Study-Unit Description

Study-Unit Description


CODE EPE3003

 
TITLE The Early Childhood Practitioner

 
UM LEVEL 03 - Years 2, 3, 4 in Modular Undergraduate Course

 
MQF LEVEL 6

 
ECTS CREDITS 4

 
DEPARTMENT Early Childhood and Primary Education

 
DESCRIPTION This unit ‘The Early Childhood Practitioner’ is a study unit framed by three key concepts: core values; ethical issues and professional standards central to the professional role of practitioners within early years educational settings.

The three concepts will be unpacked through the following seven topics:
• Professionalism in Early Childhood Education
• Professionalism as a Systemic and Ecological Phenomenon
• Reflective Practice and Early Years Professionalism
• Ethical Practice in Early Childhood Contexts
• Professional Identity
• Professional Love
• Professionalism and Early Years Policy in a Maltese Context

This unit will be delivered over one semester.

Study-Unit Aims:

The overall aim of this study-unit is to challenge students to look back at their role as pre-service early childhood practitioners and critically analyse their efforts to enact professional practice, deal with ethical challenges, and abide by professional standards. It also introduces students to theory, discourse and defintion of terms related to the area of professionalism in the early years and how these link to practice.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Knowledge & Understanding

By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

- Define the meaning of professionalism in a Maltese early years context;
- Identify the different levels of professionalism in the early years sector;
- Describe reflective practice and how it links to early years professionalism;
- Identify situations that are ethically challenging and ways how to act professionally;
- Outline professional identity and the issues related to it;
- Describe professionally loving practice;
- Identify the links between statements in policy and policy infrastructure and how this impacts on children’s overall learning and development.

2. Skills

By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

- Be more reflective and self-critical about their underlying values with regards to their professional roles;
- Reflect on their professional knowledge and practice in ways that affirm an ethical and anti-bias approach towards young children and their families;
- Establishing, securing and maintaining positive experiences in the professional roles that they adopt;
- Act professionally in ethically challenging situations;
- Prepare himself/herself for the challenges by developing a strong professional identity;
- Offer professional attachment relationships with young children;
- Examine and discuss the predominant discourse in local early childhood policy documents and how this links to the profession;
- Be open to responsive growth in his/her context and create change from within.

Main Text/s and any supplementary readings:

Main Texts:

- Dalli, C. and Urban, M. (eds) (2013). Professionalism in Early Childhood Education and Care. Routledge.
- Lindon, J (2010). Reflective Practice and Early Years Professionalism: Linking Theory to Practice. Hodder Education.
- Couchenour, D. and Chrisman, K. (2012). Families, Schools and Communities: Together for Young Children. Cengage Learning.
- Feeney, S. and Freeman, N. K. (1999). Ethics and the Early Childhood Educator: Using the NAEYC Code. National Association for the Education of Young Children: USA.
- Lovat, T., Toomey, R. and Clement, N. (eds) (2010). International Research Handbook on Values Education and Student Well-Being. Springer.
- Palaiologou, I. (2012). Ethical Practice in Early Childhood Education. Sage.
- Rodd, J. (2013). Leadership in Early Childhood. Open University Press.

Supplementary Readings:

- Brock, A. (2014). The Early Years Reflective Handbook. London and New York: Routledge.
- Essa, E. (2013). Introduction to Early Childhood Education. Cengage Learning.
- Gordon, A. and Browne, K. (2013, 9th ed). Beginnings and Beyond: Foundations in Early Childhood Education. Belmont: USA, Wadsworth.
- Hyson, M. and Tomlinson, H. B. (2014). The Early Years Matter: Education, Care and the Well-Being of Children, Birth to 8. Columbia: Teachers College Press.
- Kostelnik, M. J., Soderman, A. K., Whiren, A. P., Rupiper, M. and Murphy Gregory, K. (2015, 2nd ed). Guiding Children’s Social Development and Learning. Cengage Learning.
- Marsh, C. J. (2009, 4th ed). Key Concepts for Understanding Curriculum. London and New York: Routledge.

 
STUDY-UNIT TYPE Lecture

 
METHOD OF ASSESSMENT
Assessment Component/s Assessment Due Sept. Asst Session Weighting
Assignment SEM2 Yes 100%

 
LECTURER/S Charmaine Bonello
Lara M. Said

 

 
The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints.
Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice.
It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years.

https://www.um.edu.mt/course/studyunit