EDUC08049 2022 Curriculum and Pedagogy

General Details

Full Title
Curriculum and Pedagogy
Transcript Title
Curriculum and Pedagogy
Code
EDUC08049
Attendance
80 %
Subject Area
EDUC - Education
Department
SOCS - Social Sciences
Level
08 - NFQ Level 8
Credit
10 - 10 Credits
Duration
Semester
Fee
Start Term
2022 - Full Academic Year 2022-23
End Term
9999 - The End of Time
Author(s)
Gwen Scarbrough, Breda McTaggart, Aoife Cooney, Kate Brown
Programme Membership
SG_EEARL_H08 202200 Bachelor of Education (Honours) in Early Education and Care SG_EEARL_H07 202100 Level 7 Professional Qualification in Education in Early Education and Care
Description

This module's primary focus is preparing students for their future roles in the sector. Students, as nascent professionals, will be expected to demonstrate and critically assess their role in professional practice situations and contexts. The module's focus is for the student to strategically consider, plan, implement, and evaluate professional practice, with the child`s individuality remaining at the core. It also requires the student to explore how they, in leading professional practice, will encourage team members to do likewise. The module learning experience will be enhanced by students working with professionals from the sector and guests from international fields. Adopting, amongst others, a case study approach for learning, advice and guidance will be provided to the student, exploring expectations and challenges within ELC professional leadership practice.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this module the learner will/should be able to;

1.

Adopt and model a critical approach to the co-construction of high quality, play based and holistic programmes for babies, toddlers and young children which incorporate care, play and learning experiences to provide for the continuity of the learning and development of children.

2.

Critically apply highly effective, systematic assessment and observation methods to evaluate, form opinions and progress holistic learning and development, with and for children.

3.

Critique theoretical perspectives on the role of adult in play and advocate to support the understanding of others, on the critical role of the educator and the critical importance of playful experiences for children.

4.

Engage in and advocate for pedagogical practices that are continuously and robustly informed by evidence-based theory and knowledge of children’s care, development and learning.

5.

Apply advanced and specialised teaching techniques to promote innovative, democratic, enquiry based pedagogical practices that are fully and continuously responsive to individual children’s strengths, interests, dispositions and needs, to support children’s agency, participation and emergent learning and development.

6.

Develop, maintain and evaluate, high quality, stimulating pedagogical environments with and for children.

Teaching and Learning Strategies

This module will take a co-constructed approach with students designing their individual curriculum to meet the LOs and choosing their assessment strategy. Case studies from placement experience will support module learning. Students will also continue to work with placement setting or other settings throughout the module. Teaching and learning strategies could also incorporate ideas of problem based learning, preparing the student for future roles. The students will engage with group learning. Ideas and concepts to underpin the module will also be supported by both lecture and tutorial learning. Guest lectures and professionals from practice are key to the modules learning and successful delivery.

Module Assessment Strategies

Assessment

As this module supports students in relation to planning and assessment and will take a co-constructed approach - the student will design an assessment strategy for themselves. This will be presented and formative feedback provided by peers, guests and teaching staff. Students will also be expected to self assess their proposal. In this way, assessment for learning will be applied throughout the module. 

Repeat Assessments

The repeat assessments will be decided on based on failed components.

Indicative Syllabus

LO 1) Adopt and model a critical approach to the co-construction of high quality, play based and holistic programmes for babies, toddlers and young children which incorporate care, play and learning experiences to provide for the continuity of the learning and development of children.

Students will critique what they and peers now consider to be "high quality". They will interrogate this concept, through the work of contemporary educational thinkers and how they might work towards implementing, or indeed disrupting this, in practice. They will consider the challenges of implementing quality practices from a variety of perspectives and consider strategies to work with, embrace, or attempt to overcome these. Students will critique, deconstruct. advocate for and apply theoretical principles and critical theory to curricular planning for all children in settings. This LO will explore previous learning and consider this in the context of the delivery of quality in ECEC settings. Students will examine the curriculum in relation to ethnicity, gender and culture, building on previous knowledge in modules, such as Intercultural Learning and Childhoods. They will explore concepts such as Intended Curriculum, Taught Curriculum, Experienced Curriculum, Embodied Curriculum, Hidden Curriculum, Tested Curriculum, Null Curriculum, and Outside Curriculum (Schubert, 1986) and the ways that the curriculum may offer children different ways, in which they can meet the world and experience themselves in the world. For example - through the Arts, through language, through creative endeavours. They will critique the curriculum in relation to the representation of the dominant interests of particular groups in society for example representing the dominant interests of a capitalist/patriarchal/racist society (Connolly, 2010). Feminist theories which  see society as structured by gender, and curriculum as a vehicle for transmitting inequalities and subordination related to gender; and race theories which see society as structured by race, and curriculum as a vehicle for the reproduction of race and ethnic ideologies and outcomes will be explored (Yates, 2010).The concept of Critical Pedagogy will be explored with Power and Knowledge, examined. This approach is ‘designed to disrupt and undermine the conventional forms of understanding’ (McLachlan, Fleer and Edwards ,2010, p. 21) and promotes the language of ‘possibility’ (Giroux 1988) resulting in the opening of new intellectual spaces for educators to rethink their pedagogical practice (Kilderry 2004).  This will complement student's learning in the Philosophy Module in this semester. Further questions which may be explored include:

What everyday understandings about practice are left unchallenged? Who decides what will happen in early childhood education and care? • Which decisions about their day can children have input into? • What aspects of the curriculum and practice are inequitable for some children and families? (Kilderry)

LO 2) Critically apply highly effective, systematic assessment and observation methods to evaluate, form opinions and progress holistic learning and development, with and for children.

The professional will critique, employ and advocate for the application of theoretical principles to assessment. Students will explore in more depth, ethical issues in relation to assessment and specifically, digital assessment strategies and the ethics of Learning Objectives (Biesta and Priestley, 2013). They will examine the language of “effective” and “systematic” and consider how they can consistently promote children’s physical, creative, social and emotional security, together with their learning, wellbeing and development through appropriate assessment practices. They will consider how they can effectively ensure standards of quality practice, and explore the potential impact of assessment decisions on children’s habitus and capital. Students will explore their role in modelling for colleagues.

LO 3) Critique theoretical perspectives on the role of adult in play and advocate to support the understanding of others, on the critical role of the educator and the critical importance of playful experiences for children.

The role of the adult will be critiqued in line with concepts such as the adult as researcher, the adult as an agent of change, the adult as facilitator (Neary 2002), the adult as collaborator vs. adult-led/initiated play, the adult as play facilitator, co-explorer, planner as part of ‘high-quality adult child interactions’ (Dunkin and Hanna, 2001). Collaborative approaches to play, leading to co-construction and sustained shared thinking in play will also be explored. This LO connects to Year 1 module: Play and Pedagogy and to the quality interactions piece in the module - Relational, Caring and Nurturing Pedagogy. 

LO 4) Engage in and advocate for pedagogical practices that are continuously and robustly informed by evidence-based theory and knowledge of children’s care, development and learning.

Students will critically apply, and support others, to apply theories of children’s development and learning, such as socio-cultural theories, critical theories, strategies of learning and play, to practice. This will support the formation of secure and positive relationships and a fully holistic, child-centred approach to early learning and care. It will also support the development of a highly ethical, rights-based, inclusive and participatory practice, which ensures the voice of the child is heard, listened to and acted upon at all times. This LO will support students to reflect on the practices witnessed and engaged in during professional placement and connect this to theory, which is explored and examined in more depth, building on student learning in Years 1-3.

LO5) Apply advanced and specialised teaching techniques to promote innovative, democratic, enquiry based pedagogical practices that are fully and continuously responsive to individual children’s strengths, interests, dispositions and needs, to support children’s agency, participation and emergent learning and development.

Students will explore the concepts of Critical Pedagogy, Intersectional Pedagogy and Transformative Education. They will critique a range of strategies underpinned by theory to support emergent language, literacy, digital literacy, numeracy, creativity and problem solving skills, STEAM and digital learning and employ and analyse techniques such as co-constructing, deconstructing, empowering, democratising, philosophising and community building in ELC settings. Students will analyse democratic learning theories, practices and a rights based approach.

Questions that the students might consider:

What is the task of education?

What is the task of the Educator?

How can beauty be explored as an educational concept?

How can I work with children, to provide beautiful, powerful, educational experiences?

LO 6) Develop, maintain and evaluate high quality, stimulating pedagogical environments with and for children.

Students will examine, in detail, the concept of high quality pedagogical environments for children. They will engage with literature that examines the stimulation and over stimulation in ECEC environments. They will critically engage with the provision of environments that are "school like" or "home like" and consider this dichotomy. They will plan, create and maintain high quality stimulating environments with and for children and engage in regular evaluations of children’s environments, taking into consideration, for example, the case for aesthetics in learning environments.

Coursework & Assessment Breakdown

Coursework & Continuous Assessment
100 %

Coursework Assessment

Title Type Form Percent Week Learning Outcomes Assessed
1 Student designed assessment Coursework Assessment Assessment 100 % Week 15 1,2,3,4,5,6
             
             

Full Time Mode Workload


Type Location Description Hours Frequency Avg Workload
Lecture Tiered Classroom Lecture 2 Weekly 2.00
Group Learning Flat Classroom All class group learning 2 Weekly 2.00
Independent Learning Flat Classroom IL 5 Weekly 5.00
Total Full Time Average Weekly Learner Contact Time 4.00 Hours

Required & Recommended Book List

Required Reading
2015-11-17 Beautiful Risk of Education Routledge
ISBN 9781317263302 ISBN-13 1317263308

This is a book about what many teachers know but are increasingly being prevented from talking about: that real education always involves a risk. The risk is there because, as W. B. Yeats has put it, education is not about filling a bucket but about lighting a fire. It is there because students are not to be seen as objects to be moulded and disciplined, but as subjects of action and responsibility. The Beautiful Risk of Education is organised around a critical discussion of seven key educational concepts: creativity, communication, teaching, learning, emancipation, democracy, and virtuosity. By opposing the risk aversion that characterises many contemporary educational policies and practices, Gert J.J. Biesta makes a strong argument for giving risk a central place in our educational endeavours and brings risk taking to the forefront of a critical pedagogical practice.

Required Reading
2011-04-05 Beauty and Education
ISBN 0415896649 ISBN-13 9780415896641

Beauty is something we value instinctively. We find it in art and in nature, in words, images and ideas, seeking it through our senses and through our intellect, in others and in ourselves. This book seeks to re-awaken educators to the power of beauty as an educational concept, to its relevance for schools and the current needs of students and teachers. Drawing upon a range of practical examples, Winston considers the nature and meaning of the experience of beauty, analysing its cognitive, affective and moral energies in order to demonstrate how beauty can provide young minds with some of their most powerful educational experiences. Incorporating examples across the curriculum at all levels of schooling, Winston argues that a due consideration of beauty in education can address some of the more fundamental problems that continue to bedevil policy and practice. With its clarity of style and wealth of practical examples, it will be of great interest to academics, teachers and education students at the graduate and postgraduate levels.

Required Reading
2009-04-17 International Encyclopedia of Education Elsevier
ISBN 9780080448947 ISBN-13 0080448941

The field of education has experienced extraordinary technological, societal, and institutional change in recent years, making it one of the most fascinating yet complex fields of study in social science. Unequalled in its combination of authoritative scholarship and comprehensive coverage, International Encyclopedia of Education, Third Edition succeeds two highly successful previous editions (1985, 1994) in aiming to encapsulate research in this vibrant field for the twenty-first century reader. Under development for five years, this work encompasses over 1,000 articles across 24 individual areas of coverage, and is expected to become the dominant resource in the field. Education is a multidisciplinary and international field drawing on a wide range of social sciences and humanities disciplines, and this new edition comprehensively matches this diversity. The diverse background and multidisciplinary subject coverage of the Editorial Board ensure a balanced and objective academic framework, with 1,500 contributors representing over 100 countries, capturing a complete portrait of this evolving field. A totally new work, revamped with a wholly new editorial board, structure and brand-new list of meta-sections and articles Developed by an international panel of editors and authors drawn from senior academia Web-enhanced with supplementary multimedia audio and video files, hotlinked to relevant references and sources for further study Incorporates ca. 1,350 articles, with timely coverage of such topics as technology and learning, demography and social change, globalization, and adult learning, to name a few Offers two content delivery options - print and online - the latter of which provides anytime, anywhere access for multiple users and superior search functionality via ScienceDirect, as well as multimedia content, including audio and video files

Module Resources

Non ISBN Literary Resources
Journal Resources
URL Resources

National Frameworks - Early Childhood Ireland - Inspiring and enabling members to provide quality experiences for young children and their families

Biesta, G. (2017) The Beautiful Risk of Education. Schools of Tomorrow Conference. Available at: https://youtu.be/QMqFcVoXnTI

Other Resources
Additional Information