EDUC3640 Professional Experience: Year 3B (Early Childhood)

2019

4.5

1 x 1-hour lecture once-only
1 x 30-day field placement per semester

1 1 of EDUC3521, EDUC4724
2 72 units of study
3 EDUC2324 - Professional Experience: Year 2A (Early Childhood)
4 EDUC2424 - Professional Experience: Year 2B (Early Childhood)
5 EDUC3528 - Professional Experience: Year 3A (Early Childhood)
6 EDUC2321 - The Expressive Arts in Early Childhood
Must Satisfy: (1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and 6)

EDUC3665 has been successfully completed

Professional Experience: Year 3B (Early Childhood) occurs in the third year of the Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood) program. Five preliminary day visits (in the topic EDUC3528) are followed by a consecutive 6 week-block (total 35 days), spent in a metropolitan or country early childhood setting. Emphasis is placed on the planning, implementation and evaluation of teaching programs. Close links are established between curriculum studies at Flinders and centre/school curricula through designing, evaluating, implementing, analysing and theorising about their placement site’s curriculum inquiry focus. At the conclusion of this teaching experience, judgements are made about the pre-service teacher’s readiness to continue to the final placement topic: EDUC4740: Professional Experience: Final Assessment for Registration (Early Childhood).

This professional learning experience provides students with an opportunity to:

• make a meaningful contribution to children's learning and the setting's curriculum goals and priorities

• deepen their understandings of how children learn and develop through a process of praxis, in which they research, inquire, test and use the theoretical knowledge that they have acquired and are acquiring

• use a variety of observation techniques to gain insight into the types of experiences, activities and ideas that engage young children

• plan, implement and evaluate a curriculum that involves and engages children in deep and meaningful learning

• engage in praxis, or theoretically informed teaching

• document children's involvement and engagement in the curriculum and assess their learning over an extended period of time

• recognise the importance of families in children's lives and learning

• work as a constructive, collaborative and cooperative team member

• document and organise evidence of their developing professional knowledge, professional practice and professional relationships

As a result of this professional learning experience and the planning and execution of a substantial curriculum inquiry that effectively contributes to young children's learning over time, it is anticipated that students will:

• be competent observers of children's learning and development

• be able to plan, implement and evaluate experiences/activities that are responsive to the observed needs and interests of young children

• take an increasing degree of responsibility for planning, implementing and evaluating a curriculum that engages individual children and groups of children in deep and meaningful learning

• be aware of the factors that lead to high levels of involvement and engagement in curriculum experience/activities

• make teaching decisions and adopt teaching approaches that are theoretically informed

• document and assess children's learning in ways that capture its complexity and competence

• investigate ways of communicating effectively with families about children's learning and development