EC Professionals Assignment 2

EC Professionals Assignment 2

EDU40003 Identity: The Early Childhood Profession(al)

Assignment 2: Reflective philosophy

Word limit:1200 (+/- 10%)

Weighting:40%

Due date:5pm AEDT Monday 3 October 2022 (Week 12)

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This assignment task requires you to articulate your philosophy of teaching. Whether you are aware of it or not, your practice is influenced by your values and beliefs. Therefore, it is important to reflect on your teaching philosophy, particularly at the beginning of your teaching career. A philosophy of teaching statement is a valuable document that will guide your future teaching practice and communicate your vision and beliefs to others, including families, professionals and prospective employers.

This assignment supportsunit learning outcomes 4 and 5.

describe how engaging in reflective practice and ongoing learning contributes to a culture of professional growth in the early childhood workplace

critically reflect on their own professional identity, including strengths, challenges and uniqueness and articulate what it means to be a professional.

This assignment is designed to extend your ability to reflect on the role of a professional. Reflection is a vital skill in knowing and understanding who you are in order to better position yourself within the context of teaching and working within educational settings.

Brookfield (2017, pp. 255256) defines a philosophy of teaching as:

a set of values, beliefs, insights, and convictions about the essential forms and fundamental purposes of teaching. Embedded in it are criteria for judging how far your practice exhibits features you feel are essential to good teaching and a set of purposes towards which your efforts are geared. When you consciously hold to such a philosophy, you have an organising vision of what you are trying to do, how you are trying to do it, and why doing it is important.

Your philosophy statement will be based on professional knowledge and contemporary practice; however, it should also reflect your personal values and will therefore be unique. Use first-person writing to express your views, and third-person writing to support these views with relevant literature. Your writing should consider your potential audience, including children's families, early childhood education professionals and prospective employers.

Your philosophy of teaching statement should:

identify and articulate your values and understandings about children, learning and teaching in early childhood education

address the theories/perspectives/documents that guide your teaching

explain particular approaches and teaching strategies that underpin your practice and how you aim to continue to learn and contribute to the profession.

This assignment has three parts, which you will submit astwo documents: one being the brochure for Part A and the other being a document containing Part B and Part C.

Part A: Philosophy brochure (500 words)

The brochure needs to be designed with clear information for stakeholders:

You will be writing four to six visionary statements based on your beliefs and values about education and care for the various stakeholders of an early childhood education setting including, children, colleagues, families and community (in total 1624 statements).

These must be written in a brochure format with your name and a clear heading outlining what the brochure is.

Make sure each statement is clear and concise and suitable for a wide audience.

Make use of professional graphics, images and/or design features that support your beliefs.

Include quotes, questions or poetry that align with your philosophy.

Make sure the philosophy reflects who you are as an early childhood professional; be clear about the personal and professional qualities that define you as an early childhood teacher.

Part B: Philosophy strategy statements (500 words)

The strategy statements are not written for the stakeholder as the brochure is designed as a short, snappy overview for this purpose. This part of the task is designed to assess your ability to put some of your visionary ideas into practice:

Describe how you will bring your visionary ideas into practice for each of the four stakeholders.

Give examples of pedagogy and practice that describe how you will implement your ideas

Include examples/strategies for each stakeholder group that show what each of your philosophical statements looks like in practice.

Integrate a range of in-text references to support your ideas and pedagogy.

Part C: Reflection statements (200 words)

This part of the task requires you to be self-reflective and to assess your understanding of the unique role of early childhood teachers:

Reflection demonstrates an insightful understanding and awareness of the unique aspects of the role of early childhood professionals and particular challenges of a teacher.

Articulate who you are as an ECE professional in a short statement.

You will also need to include an APA reference list, which is not included in the word count.

Throughout your teaching and learning journey, you will be required to use the nationally approved learning frameworks (the Early Years Learning Framework or the Australian Curriculum) or the approved learning frameworks for your state or territory. To help you further build capability in this area, and to prepare you for placements, at Swinburne Online you may choose to use the nationally approved learning frameworks or the approved learning frameworks for your state or territory in your assignments. For further information specific to your assignments for this specific unit, please seek advice from your eLAs and/or your Unit Coordinator.

To be awarded a High Distinction for this assignment, pre-service teachersmust meet all the requirements of the Distinction standard outlined above, but to a highly sophisticated, precise, mature and insightful standard:

The philosophy and reflection is well structured, has a distinct voice, and is insightful, highly engaging and a pleasure to read. It is thoughtfully written, honest, well articulated, and well balanced; care and attention have been paid to eliminate spelling, punctuation, grammatical, and referencing errors.

The brochure integrates all design features to a highly professional standard that could be shared with all stakeholders.

You demonstrate critical engagement with contemporary theories, professional documents and educational approaches in early childhood education.

You demonstrate a sophisticated awareness and understanding of the role of the teacher that addresses the selection criteria and skilfully applies literature to inform and support your personal and professional vision for early childhood education and care (ECEC).

Reflections highlight deep personal insights, strengths, challenges and assumptions that move beyond the obvious to bring to light the hidden factors that impact on professional identity.

Strategy statements offer clear examples of practice where the relationships between ideas are evident and are supported by relevant literature.

Inclusion of readings align with the statements and have been accessed from a wide source or other units that align with your philosophy.

Flawless use of APA style for all forms of referencing.