The following is critical for any student studying young children in an early childhood education and care setting whether they be studying a certificate III or Diploma.
I will be examining some of the main theoretical approaches to understanding the growth and development of young children and how they learn - prenatal to age 8. In some ways this will add to your existing knowledge; in some ways it will broaden and deepen knowledge, and in some ways it may also challenge existing beliefs and attitudes.
The teaching-learning approaches taken in this course will have you using a range of study skills and applying these through some interesting, challenging, engaging and purposeful methods.
Initially, there is an introduction to the main theoretical approaches for understanding young children, including theories on the role of play. These will be applied throughout the course in the following Modules so it is important to gain an overview. This will include introducing some of the terms used in this course and those you will find in related literature. There is also content with regards to how the growth, development and learning of young children is studied and researched.
The next topic covers topics and theories of prenatal development and birth to infancy in the domains of: physical growth; social development; emotional development and cognitive development. It also considers the role of play.
Topic 3 covers topics and theories of early and middle childhood in the domains of: cognitive development; language development; physical growth; social development; emotional development and the role of play for such growth and development.
Topic 4 covers topics and theories regarding families; communities and other social and societal contexts. This is studied in Week 7. It also covers approaches and requirements for studying young children, this includes understanding ethical requirements and responsible selection of methods/tools.
Topic 6 synthesises what has been identified and learned in previous Modules where the approach is that of Professional Learning Circles. The main aim is to engage in a process of analysing and interpreting data from observations of a young child in a supported and supportive way.
