The Student Practitioner in Early Childhood Studies

An Essential Guide to Working with Children

Ruby Oates, Ruby Oates

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000088311
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Now in a fully updated second edition, The Student Practitioner in Early Childhood Studies provides accessible support and guidance for early childhood studies students in higher education who may have little, if any, experience of relating to young children in the early years foundation stage (EYFS) and key stage 1.

With useful chapter summaries, activities and reflection points to help readers track their academic journey, this text draws on the experiences of students on the degree programme for the benefit of students new to practice. This fully updated second edition includes two new chapters on 'The inclusive practitioner' and 'The safeguarding practitioner'. It will:

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• prepare students for the challenges of practice

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• provide a synthesis of academic knowledge and practice skills

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• develop students' critically reflective and creative thinking and understanding of early childhood pedagogy and the needs of young children

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• provide the emerging student practitioner in higher education with knowledge, skills, understanding and confidence to relate effectively with young children and adults in the early childhood setting.

Fully supporting students' practice experience and development of their critical and creative thinking, this book helpfully synthesises theory and practice in an applied and evaluative manner. The authors cover a range of themes including critical reflection, early childhood pedagogy, confidence building, communication skills, personal and professional development and employability alongside academic writing and research skills. This textbook is essential reading for students on all early childhood studies degree programmes.

Chapter 1

Studying early childhood

Jenny Boldrin and Robin Sedgwick

By the end of this chapter you will have an understanding of:

• Motivation and independent learning
• The components of early childhood as a discipline
• The link between your physical and mental health and success as a learner
• The different teaching and learning systems you might encounter at university, including Technology Enhanced Leaning (TEL)
• Where to find information and what constitutes a reliable source
• How to use other people’s ideas in your work and acknowledge your sources
• What plagiarism is and how to avoid it
• The different ways you may be required to present information.

Becoming a successful learner

Whether you are going to university straight from school or college or re-entering the education system after a break, what you are about to experience will be very different from anything you have previously encountered. You might be leaving home to live on your own for the first time or remaining within the family home. You could be studying full-time, enabling you to focus fully on your studies, or perhaps part-time, having to balance your learning with employment and maybe even a family. No matter which combination of these possibilities applies to you, there are certain fundamental challenges you will have to face. The aim of this chapter is to introduce you to some important considerations when beginning your studies as well as strategies to manage some of the challenges you may encounter.

Motivation and mindset

Your reasons for starting university will be personal to you, whether it be a natural progression in your studies from college, pursuing a change of career or following a deep-seated passion for early childhood, your motivation to study is at the core of your decision to begin university. Maintaining your motivation will be important as you progress through your studies so take time to reflect on this regularly. It is worth remembering that, while the grades you receive are important, motivation should be about much more than this. The motivation to learn, continuously improve and gain as much as possible throughout your degree will drive you to succeed.

Your mindset on entering university refers to your own belief about your capabilities. We are all guilty of the phrase, ‘I’m not very good at that’. It will be important for you to be aware of your own mindset in relation to various aspects of your degree, whether it be academic writing, presentations or professional practice on placement. According to Dweck (2017) you may possess either a fixed or a malleable mindset. If you have a fixed mindset you may believe that your abilities can’t change, whereas a malleable mindset allows you to believe you can achieve anything in time! Take time to reflect on your own mindset and how you feel that might support or prevent your success, adopting a malleable mindset will allow you to consider that, while you may encounter challenges, with commitment and time, anything is possible!

Independent learning

If you have ever watched the long-running television quiz show University Challenge, you will have seen the student contestants introduce themselves with their name, place of origin and subject. Some, particularly if they come from one of the older, more traditional universities, will say they are reading a subject. Within this simple phrase lies a fundamental truth of the university experience: one does not learn simply by being taught.

You will attend classes and lectures as part of your course, but what you gain from them will contribute only a part of your learning experience. If the body of knowledge can be likened to a tree, your tutors will familiarize you with the trunk, or at least part of it. They will probably identify the various branches and where they start, maybe even venturing some way along one or two of them. But that is as far as they can take you. It is up to you to continue the exploration of the branches towards the detail of the twigs and leaves. To do this successfully you must be able to take control of your study and develop the ability to follow up the ideas and themes your tutors introduce to you. You must become an independent learner. In doing so you will strengthen your depth of knowledge within your subject matter and this will be an essential component of your success at university. The more you read the more you will know and understand about your discipline, and the more you know and understand about your discipline, the more tools you will have at your disposal when producing academic submissions. Through your reading you may also develop a specific subject specialism, an area of study that you find particularly interesting – this can be invaluable in deciding your future career path.

Self-care and support

Taking care of your physical and mental health may not immediately seem a priority in achieving academically and professionally; however, there are clear and proven links between successful performance at university and self-care. For many, a healthy lifestyle is perhaps not conducive to having the ‘university experience’; however, try to work towards a balance within your lifestyle. Sleep, exercise and diet are key factors in successful performance as well as integral to your mental health.

Research published by the charity Student Minds and carried out by the University of Derby and Kings College London has found a recent surge in demand for mental health support within universities (Hughes et al., 2018). You may be aware of your mental health needs or unaware of the signs to look out for to indicate you may need help. A range of factors from stress and anxiety to family problems or ill health can impact you negatively at any point in your studies. When you begin university, make a point of finding out about the well-being service within your institution, even if you don’t anticipate needing it.

Your institution may operate a personal academic tutoring system that provides you with a point of contact from the academic team to signpost you should you feel you would benefit from some additional support.

As you navigate your way through university life, you do not need to do so on your own. Advice, support and information will be available from a variety of sources. You should expect most of the following to be available, although the specific name of each may vary from university to university:

• Programme leader
• Personal, year and stage tutors
• Subject specific library support
• Learning support and peer mentoring
• Careers advisory service
• Disability support
• IT technical and skills support
• Student health and counselling and welfare officer services
• Students’ union
• Faith services
• Security services.

What is early childhood studies?

When you make the decision to study early childhood, you are fortunate to be embarking on a journey enabling you to explore a multitude of ideas, theories and perspectives. As a discipline, early childhood is multi-faceted and you will be exposed to a wide variety of specialisms throughout your studies, enabling you to form your own ideas of childhood and begin to carve out a career path for yourself.

We can perhaps sum up the degree in one word, which you will come across frequently within your reading … ‘holistic’. In child development terms holistic refers to the recognition that the child should be viewed as a whole, where each part is related and important in its own right (Lindon, 2012). Studying early childhood embodies this philosophy, where all areas you explore respond to the individual nature of the child while also remaining connected and representing a whole experience. You will study theories of development with links to psychology and sociology, children’s health and well-being, early language, play, education and research. You will also consider the professional working with children and explore the many roles this embodies in sectors such as education, health, social care and family support. Remember that all modules you study are therefore essential in building a holistic picture of early childhood that will ultimately support you in whichever career path you choose to follow.

Teaching and learning at university

One of the big changes that you will experience when you start higher education, particularly if you have just come from a traditional school or college background, is in the nature of the teaching and learning experience. This may be very different from the classroom-based sessions you have previously encountered. The three sessions you are likely to meet are the lecture, the seminar and the tutorial.

Lectures

The word lecture comes from the Latin word lectura, meaning reading. If there is such a thing as a ‘traditional style of lecture’, it would probably be an hour-long session in which a hundred or more students sit in a tiered lecture theatre taking notes, while listening to the discourse of the lecturer.

While this situation does still exist in reality, lectures can take many formats, and even two lectures in ostensibly the same format may be different due to variations in lecturer style.

What generally will hold true, however, is that the lecture will be delivered by someone who is a subject specialist. What a lecture will not do, though, is provide a full coverage of a topic. It will set out some key ideas, and perhaps introduce you to some important writers in the field; it may even pose questions for you to consider. To return to the tree of knowledge analogy, the lecture will identify part of the trunk and indicate the start of a particular branch. It is then up to you to follow up the session, and for this purpose most lectures will provide a set of references and suggestions for follow-up reading.

The format of a lecture will be determined by the preferences of the tutor and the size of the group. Many lecturers will employ strategies of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) to engage audiences, even when in large groups. The rise in TEL tools now allow students to use their own personal devices to contribute to discussions during lectures, enabling much higher levels of interaction and engagement with the learning. Be prepared to use your own smart phone, tablet or laptop when required to enhance your own experiences.

Top tips: How to get the most out of lectures

• Attend all timetabled lectures. Often a lecture will build on a previous session.
• If you have an idea what the lecture is going to be on, do some background reading on the key ideas.
• Ensure that you carry out any pre-lecture preparation that is required.
• If notes are available on a VLE before the session, print them off, or download them and take them with you.
• Listen carefully and try to identify the key points. Your note-taking strategy should not be a distraction.
• Read through your notes as soon as you can after the session to ensure they make sense and check up on anything you do not understand.
• Follow up references and suggested reading.
• Discuss the lecture with your fellow students to check out your understanding.

Seminars

A seminar is a group discussion. The word is derived from the Latin word seminarium, meaning ‘seed plot’. The seeds to be sown are the seeds of ideas.

A seminar will usually be focused on a particular topic and may be arranged after a lecture to discuss the issues raised by it. On other occasions there may be a need for personal preparation, in which students familiarize themselves with an area of theory, a book chapter, an academic paper or an area of policy that will be the focus of the discussion. The leader of the seminar will most likely be the module tutor, although student-led seminars are possible. Just as there are different styles of lectures, so seminars may differ. In some the seminar leader may actively seek to involve all the individual members of the group. In others, they could let the discussion flow freely, with individuals making contributions as they see fit.

Whatever the format of the seminar, what remains a constant and essential truth is that they will require student participation. Your involvement not only serves to shape the content of the session but also provides you with an opportunity to explore ideas with others, embed your own understanding of the subject and seek clarification from your module tutor. Your own learning relies on you participating so try to put nerves aside and enter into the seminar environment prepared to be involved. As the Chinese proverb reminds us, ‘Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand’.

Top tips: How to get the most out of seminars

• Ensure that you do any required preparation before the session. Read set texts and use these to formulate questions in the class.
• If you are expected to give a presentation, remember the keys to success are the four Ps: plan, prepare, practice, present.
• Participate throughout! Do not be afraid to get involved and share your questions and ideas.
• Reflect on the session afterwards.

Tutorials

The tutorial is historically a fundamental part of the British university system in which students, either individually or in small groups, meet with their tutor. Tutorials exist for a v...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of illustrations
• List of contributors
• Introduction
• 1. Studying early childhood
• 2. The emerging practitioner
• 3. The developing practitioner
• 4. The inclusive practitioner
• 5. The safeguarding practitioner
• 6. The enabling and sustainable practitioner
• 7. The critically reflective and creative practitioner
• 8. The student practitioner as researcher
• 9. The student practitioner constructing a professional identity
• 10. The student practitioner as future leader
• Index