Pen Green Centre for children and their families

The aims of this module are to enable students to…

• Analyse different perspectives on children’s learning and development in the UK and other countries.

This module involves researching a variety of cross-cultural curricula in order to be able to share your knowledge effectively with others. The module also requires you to be part a focus group debating the pros and cons of various curricula, including the curricula you are working with in practice. Opportunities will be provided to reflect on your image of the child and how this image has been formulated. In addition you will be encouraged to consider what this means for your practice and how this relates to the UK early years curriculum framework. 

You will be asked to reflect on how the team in your setting leads and supports children’s learning and development and how the early year’s curriculum supports this process.

This module is assessed on coursework (pass/fail).

The expectation is that students attend all scheduled learning and teaching sessions.

If there are exceptional circumstances which result in a student being unable to fulfill this, the student should discuss these with the Course Lead.

Programme/module requirements, including those attendance, must be met and students are responsible for making good work missed through absence.

Knowledge and Understanding:

Successful students will typically:

• Collect and synthesise information about national and international frameworks, curricula and philosophies of education.
• Develop an awareness of different perspectives on the ‘image of the child’ and understand its impact on practice and children’s development and learning

Skills and Attributes:

Successful students will typically:

• Be able to analyse your own practice and practice within your setting in the light of curriculum guidance, practice wisdom and external expectations and suggest improvements

Scheduled Teaching, campus−based activities in general teaching spaces (e.g.lectures, 20 seminars, tutorials) 10 hours

Scheduled campus−based activities in specialist teaching spaces (e.g practical classes, 25 workshops, demonstrations) 5 hours

Directed independent study 35 hours

Self-directed independent study 100 hours

Total hours 150

You will be provided with the opportunity to experience a focus group in the study week before leading and managing one in your own setting. Experiences will be shared during the study week to explore practice in early years environments both in UK and international settings. Access to relevant reading resources will be provided. Plenty of opportunities will be created to share perspectives with other early years workers during the study week.