Early Childhood Professional Experience and Reflection (Inquiry into Practice)

This course will extend preservice teachers' capabilities to work as a preschool team member, engaging with teachers/educators, children and families in cycles of planning, teaching, assessing, reflecting and appraising that align with early childhood curriculum frameworks. Preservice teachers (PSTs) will explore the role of the teacher in a preschool context looking at global and local influences on practice. PSTs will apply their knowledge of forms of data, such as pedagogical documentation, to make children's learning and development visible and inform planning. PSTs will explore how early childhood forms of documentation can be used to support children's learning and meet the GTPA requirements that diagnostic, formative and summative assessments inform planning prior to and during learning experiences. PSTs will use the Early Years Learning Framework, the Literacy and Numeracy Strategy, and refer to other relevant materials, to inform planning and to backmap principles, outcomes and practices. PSTs will make connections between the EYLF and Australian Curriculum to understand learning progression. PSTs will use early childhood pedagogies to build on the strengths of children and to maintain safe and inclusive learning environments. They will demonstrate the capacity to engage collegially with the teaching team, children and families to create strengths-based learning environments. They will differentiate their teaching to meet the needs of all learners and to use assessment data to analyse learners' needs and to modify teaching during learning experiences. They will use pedagogical documentation as assessment data to provide feedback to learners and to support learners to have input into their learning. PSTs will analyse pedagogical documentation to reflect critically on and re-design their pedagogy and practice in ways that support children's learning and development in positive ways. PSTs will evaluate data choices for teaching and learning and articulate the reasons for their pedagogical decisions. Appraisals will be made of why certain decisions did or did not progress learning. Literature and theory will be applied as the PSTs reflect on and appraise past practices, and plan future learning experiences.