal of Education, 50(3), 293-306
- Related Handbook entries
This subject contributes to the following:
Type Name Course Master of Teaching (Early Childhood and Primary) - Links to additional information
Melbourne Graduate School of Education: https://education.unimelb.edu.au/
Last updated: 10 February 2024