Questions:
Task Description:
1.Parents and family have a right to contribute directly to the curriculum in early childhood. But why and how do your teaching team make that a reality.
2.Your colleagues are committed to the belief that the Early Years Learning Framework is a pedagogical framework that should be applied to educational programs for children up to eight years of age. Your principal and parent council do not believe that play based pedagogy is appropriate for up to year three. What might you do?
3.A recent announcement by the government to heavily invest in a literacy program designed for primary aged remedial intervention across the board, including preschools. Your professional association has a position statement on public policy and programs having to transparently demonstrate the evidence base on which they are to be implemented and funded. What will be the association’s next steps.
4.Colleagues in the preschool program of your neighbourhood centre (incorporates a child care service and primary school) are making a stand and challenging the pending visit by regulators. They don’t believe that preschools as early childhood services should be subjected to regulatory and accreditation requirements.
5.The lead educator in any type of early childhood service or program should be assessed routinely on both the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority and Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership industry standards
.6.All early childhood educators regardless of qualification orstage of career are pedagogical and professional leaders. So anyone in any early childhood service should be expected to advocate on issues concerning the care and learning of children.
ANSWERS:
The lead educator in early childhood services has an important role to play in the development of a child. I believe that they play a very important role in learning of children in their early years. It is the time when children learn many things. In such case, the lead educator of small children needs to act responsibly while disseminating the information and knowledge to the children. From the observation that I have gathered the children who were guided and mentored in the right way were more disciplined than those children who were not.
I believe that the behavior and attitude of an educator is very important in deciding the resultant behavior or attitude of a child because he or she spends a significant amount of time with the educator. I think that it is important to assess the performance of an educator as it ensures the quality of education received by the children as well as to determine the way they are treated in the institutions (Treagust et al. 2015). The educators in Australia should be analyzed with the help of the principles and standards that are set by the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority as well as Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership industry standards . I think this will provide the process with a holistic approach of assessment standards so that every aspect of an educator can be analyzed. Much like every other job the role of an educator require certain prerequisites and skills.
I think the positive aspect of this analysis is that the parents will be reassures that their children are in the hands of a skillful and qualified person. I think it is also important for personal development; an educator needs to understand the strength and shortcomings so that he or she can understand the opportunities of growth and scope of improvement in the career as well. Another positive aspect of the assessment according to me is the scope the educators get to develop new skills (Treagust et al. 2015). For example, I think one of the most important skills of an educator is to communicate tactfully with the children, their parents as well as the other people who are associated the institution. One of the negative aspects of the assessment procedure I feel is that there is hardly any scope of innovation and creativity, as the person has to follow guidelines and stick to the principles, the role of an educator in my experience I have observed the role o an educator changes from one child to another and hence it is a drawback to make the role comply with a set format of behavior or quality
According to me, educational program and practices are important for the educators. Educational programs help the educators to understand their roles better and they understand in a better way about what is expected of them. I further believe that the educators should be given a special lesson on how to deal with the heath issues of a child. As I have seen in the course of the project, a child might have some health trouble in the middle of the class and the educator must have knowledge about the basic treatment for the safety of the child (Acecqa.gov.au. 2017). I had to research on a number of schools for completing the project and I have understood that the physical environment provided by the schools is important factors in the shaping of the children. I further believe that the educators should maintain a daily contact with the parents of the children so that they can get every update about the growth of the concerned child .
In the course of the project, I have understood that all these areas are very important for education and care of children. It is not just the education but care of children is also important. While researching on the project I have seen that people who are not passionate about the job take up the job of early childhood educators. The results happen to be disastrous, as I have seen while working on the project. The safety of the children in such case becomes an issue (Aitsl.edu.au, 2017). People want employment and for that they are ready to take up any job even if they are not passionate about it and have n proper idea of what the job requires of them. This result in cases of child abuse we hear or come across (Treagust et al. 2015). I believe that to get rid of such unfortunate incidents the educators must be addressed in a regular basis and reminded of their duties. Similarly, I have learnt while being on the project that the aim of the Australian institute of teaching and school leadership is putting maximum impact on the learning of school going children (Aitsl.edu.au, 2017). AITSL emphasizes on the initial education of the children. It focuses on what kind of education is required to be provided and what is being provided. According to me, it is very important that the educators reach the basic standards of a leader and a teacher. I believe that the only way of measuring the standards of the teachers is conducting regular tests for the teachers and keeping them updated about the expectations that the children and their parents have. I think a routinely assessment will help in meeting the mission and objective of both the organizations
As I have seen in course of the project this helps the parents to rely on the educators and hope for better results in terms of learning and safety of their ward. The Australian Government has set certain standards that are required to meet by all the educators. I believe that if the educators follow those standards carefully and strictly then only the children will be provided with proper education which will help them to be properly educated adults in the future. According to me, this project has helped me understand the vital role that an educator has in the life of a child.
Reference
Acecqa.gov.au. (2017). National Quality Framework. Retrieved 31 December 2017, from https://www.acecqa.gov.au/national-quality-framework
Aitsl.edu.au. (2017). Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership. Retrieved 31 December 2017, from https://www.aitsl.edu.au/
Australia.gov.au. (2017). Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority Retrieved 31 December 2017, from https://www.australia.gov.au/directories/australia/acecqa
Treagust, D. F., Won, M., Petersen, J., & Wynne, G. (2015). Science teacher education in Australia: Initiatives and challenges to improve the quality of teaching. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 26(1), 81-98.
