1 EDU10007 Contemporary perspectives of learning and development for early childhood Semester 1, 2017 EDU10007 Contemporary perspectives of learning and development for early childhood Assessment 2: Essay Word limit: 2000 (+/- 10%) Weighting: 30% Due date: 11:59pm AEST Wednesday the 19th April Assessment context This assessment requires you to draw on your learning in relation to ‘images of childhood’, key theorists/thinkers and contemporary approaches to early childhood education and respond to a statement in the form of an essay. Related learning outcomes This task is assessing your ability to demonstrate that you meet the following unit learning outcomes: 1. Identify and compare the key theorists who have influenced current thinking about early childhood education 3. Critically reflect upon and consider the construct of the image of the child and its impact on early childhood education Assessment details Deconstruct the following statement, in light of your understanding of key thinkers and approaches to early childhood education: “… our image of the child is rich in potential, strong, powerful, competent and most of all, connected to adults and other children” – Loris Malaguzzi (as cited in Dahlberg, Moss & Pence, 2007, p.48) • Identify and discuss influential thinkers/theorists from your learning in this unit whose ideas complement and contradict this statement. • Explore the implications this ‘image of the child’ for teaching and learning in early childhood education.2 EDU10007 Contemporary perspectives of learning and development for early childhood Assessment criteria Your submission will be assessed against the following criteria: 1. Understanding of key thinkers and approaches in early childhood education 2. Depth and breadth of discussion including how the ‘image of the child’ impacts on approaches to teaching and learning. 3. Academic expression Your submission will be assessed according to the following marking guide: Pass (P 50-59%) – In order to pass this assessment task, the requirements of all criteria must be met at a satisfactory level, and all work must be original unless correctly cited according to APA referencing conventions. Specifically this means: • Includes an introduction that introduces both the topic of the essay and the essay itself. • Identifies influential theorists/thinkers and demonstrates an understanding of key ideas relating to contemporary approaches to teaching and learning. • Addresses the topic and explores, in a minimal way, the implications of the ‘image of the child’ for teaching and learning. • Has a generally clear structure overall, but may lack internal structure within and across paragraphs. • Includes some relevant scholarly and nonscholarly literature. • Demonstrates an attempt to use correct citation where the work is not the author’s original work. Credit (C 60-69%) – To be awarded a Credit students must fulfil all the requirements of the Pass level but with more sophistication. • Includes a sound discussion of contemporary approaches to teaching including a comparison of influential theorists/thinkers. • Demonstrates a developing understanding of the implications of the ‘image of the child’ for approaches to teaching and learning. • Has a clear structure and demonstrates a sound capacity to organise and structure ideas, within and across paragraphs. • Uses a range of current and relevant literature to support the essay. • Includes academic writing that is generally free from spelling and grammatical errors. • Demonstrates a developing capacity to use correct citation where work is not the author’s original work. Distinction (D 70-79%) – to be awarded a Distinction for this task students must meet all the requirements of the Credit level, but with a level of discernment:3 EDU10007 Contemporary perspectives of learning and development for early childhood • High level engagement with the learning materials. • High quality of writing (that is, each paragraph builds on the one before and leads to a logical, reasoned conclusion drawn from sound evidence which is clearly integrated into the body of the essay). • Wide reading. • Effective integration of literature to support claims made within the essay. • Careful editing and proofreading – any errors in spelling, referencing, and grammatical construction do not detract from the quality of the submission. High Distinction (HD 80 – 100%) – To be awarded an HD for this assignment students must meet all the requirements of the Distinction standard, outlined above, but to a highly sophisticated and insightful standard. • The capacity to differentiate fact from opinion, examine ideas for underlying meaning and bias, assess the relevance of evidence. • A sophisticated capacity to organise evidence/ideas/data from a range of sources. • Wide reading of relevant, current and scholarly literature to support all claims and arguments. • In-depth knowledge and understanding of the ideas presented. • A highly developed capacity for communicating to a specific audience and for a specific purpose. • All aspects of the assessment task being explicitly and deliberately addressed. • Thorough attention to editing and proofreading processes to eliminate errors in referencing, spelling, grammar, or punctuation. If the assignment fails to reach a satisfactory standard on each criterion then it must be awarded a fail. References Dahlberg, G., Moss, P. & Pence, A. (2007). Beyond quality in early childhood education and care. (2nd ed). New York: Routledge.4 EDU10007 Contemporary perspectives of learning and development for early childhood