Early Childhood

A Guide for Students

Tina Bruce, Tina Bruce

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781446242445
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Éducation
• Subtopic: Enseignement primaire

Designed for students on Early Years Foundation Degrees and Early Childhood courses, Early Years professionals and Teaching Assistants, this engaging text provides a comprehensive introduction to the field of early childhood.

Written and edited by experts in the field, the book clearly explains theory through illustrations of good practice, with case studies, reflective exercises and suggestions for further reading. Additional case studies and reflective questions for student or lecturer?s use can be found on the SAGE website.

Each chapter has been revised with an emphasis on encouraging reflective practice and there are new chapters on:

- personal, social, and emotional development

- EYPS

- health and safeguarding children

This brand new edition has also been updated in light of the new Early Years Foundation Stage, and addresses the needs of students working towards Early Years Professional Status (EYPS).

SECTION 1

YOU AND YOUR LEARNING

CHAPTER 1

Managing Yourself and Your Learning Sally Jaeckle

Sally Jaeckle is currently a Senior Regional Adviser for the Early Years Foundation Stage in the South West working for the National Strategies. She has worked as an early years teacher and Children’s Centre manager both in this country and in the United States, and has been a lecturer in Early Childhood Studies and a local authority Early Years Adviser.

The author wishes to thank Jill Brown, Programme course leader for the Sure Start Sector Endorsed Foundation Degree in Early Childhood Studies at City of Bristol College, who contributed the case studies in the chapter.

Aims

To develop understanding of the importance of being a reflective practitioner, and through this process:

	identify your own strengths, interests and learning preferences
	examine and develop your role as ‘co-researcher’ with colleagues and children in the workplace
	explore the risks and challenges that this new learning will bring and identify strategies to manage this change.

Introduction: reflection on your learning journey so far

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Effective practice in the early years requires committed, enthusiastic and reflective practitioners with a breadth and depth of knowledge, skills and understanding.

Effective practitioners use their own learning to improve their work with young children and their families in ways which are sensitive, positive and non-judgemental.

Therefore, through initial and ongoing training and development, practitioners need to develop, demonstrate and continuously improve their:

• relationships with both children and adults;
• understanding of the individual and diverse ways that children develop and learn;
• knowledge and understanding in order to actively support and extend children’s learning in and across all areas and aspects of learning;
• practice in meeting all children’s needs, learning styles and interests;
• work with parents, carers and the wider community;
• work with other professionals within and beyond the setting. (Key Elements of Effective Practice (KEEP) website)

In deciding to take up this opportunity you have already demonstrated your commitment to developing your own professional practice. In this chapter we will explore the importance of being a reflective practitioner and how this deepening self-awareness is at the heart of your continuing learning journey.

The importance of developing high-quality provision in the early years is indisputable, but first we need to stop and spend a few moments thinking about what this actually means. What does quality look like in practice and how will we recognise it when we see it? Do we all share the same vision? What is our role in making it happen? How will we go about it and where do we start?

All real learning is a dangerous business! It involves taking risks and overcoming challenges as the safety of old and familiar ways of thinking are left behind in the search for new layers of understanding. As you embark on your learning journey, you will be experiencing a range of emotions – from excitement to anxiety – but above all you are probably wondering about the impact this major commitment will have on your life and your practice. What changes will this quest for quality bring and how will it benefit the children and families in your school or setting? This chapter will attempt to answer both these questions, and will include exercises to explore your own thinking and case studies from practitioners who have already set out on their learning journeys and can see the difference that it has made.

EXERCISE 1.1

What is your personal goal in undertaking this course?

• How will it help your colleagues?
• How will it help the children you work with?
• How will it help you in your relationships with your friends and family?

Try to write down three points for each question. This could be the start of a reflective journal, so leave a space to add more thoughts as you proceed through the course.

Setting the context

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The current direction of government policy recognises the importance of promoting high-quality early years provision to improve outcomes for all children and to reduce inequality. Every Child Matters (DfES, 2005b) established the government’s commitment to improve the quality, accessibility and coherence of services so that ‘every child and young person is able to fulfil their full potential’. The ten-year strategy for childcare ‘Choice for parents, the best start for children’ (HM Treasury website) that followed, set out the government’s vision for ‘every child to get the best start in life’ and established the aspiration to develop ‘high-quality provision with a highly skilled childcare and early years workforce, among the best in the world’. The 2006 Childcare Act took some of these key commitments forward and placed them on a statutory basis – it was a pioneering piece of legislation and the first ever Act to be exclusively concerned with early years and childcare. Sections 39–48 of the 2006 Act introduce the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) which was published in 2007 after a comprehensive consultation process. The EYFS aims to support providers in delivering quality integrated early education and care for children from birth to age 5, and to:‘improve quality and consistency in the early years sector through a universal set of standards which apply to all settings’ (DCSF, 2008c). Practitioners are urged to ‘continually look for ways to improve the quality of the learning, development and care they offer’.

The policy focus on quality has drawn significantly on recent research, and in particular the findings of the DfES-funded longitudinal study of Effective Provision of Pre-school Education (EPPE; Sylva et al., 2004) which has shown the positive impact of early education on children’s outcomes at the end of Key Stage 1 and beyond. This research has shown that high-quality pre-school experiences do make a difference to children, particularly children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds, and that this difference can be sustained. The research has identified some particular indicators of quality provision including:

• highly-qualified practitioners including trained teachers
• an equal balance of child-initiated and adult-led learning experiences
• adult–child interactions that encourage children to think deeply and express their ideas (sustained shared thinking)
• practitioners with knowledge of how young children learn and an understanding of the early years curriculum
• strong links between home and early years setting/school.

Your decision to develop your own professional practice and qualifications is an important step in making this vision of high-quality provision a reality.

EXERCISE 1.2

Reflecting on the Key Elements of Effective Practice (KEEP) and the characteristics of quality outlined above, list your strengths, interests and priorities for professional development. You may find it helpful to discuss this with a friend or colleague.

How will this new awareness improve your work with young children and their families? Note three aspects that you plan to develop in your practice.

What is a reflective practitioner?

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If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got. (Anon.)

Although the EPPE research begins to help us to understand some of the characteristics of effective pre-school provision, we still need to explore more deeply what this means for us in practice. Quality, like beauty can be said to be in the eye of the beholder. There can be no clear-cut, universally accepted definition because it is culturally determined and will mean different things to different people, depending on their own experiences, interests, beliefs and values. It cannot therefore be captured as a specific outcome that can be measured, or a goal that can be achieved. If ‘quality’ is viewed as a destination that can be reached once and for all, arrival would signal the end of the journey, and imply that there is no need for further thought, reflection or progress – a dangerous position in a rapidly changing world.

Instead, the pursuit of quality is really about the nature of the journey itself. It is an active process, a continuous seeking for improvement, dynamic and changing in response to our deepening awareness and growing understanding of how children think and learn. The reflective practitioner will set out on this journey with a strong commitment to making it the best that it can be for all concerned – children, families and fellow colleagues. This does not necessarily mean that they will take the most direct or easiest route but it will be the most meaningful and fulfilling. The journey will be planned flexibly in response to the interests, needs and learning preferences of fellow travellers, with plenty of time set aside to take in the views, check for progress and agree new paths where they are indicated.

Reflective practice is therefore the key to developing high-quality provision, but it is often easier said than done. The cycle of informed reflection, self-evaluation and development that lies at the heart of this process takes time, openness, and the capacity to step back and look at your practice with absolute honesty – warts and all! This is not a question of superficially ticking the boxes, but an altogether more demanding way of analysing and articulating what it is that you do. You will need to think in depth about those aspects of your practice that are effective, and why, checking that there is evidence to support the judgements you have made. You will also need to explore the elements that are less successful, and challenge yourself to make improvements.

This journey cannot happen in a knowledge vacuum. Practitioners also need regular opportunities to develop their professional expertise and extend their understanding of early learning and development. Access to recent and relevant thinking and research, through books and journal articles, learning networks, conferences and ongoing training, will establish a sound context for reflection and ensure that any analysis of practice is well informed.

Informed reflection, within the context of a developmentally appropriate curriculum and an understanding of how children think and learn, will help you to recognise and value your strengths, identify the areas in need of further development and establish priorities for action to move your practice forward. This process is at its most powerful when you are working collaboratively with others. ‘Engaging in listening and dialogue is lively, enlivening – vivacious. In dialogue we meet many strong patterns of energy, tension, possibilities. We shape things and are shaped by them’ (Edward Lorenz, in James Gleick, Chaos – Making a New Science, and quoted in Bruce, 1991).

Perhaps the closest we can get to a definition of quality is the concept of a genuine learning community, where all participants – practitioners, children and their families – work together to develop their skills, knowledge and understanding through reflection, dialogue and a shared commitment to ‘continually improving on their previous best’. When everyone in a school or setting is valued as a fellow traveller on this journey, respecting each other’s contributions and different starting points, there is a buzz in the air and an excitement that is palpable.

In Making Learning Visible (Project Zero, 2001: 16) a learning group is described as: ‘A collection of persons emotionall...