EDEC11029 - Policy and Research in Early Childhood

General Information

Unit Synopsis

You will engage with the national policy landscape to understand how it is both responsive to contemporary issues facing young children and their families in the 21st century and aspirational, articulating goals for the future. You will analyse policy texts that focus on strategies for providing equitable access to high quality education and care for children with special needs and their families. You will articulate how policies reflect the values and agendas of government, contemporary research/reports, beliefs about children and childhood and expectations for how early childhood services and educators contribute to implementing policy that addresses disadvantage and builds a democratic, equitable and just society. Central to this unit is an understanding of the social construction of childhood, of the educator and of what is valued for children in the 21st century. You will explicate and analyse the dominant images and constructions of children and childhood that are evident in policy texts and policy discourse and derive implications of policy for practice and ethical considerations and responsibilities.

Details

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 1
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 1
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites There are no pre-requisites for the unit.

Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).

Class Timetable View Unit Timetable
Residential School No Residential School

Unit Availabilities from Term 3 - 2024

Term 2 - 2025 Profile
Online

Attendance Requirements

All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).

Assessment Overview

Recommended Student Time Commitment

Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.

Assessment Tasks

Assessment Task Weighting
1. Written Assessment 60%
2. Written Assessment 40%

This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).

Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades

Past Exams

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Previous Feedback

Term 2 - 2023 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 66.67% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 18.18% response rate.

Feedback, Recommendations and Responses

Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.

Source: Student communication
Feedback
Scaffold assessment tasks
Recommendation
Continue to scaffold assessment tasks
Action Taken
Continue to scaffold the assessment task during each tutorial.
Source: Unit evaluation
Feedback
More interaction with students online.
Recommendation
Support greater interaction with students.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Unit evaluation
Feedback
Assessment clarity
Recommendation
Provide further scaffolding for the assessment task.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  1. Access, evaluate and report on professional literature that supports the development of policy related to access and participation of children with special needs (including behaviour) in early childhood education and care services
  2. Explicate the contextual issues and underpinning social values that propelled the development of policy for young children with special educational needs
  3. Analyse the representation of children with special needs (including behaviour) in policy documents
  4. Engage with literature and professional ethics and responsibilities to reflect on stakeholder roles, implementation issues and implications for practice of policy in action
  5. Describe and discuss the implications for practice that are derived from the central concepts/values/principles embedded in the policy
  6. Justify the importance of strong partnerships between children, parents, carers and families, and the broader community in creating responsive and healthy early childhood environments and contributing to sustainable futures
  7. Identify and implement strategies to facilitate child participation in building a sustainable, democratic, equitable and just society and critically reflect on the child’s perspective

Successful completion of this unit provides opportunities for students to engage with the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (Graduate Career Stage) focus areas of:

1.1 Physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students

1.2 Understand how students learn

1.6 Strategies to support full participation of students with disability

3.7 Engage parents/carers in the educative process

4.1 Support student participation

4.3 Managing challenging behaviour

6.2 Engage in professional learning and improve practice

6.4 Apply professional learning and improve student learning

7.1 Meet professional ethics and responsibilities

7.2 Comply with legislative, administrative and organisational requirements

7.3 Engage with the parents/carers

Additionally students build understandings required by the registering body for early childhood (ACECQA - Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority) including socially inclusive practice, ethical and professional practice and research.

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1 - Written Assessment • • • • •
2 - Written Assessment • • • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1 - Communication • • • • • • •
2 - Problem Solving • • • •
3 - Critical Thinking • • • • • • •
4 - Information Literacy • • • •
7 - Cross Cultural Competence • • • •
8 - Ethical practice • • • •
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10