Level 7 Early Years Childcare: Theories of Child Development & Learning

 Overview of the Assessment 1

The Essay

 Blocks

Completion requirements

This unit will discuss the essay assignment, what is required and how to tackle it. This unit provides an overview of the assignment, but as a group we will be discussing it in our tutorials and webinars.

Weighting: The essay is worth 50% of your overall mark.

Learning Outcomes: The essay must address Learning Outcome 1 and Learning Outcome 2:

• LO1 – Describe and constructively critique major theoretical perspectives on children’s learning and development.
• LO2 – Critically evaluate provision and practice and discuss how practitioners’ perspectives ad values related to developmental theories impact on children’s learning experiences.

Learning Brief: An essay considering children’s experiences in education and care settings, through the lens of different theoretical perspectives. The essay must be supported by evidence from observations. (3000 words).

As part of the assignment, you must choose a child to conduct observations on. You must seek permission from the child and the child’s parents to conduct 5 observations. These observations must be running records and should last approximately 10 minutes each. Running records are a strong form of observation as they note everything that is going on, i.e. multiple areas of development could be included. It looks at the child holistically. It is often viewed as an overall insight into the child’s world. This makes them perfect for this assignment as you will be looking for different areas of childhood development. You can write down what you see and what you hear the child say, however, you cannot interpret this in the observation. This will come into analysis in the essay itself.

Example of excerpt from an observation: 

Child A is sitting at the blue table in the preschool room. She lifts up a picture and shows it to her teacher and places the crayon from her right hand on the table. She says, Look, I made a mermaid. Her tail is green and her hair is red, like Ariel. 

How to tackle the essay: 

I am only using headings to show the format, these will need to be removed for the final submission.

Introduction: 

You need to start your essay by outlining the aims and objectives of the essay. What will it address? From reading over your 5 conducted observations, you need to identify the three areas of development that are prominent in them and within the introduction, state that these 3 areas of development will be explored in the essay. This will signpost your work from the outset for the reader. Considering you will be referring to the child in the observations, you will need to address confidentiality. Consider the importance of the DCYA guidelines and GDPR guidelines, highlight how permission was sought to conduct the observations and the use of pseudonym, i.e., the target child, Child A, Child 1 or if you want to give the child a fictional name. Finally, in the introduction, you need to set the scene for the reader. Ethically highlight background of the child, i.e. age, gender and what room they are in the setting (baby room, toddler room, preschool room).

Area of Development 1 (For the purpose of a sample, I will use Social Development as an example)!!!!!!!!!

Signpost the section for the reader. This segment will explore social development. I would advise starting the section with defining the term with support from relevant reading. From here you should:

• Use excerpts from the observations you conducted to highlight the child’s social development. You must then link these to developmental theories. It is important to note here that your observations may be supported by theory or may indeed conflict with theory. Do not be afraid to state this, this is where your critical analysis skills will come in. Remember to ensure that you support arguments with relevant reading. This is important in order (LO1)
• From here, you need to evaluate how practice and provision in your setting promotes social development. Consider, for example, do you foster meaningful interactions, how? Do you organise group times and group games? How? Is the room prepared to allow for peer play and imaginary play? Do you model healthy conflict resolution? Do you implement a listening culture in the classroom? Do you use a friendship tree or a buddy system? Opportunity for teamwork? (LO2)
• Explore your own perspectives on social development and make links to relevant theory. For example, are your values and ideas of teaching supported by particular theories of social development? How does this impact children’s learning? (LO2)

Area of Development 1 Emotional and Moral Development

Area of Development 2: Social Development

Area of Development 3 Language Development

Repeat the above structure for your other two areas of development you have chosen.

(Your other two areas can include: physical development, emotional and moral development, personal development, language development and cognitive development).

Conclusion: 

This section should conclude your essay by summarising what it tells the reader. No new information should go in here.

Reference List: 

This goes at the end of your assignment and needs to be developed as per University of Essex’s referencing guidelines.

HARVARD REFERENCING GUID SEE UNIT 9!!!!

IMPORTANT

I would like TO BRING INTO ATTENTION THE following

I WILL PROVIDE YOU WITH THE 5 RUNNING OBSERVATIONS, BASED ON THEM, YOU WILL START THE ESSAY, AND TO MEET ALL THE CRITERIA REQUESTED BY READING all the STEPS WHICH NEED TO BE followed, ALSO THE MOST IMPORTANT TO engage with the CLASS MATERIALS AND USE ALL THE RESOURCES, send it TO YOU!!!!!!!!