TCHR3001 Early Childhood Matters

Summary

Rationale

As an early childhood teacher your beliefs form the basis of your early childhood philosophy. How you implement this philosophy within your teaching practice will be influenced by a range of issues within your local and broader community.

Task Description

This task requires you to analyse and evaluate the various positions of the contemporary issues presented in Module 4 – 6. Include a personal reflection that explains your own position on a selected issue and critically analyse and justify your personal position in relation to current, scholarly literature.

Task Instructions

Drawing on the unit learning materials, unit tutorials and a range of relevant and current scholarly literature, select one issue addressed in Module 4 to 6 of this unit and:

• Part 1: Analyse and evaluate the positions put forward on this issue within the unit materials and discussions. (500 words)
• Part 2: Reflect on and synthesise your personal position on the issue explaining why and how it is relevant to you personally as a teacher/educator working with children, families, and other relevant stakeholders in the Australian early years sector (500 words).
• Part 3: Justify your personal position on the issue using a range of relevant and current scholarly literature. (500 words).

Please note:

• Part 2 and Part 3 of this task can be written in first (“I” statements) or third person,

however you need to be consistent over the task in the tense and person you use.

• All areas of your responses to this task need to be supported by relevant and current literature. This means you need to cite relevant and current (within the last 10 years) literature that supports what you are saying throughout your writing.
• Please refer to your rubric for the literature that you MUST include in your responses to each part of this task..
• Please remember that you must use scholarly literature in this task.

Please refer to the following documents to support you in addressing this task:

General:

• • How to Incorporate Evidence into Your Writing - https://www.scu.edu.au/media/scu- dep/current-students/learning-zone/quick- guides/how_to_incorporate_evidence_into_your_writing.pdf
  • Summarising and Paraphrasing - https://www.scu.edu.au/media/scu-dep/current- students/learning-zone/quick-guides/summarising_and_paraphrasing.pdf

Part 1:

• • You MUST refer to the unit learning materials and discussions in the recorded tutorial session/s that address the issue you select.
  • Look at the meaning of ‘analyse’ and ‘evaluate’ in the following document - https://www.scu.edu.au/media/scu-dep/current-students/learning-zone/quick- guides/common_instruction_words.pdf
  • ​

Part 2:

• • Read this document about Reflective Writing - https://www.scu.edu.au/media/scu- dep/current-students/learning-zone/quick-guides/reflective_writing.pdf

Part 3:

• • Look at the meaning of ‘justify’ in the following document - https://www.scu.edu.au/media/scu-dep/current-students/learning-zone/quick- guides/common_instruction_words.pdf
  • Writing Paragraphs (PEEL method) - https://www.scu.edu.au/media/scu-dep/current- students/learning-zone/quick-guides/writing_paragraphs.pdf
  • Planning and Writing Body Paragraphs (using the PEEL method) - https://www.scu.edu.au/media/scu-dep/current-students/learning-zone/quick- guides/planning_and_writing_body_paragraphs.pdf

Formatting and style

APA 7 formatting is required for this task.

• Include a cover page that contains:

• The title of the task in bold
• Your name (as author),
• Your faculty (Faculty of Education)
• The unit code and name (TCHR3001 Early Childhood Matters)
• Your unit assessor’s name (Kelly Simpson)
• The due date

• Include a title or the prompt at the start of each response.
• Students may use headings that align with the task instructions to organise their responses.
• Indent the first line of each new paragraph.
• Use 12-point Arial font.
• Double line space your writing and your reference list.

Referencing

• APA Referencing style is required to be used for this task.
• Include one reference list for all responses on a new page at the end of your task. Place the title References in bold in the centre at the top of this page.
• At a minimum, your sources for this task will include the EYLF (AGDE, 2022), the NQF (ACECQA, 2023), a range of unit materials, and broader current scholarly literature.
• Broader literature may include textbooks, peer reviewed articles, and published newspaper and/or media articles by reputable sources (for example, the ABC, The Conversation, Early Childhood Australia)
• You need to include at least 8 scholarly references in your response to this task as well as the unit learning materials and the EYLF (AGDE, 2022) and NQS, (ACECQA, 2023).

Resources

• Academic Integrity - https://www.scu.edu.au/about/leadership/executive/academic- portfolio-office-apo/academic-integrity-framework/

• SCU Student Learning Zone - https://www.scu.edu.au/current-students/learning-zone/
• The Early Years Learning Framework - https://www.acecqa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2023- 01/EYLF-2022-V2.0.pdf
• National Quality Standard - https://www.acecqa.gov.au/nqf/national-quality-standard
• Guide to the National Quality Framework (including the National Quality Standards) - https://www.acecqa.gov.au/nqf/about/guide

Referencing Style Resource

Please refer to the APA 7th Referencing Guide for this task - https://libguides.scu.edu.au/apa

Task Submission

• Your task should be submitted using the submission point in the Turnitin folder titled Assessment 2: Position Paper in the Assessments Tasks and Submission section on the Blackboard TCHR3001 site. Only Microsoft Word documents submitted via the Turnitin portal on Blackboard will be accepted. You must label your final submission with your surname and initials and the assessment task's name, e.g. SmithJ_PositionPaper.doc

• You are strongly advised to undertake your own SIMILARITY CHECK via Turnitin, PRIOR to the due date, to identify and resolve any academic integrity issues prior to submitting - see SCU Academic Integrity and Turnitin. You can submit up to three times and receive the similarity match report immediately – after three attempts, you will need to wait 24 hours.
• It is YOUR responsibility to ensure that you have submitted the correct file and the FINAL version of your assessment for marking BEFORE the due date/time.
• Turnitin does not generate an automatic email receipt. If you have successfully uploaded your assessment, a green bar will appear at the top of the screen that says: Submission uploaded successfully: Download digital receipt. Use the hyperlink to download your digital receipt and store this with your assignment file.
• If you have any difficulty submitting your assignment, please contact Technology Services and make sure that you log a job with them, so you have evidence of your attempted submission. To avoid any last-minute problems, make sure you submit well before 11:59pm on the due date.

Academic Integrity

At Southern Cross University academic integrity means behaving with the values of honesty, fairness, trustworthiness, courage, responsibility, and respect in relation to academic work.

The Southern Cross University Academic Integrity Framework aims to develop a holistic, systematic, and consistent approach to addressing academic integrity across the entire University. For more information see the SCU Academic Integrity Framework

NOTE: Academic Integrity breaches include poor referencing, not identifying direct quotations correctly, close paraphrasing, plagiarism, recycling, misrepresentation, collusion, cheating, contract cheating, fabricating information.

GenAI May Not be Used

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools, such as ChatGPT, must NOT be used for this Assessment Task. You are required to demonstrate if you have developed the unit’s skills and knowledge without the support of GenAI. Grammarly (but NOT GrammarlyGo) may be used to review your task and make changes to grammar or punctuation or to single words however it must NOT be used to re-write sentences or paragraphs.

Please note that GenAI tools include a range of translation tools. It is the responsibility of students to ensure that any translation tool they are using is not a GenAI tool. Students are encouraged to write their work without the support of translation tools for this reason.

If you use GenAI tools in your assessment task, it may result in an academic integrity breach against you as described in the Student Academic and Non-Academic Misconduct Rules, Section 3.

Special Consideration

Please refer to the Special Consideration section of Policy https://policies.scu.edu.au/document/view-current.php?id=140

Late Submissions & Penalties

Please refer to the Late Submission & Penalties section of Policy https://policies.scu.edu.au/view.current.php?id=00255

Grades & Feedback

Assessments that have been submitted by the due date will receive an SCU grade. Grades and feedback will be posted to the ‘Grades and Feedback’ section on the Blackboard unit site. Please allow 7 days for marks to be posted.

Assessment Criteria

See the marking rubric for the marking criteria and grading standards.

… continued on next page….

Description of SCU Grades

High Distinction:

The student’s performance, in addition to satisfying all of the basic learning requirements, demonstrates distinctive insight and ability in researching, analysing and applying relevant skills and concepts, and shows exceptional ability to synthesise, integrate and evaluate knowledge. The student’s performance could be described as outstanding in relation to the learning requirements specified.

Distinction:

The student’s performance, in addition to satisfying all of the basic learning requirements, demonstrates distinctive insight and ability in researching, analysing and applying relevant skills and concepts, and shows a well-developed ability to synthesise, integrate and evaluate knowledge. The student’s performance could be described as distinguished in relation to the learning requirements specified.

Credit:

The student’s performance, in addition to satisfying all of the basic learning requirements specified, demonstrates insight and ability in researching, analysing and applying

relevant skills and concepts. The student’s performance could be described as competent in relation to the learning requirements specified.

Pass:

The student’s performance satisfies all of the basic learning requirements specified and provides a sound basis for proceeding to higher-level studies in the subject area.

The student’s performance could be described as satisfactory in relation to the learning requirements specified.

Fail:

The student’s performance fails to satisfy the learning requirements specified.