Reference no: EM133927856

Assessment - Planning for Play through Theory

TASK

Purpose

You are required to critically reflect on your teaching practice during placement. Reflective practice helps you look back at an experience or situation and offer your perspectives on it. This helps you consider why things occur, evaluate situations and apply critical thinking and problem-solving skills. It also helps you practice self-analysis with the aim of learning from an experience.

The learning outcomes assessed are:

LO 2: Critique how social, cultural and philosophical perspectives inform individual and collective understandings of childhoods and pedagogy, and shape professional practice and the role of the teacher;

LO 3: Formulate critical actions that apply social justice principles to diverse early childhood contexts and situations;

Task Overview

In this task, you will:
Reflect on your teacher positionality by drawing on your lived experiences and background. Select one theoretical perspective (e.g., critical, poststructuralist, or socio-cultural) that aligns with your positionality and use it to develop a teaching philosophy statement showing how this will shape your practice.
Critically reflect on your previous planning cycle from placement (ECE6012 or ECE6013), analysing it through your chosen theoretical lens. You may choose to focus on specific stages of the planning cycle. Demonstrate your critique by showing how your planning cycle aligns with or challenges ideas within your chosen theoretical perspective.
Redesign the planning cycle based on your critique, clearly justifying the changes through your theoretical lens. The revised planning cycle should show how your philosophical perspective informs your approach. Top-rated assignment help is just a click away!
Explain your revised planning cycle (3mins) in a live session with your peers and lecturer, elaborating on your positionality, critique, and redesign. Respond to questions and feedback during your presentation.
Engage with your peers' explanations by offering constructive and critical feedback that draws on your understanding of the theoretical perspectives introduced in this unit.
The goal is to show how you think critically about your teaching and use theory to improve your practice. You will be assessed on two components:

Task Instructions
1) Written Submission (1000 words +/- 10%)
You will complete your written submission in Cadmus, which must include:

Part A (200 words): Reflect on your teacher positionality
Draw on your personal lived experiences and background to locate your positionality as a teacher today.
Identify one dominant theoretical perspective introduced in Week One or Week Two (e.g., critical theory, poststructuralist theory, or socio-cultural theory) that aligns with your positionality.
Using this lens, develop a short teaching philosophy statement that makes clear:
How your positionality and chosen perspective shape your image of the child.
What this means for your role as an educator.
How this perspective will guide your practice in areas such as curriculum, pedagogy, and relationships.
Make explicit connections between theory and practice to demonstrate how your teaching philosophy will be enacted in real contexts.

Part B (400 words): Critical reflection of your previous planning cycle
Choose a planning cycle from placement (ECE6012 or ECE6013).
Analyse it using your chosen theoretical lens in Part A. You may choose to reflect on all stages of the planning cycle or focus on specific stages.
Justify your evaluation by drawing explicit connections between elements of the planning cycle (e.g., observation, analysis, planning, implementation, reflection) and key ideas from the theoretical lens.
Explain how the planning cycle aligns (or does not align) with the values and principles of your selected theoretical perspective, discussing:
What worked well and why
Challenges or missed opportunities
How theory or research informed your insights
Include evidence for the planning cycle, such as images or actual documents, to support your claims and your reflection with meaningful theoretical connections.

Part C (400 words): Redesign your planning cycle
Modify or redesign respective parts of the planning cycle in response to your critique, focusing on addressing the gaps that you have identified in Part B (Note: you are NOT redesigning the whole planning cycle).
Justify your changes through your theoretical lens (e.g., if using critical theory, how does your redesign address power or equity?). You may include:
What are you changing
Why are you changing it (based on your critical reflection)
Demonstrate how theory informs your professional reflection and revised plan.

Part D (not included in word count):
References:
Include a reference list in APA 7th style
Minimum 3 references from unit readings.
Ensure to reference correctly for direct quotes and paraphrasing. You can refer to VU Library Guide links at the end of this page.
Appendix: A copy of your previous planning cycle from placements (ECE6012 or ECE6013). You can embed this as an image on Cadmus.

2) Verbal Explanation with Lecturer (3 mins per student)
Explain your revised planning cycle in a live session with your peers and lecturer, elaborating on your positionality, critique, and redesign.
Respond to questions and feedback from peers and lecturers.
Listen actively and provide constructive, theory-informed feedback.
Demonstrate critical thinking and respectful engagement with alternative perspectives.