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The Melbourne Declaration (2008), the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), early years' frameworks, and curriculum documents affirm the right for all children to have equitable opportunities to access quality early childhood education and care. Within these settings, the curriculum is the blue print for guiding educators in planning, supporting, teaching and assessing children’s learning. As professionals, it is imperative that pre-service early childhood educators have an awareness of key curriculum documents, frameworks and early childhood pedagogy, and the underpinning theory and research that informs these documents to make informed decisions on how best to support the learning potential of children. They also need to be equipped with the theory for how play can offer an integrative device for supporting children’s learning, and a strong understanding for the roles of the educator in the learning environment. As accountabilities around curriculum become significant, it is essential that the early childhood educator teaching in the early years can articulate how play supports the provision of high impact teaching and learning and curriculum delivery.

The course extends upon pre-service educator's understandings of the historical, contemporary and post-structuralist theory on play, and how this can impact on and inform practices for supporting children's agency, play, development and learning. The importance of the role of the educator is examined as pre-service early childhood educators explore age appropriate pedagogical skills and strategies to facilitate and scaffold meaning-making in children's play and the co-construction of appropriate learning environments. Pre-service educators will also investigate skills and strategies required for the facilitation and support of transitions for children through play. The course provides early childhood educators with the opportunity to develop understanding and awareness of key features and themes of early childhood curriculum, frameworks and approaches. Pre-service educators will examine factors that impact on curriculum decision making and their role in the learning environment.

A 15-day professional experience placement is attached to this course. Students need to pass the competency Assessment in this Course and reach a total passing Mark of 50% to be awarded a passing Grade in this course. Failure of the Professional Experience component will result in a fail grade for the course, regardless of the graded mark. Full details of the Professional Experience particulars can be found on the Professional Experience website and in the Professional Experience Book.

The course objectives define the student learning outcomes for a course in accordance with the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership’s (AITSL) Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST). On successful completion of this course pre-service educators should be able to:

1. analyse and interpret the learning strengths and developmental capabilities of children at play (APST 1.2, 1.3);
2. apply feedback from supervising teachers to the planning of age appropriate pedagogical strategies that support child agency, foundational literacy and numeracy learning, and holistic development through play (APST 1.1, 2.5, 3.3, 6.3);
3. examine the role of the educator in planning for the scaffolding of play with children from diverse backgrounds and children with challenging behaviours (APST 1.3, 3.2, 4.3);
4. co-construct learning environments, and organise activities and effective teaching and learning sequences through age appropriate and strategic play-based curriculum choices (APST 2.2, 3.2, 3.3, 4.2);
5. examine and apply early years curriculum and frameworks in early childhood contexts as a strategy to evaluate the implementation of teaching programs to improve practice and to improve children’s involvement and learning (APST 2.1, 3.6);
6. explain how intentional play facilitates positive behaviour and supports transitions for children and families across early learning contexts (APST 4.3, 7.3);
7. demonstrate professionalism during pre-service teacher placements through observation, practice and assessment of pre-service teacher professional practice (1.5, 2.3, 3.1, 3.4, 3.5, 4.1, 4.4, 5.1, 5.4, 7.1, 7.2, 7.4).