The Student Practitioner in Early Childhood Studies

An essential guide to working with children

Ruby Oates

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9780415719247, 9780415719254
• eBook ISBN: 9781317704713
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Didattica
• Subtopic: Didattica per la prima infanzia

The Student Practitioner in Early Childhood Studies: An essential guide to working with children 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 and Key Stage One.

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. It will:

• prepare students for the challenges of practice
• provide a synthesis of academic knowledge and practice skills
• develop students' critically reflective thinking and understanding relational pedagogy and the needs of young children
• provide the emerging student practitioner in higher education with knowledge, skills, understanding and confidence to relate effectively with young children and adults in settings

Fully supporting students' practice experience and development of their critical thinking, this helpful book synthesises theory and practice in an applied and critical manner. The authors cover a range of themes including critical reflection, relational 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 degree programmes.

Chapter 1
The student practitioner

Robin Sedgwick

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

• Independent learning.
• The different teaching and learning systems you might encounter at university, and what opportunities they provide.
• Getting the most from university support systems.
• Where to find information and what constitutes a reliable source.
• How to use other people’s ideas in your work.
• How to acknowledge your sources.
• What plagiarism is and how to avoid it.
• The different ways you may be required to present information.

Starting university

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. The details of your experiences may differ, depending on whether you attend an old university with a depth of tradition or a newer establishment. 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 strategies to manage some of these challenges and to set you off in the right direction on a very special journey.

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. Many will say they are studying a particular subject – English, say, or mathematics. Some however, 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. One learns by taking a proactive stance, reading in depth and exploring the details of your subject.

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 familiarise 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.

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 to the classroom-based sessions you have previously enjoyed. 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. Generally your lectures will be arranged at a programme or faculty level and you will be provided with a timetable of lectures. If there is such a thing as a ‘traditional style of lecture’, it would probably be an hour session in which 100 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. Also there usually will be a list of recommended books for that particular course or module. You will probably need to take notes during the session, although often notes may be available through an online virtual learning environment (VLE). Depending on the lecturer’s preference and style, these may be accessed before the session to provide a framework to be built on, or after the session to summarise the ideas covered.

The format of a lecture will be determined by the preferences of the tutor and the size of the group. Where there are more than, say, 30 students present the session is more likely to resemble the traditional one outlined earlier, with students playing a passive role and experiencing little, if any, interaction with the lecturer. However, with smaller groups, students may take a more active role with the lecturer asking questions or eliciting ideas from the students. In sessions like this the distinguishing line between a lecture and a seminar can become blurred. Lectures may involve several approaches within the course of one session; there may be activities where one works with a partner or within a small group, or perhaps the lecture may be a split session commencing with a traditional delivery to a large group, which then divides into smaller seminar groups. Inevitably you will experience a wide variety of lecture types as different lecturers, even within the same subject area, will have different styles and approaches.

Top tips: How to get the most out of lectures

• Attend all timetabled lectures. Often a lecture will build on a foundation of knowledge from a previous session. If you missed that session you will struggle to understand the current one.
• If you have an idea what the lecture is going to be on, perhaps from the lecturer’s scheme of work, 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, make sure you print them off, or download to a tablet, and take them with you. During the lecture you can supplement them with additional information.
• Listen carefully during the lecture and try to identify the key points. Your note-taking strategy should not distract you from what is being said.
• Read through your notes as soon as you can after the session to ensure they make sense. Seek clarification on any points you do not understand.
• Follow up references and suggested follow up reading.
• Discuss the lecture with your fellow students. They may have grasped key points that you missed, or perhaps they interpreted what they heard in a different way.

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 – perhaps a book chapter, academic paper or area of policy which will be the focus of the discussion. The leader of the seminar will most likely be the course 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, he or she could let the discussion flow freely, with individuals making contributions as they see fit.

Another possibility is that individuals may be required to give a presentation to the rest of the group. This could be centred on topics allocated in advance by the tutor or might be something personal, such as a description about their ideas for a research topic. The presentation could be a simple verbal description or might be focused on something like an academic poster. It might involve using visual aids such as PowerPoint and could be delivered by either an individual or a group. This type of presentation may be used as a learning device to encourage analysis of a particular area or, in some cases, even be used as an assessment component.

Top tips: How to get the most out of seminars

• Ensure that you do any required preparation before the session. Read set texts and identify their key points. Use these to formulate questions you can ask during the session.
• If you are expected to give a presentation, remember the keys to success are the four Ps: plan, prepare, practise, present. See the section later in this chapter on how to deliver an effective PowerPoint presentation.
• Reflect on the content after the session.

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 variety of purposes: to assist students encountering difficulties, to provide formative feedback on work in progress or simply to provide a forum for discussion of key issues.

The number of students in a tutorial will vary from institution to institution. In some universities one to one tutorials may not be available and group tutorials may be the norm, in which case you may find the session becomes much closer to a seminar. However, as a student of early childhood studies, it is most likely that you will have a personal tutor whose role it is to oversee your practice in work placement. Your tutor may be someone who lectures to you, or it may be another member of the teaching team. One practice you may encounter is where a small number of starter lectures are delivered to a group, after which each student is allocated a tutor to support further progress. This is often the system used when you are engaged in a research project such as a final-year dissertation. Tutorials may be timetabled at regular times or you may have to book a time slot, either by signing up to a list or by emailing the tutor. There may be no compulsion to do this, and many students do not take up their tutorial opportunities, despite the fact there is a strong correlation between tutorial attendance and good grades. Tutorials are capable of adding a high degree of clarity to your learning, particularly in helping you to determine what exactly is required from an essay or other assignment.

Top tips: How to get the most out of tutorials

• Take all tutorial opportunities.
• Make a note of dates and times in your diary. Ensure you know where the tutorial will be held and you can find your way there.
• Be on time. There may be other students booked in for tutorials, and your tutor may have allocated specific time slots.
• Ensure you have completed any preparation that is needed.
• Don’t be afraid to ask questions. One of the express functions of a tutorial is to give you the opportunity to do just that. Part of your preparation for the tutorial should be to decide on the questions you will ask.

Getting the most from university

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
• Year or stage tutor
• Academic tutors
• Personal tutor
• Subject specific library support
• Learning support
• Peer mentoring
• Careers advisory service
• Student welfare officers
• Disability support
• IT technical support
• IT skills support
• Student health services
• Student counselling services
• Student’s union
• Faith services
• Security services.

If any problems arise, your first point of contact may be your course leader, year tutor or personal tutor. Even if they cannot directly provide support, they will know the university systems well enough to point you in the direction of where it can be found. Experience has shown that personal problems frequently impact on study, and a supportive tutor who is aware of your situation may be able to arrange extra tutorial time, provide extensions on assignment s...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of contributors
• Introduction
• 1 The student practitioner
• 2 The student as researcher
• 3 The emerging practitioner
• 4 The developing practitioner
• 5 The enabling practitioner
• 6 The critically reflective practitioner
• 7 The student practitioner constructing a professional identity
• 8 The student practitioner as future leader
• Index