EDU208 Professional Experience: Learning Theories in Early Learning

The goal of this task is to participate and contribute to learning experiences in active, cooperative and meaningful ways

* Please refer to the Canvas site for this course for more detail. 
* This task must receive a pass grade to enable progression to Task 5 (PEx) and to successfully complete course requirements.

Activity participation involves contributing to tutorial/Canvas activities and discussions every week, with focused participation tasks also occurring in some weeks. 

Following your PEx you will attend a debrief tutorial (refer to Course Announcements for date/time). At the EDU208 debrief you will share your PEx experiences, especially focusing on:
- Reflecting on the play, wellbeing, safety, needs, interests and potentials of young children, and the strategies you implemented to support children during the PEx 
- Reflecting on the insights you gained about inviting children's learning, play and investigation; about observing, documenting and reflecting on children's learning; and about planning and personalising learning experiences in ways that respond to individual needs, interests and potentials
- Reflecting on the APSTs you have gathered documentation for and are evidencing in your Early Childhood APST Graduate Standards Portfolio to show how you are meeting relevant standards
- Creating an updated plan of action for your professional learning and development, based on professional learning needs identified during your EDU208 PEx.

The goal of this task is to identify the key components of the Code of Conduct for the School of Education and Tertiary Access and work within its guidelines during your placement.

* Please refer to the Canvas site for this course for more detail.
* This task is also connected to Task 5 (PEx).
* Your signed Code of Conducted is required to successfully complete course requirements.
 
After studying the Code of Conduct in class and independently, please sign it and upload the signed form to Canvas by the due date. To be eligible to pass this course, you are required to complete this Professional Experience satisfactorily according to the criteria for this task. 

The PEx Coordinator, the Course Coordinator and the Professional Learning Liaison will evaluate your performance and the quality of your work and make an assessment against the criteria for this task.

The goal of this task is to create a personal and professional plan

* Please refer to the Canvas site for this course for more detail.
* This task must receive a pass grade to enable progression to Task 5 (PEx) and to successfully complete course requirements. 

This task invites you to create a personal and professional development plan that outlines the curriculum and pedagogical knowledge and skills you will need in order to be successful in your supervised professional experience (PEx) in a kindergarten program. 

Use your plan to outline your current knowledge of curriculum and pedagogy; sources of inspiration such as the work of educators in Reggio Emilia; your personalisation of core ideas from your course textbooks; and a strategy for building on your current knowledge, skills and dispositions in ongoing ways over the semester. Use your plan to refer to the professional approaches and standards that you intend to demonstrate during your PEx. In addition, you can extend this plan to consider other professional development opportunities that you want to action over the longer term. You could make use of the Employability Backpack program, other PD opportunities, and your particular passions and interests to support your planning.

The goal of this task is to engage in continuous reflection about your developing knowledge of kindergarten curriculum and pedagogy, including a focus on children from diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds.

* Please refer to the Canvas site for this course for more detail.
* This task must receive a pass grade to enable progression to Task 5 (PEx) and to successfully complete course requirements.

This task invites you to demonstrate continuous reflection about your developing knowledge of kindergarten curriculum and pedagogy, including a focus on children from diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Use key ideas in the textbooks/recommended readings, relevant kindergarten curriculum frameworks and approaches, and pedagogical practices valued in kindergarten settings to guide what you include. See your reflections as a written form of scholarly conversations where you share informed and developing knowledge and insights, and connect theory and practice. 

For example, through your discussion of the Queensland Kindergarten Learning Guideline learning and development areas https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/kindergarten/qklg/learning-development-areas you could show you are aware of the importance of identity, wellbeing, communicating, connectedness and active learning as well as possible opportunities to support children’s holistic learning and development in these areas. 

Similarly, through your discussion of the Queensland Kindergarten Learning Guideline professional focus materials (e.g. Inclusion and diversity https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/kindergarten/research-insights/inclusion-diversity) you could demonstrate your developing knowledge of teaching strategies that are responsive to the strengths and needs of all kindergarten children, including their cultural identity, religous, socioeconomic and linguistic backgrounds.. 

Through this discussion and reflection, you are demonstrating you are developing your information literacy skills and dispositions, recognising that information has value, and you are valuing the skills, time and effort needed to produce knowledge.

The goal of this task is to develop skills and strategies that support responsive implementation of early childhood curriculum and pedagogy, and the development of respectful and ethical relationships with children, caregivers and staff

* All coursework requirements must be completed and passed to enable progression to this task (PEx).

* Please refer to the PEx calendar and course information on Canvas for the scheduled dates of your 10 days of PEx.

You will undertake 10 days of PEx in a kindergarten setting or kindergarten program. It is an expectation that you will engage fully at the PEx site for 7.25 hours each day. You will be supervised by a professional teacher who meets the qualification and registration requirements of the Queensland College of Teachers (QCT) and who will complete your report. During this PEx you will participate in all aspects of the children’s care, routines, play and learning under the guidance and supervision of a professional educator. Guidelines to support you during your PEx for EDU208 can be found in the Early Childhood PEx Handbook. A copy of the EDU208 Final Report is found in the Early Childhood PEx Handbook. 

You are required to successfully complete your PEx, reflect on your developing knowledge, skills and strategies, and demonstrate awareness and responsiveness to the individual needs, interests, capabilities and potentials of young children. You will maintain up-to-date professional written work in your PEx folder and upload quality reflections and APST Portfolio evidence to your APST Portfolio. 

This task will be assessed by your Supervising Teacher on the EDU208 Professional Experience Report Form. Refer to the SONIA PEx Site for the EDU208 PEx handbook and EDU208 PEx Final Report form information. You will also be required to use the Early Childhood APST Portfolio to document and evidence that you are meeting relevant APST. You will need to demonstrate successful completion of your PEx of 10 days with children aged 3 ½ - 4 ½ (including exemplary code of conduct, overall attainment of APST standards, completion of the required components identified in the PEx handbook, including maintenance of up-to-date professional written work: Observations, Planning/Teaching/Assessment documentation, Reflections).

Following your PEx you will attend a debrief tutorial (refer to Course Announcements for date/time). At the EDU208 debrief you will share your PEx experiences, especially focusing on:
- Reflecting on the play, wellbeing, safety, needs, interests and potentials of young children, and the strategies you implemented to support children during the PEx 
- Reflecting on the insights you gained about inviting children's learning, play and investigation; about observing, documenting and reflecting on children's learning; and about planning and personalising learning experiences in ways that respond to individual needs, interests and potentials 
- Reflecting on the APSTs you have gathered documentation for and are evidencing in your Early Childhood APST Graduate Standards Portfolio to show how you are meeting relevant standards
- Creating an updated plan of action for your professional learning and development, based on professional learning needs identified during your EDU208 PEx.