Early Childhood Education and Care professional experience (6op)

Osaamistavoitteet

Students familiarise themselves with Finnish early-childhood education and care by observing, participating and reflecting on everyday life in a Finnish kindergarten.
At the end of the course, a student should:
• Understand the foundation of early childhood education and care in Finland
• Be able to compare the differences and similarities between Finland and home country ECEC systems
• Be able to plan and conduct activities in a Finnish ECEC setting according to a local curriculum
• Enhance his/her readiness and tools to work with children with diverse cultural and language background by reflecting on ECEC experience

Sisältö

• The foundation of Finnish early years education and care
• The curriculum and its influence on everyday life
• Educator’s roles and pedagogy in ECEC
• Principles of constructing the learning environment
• Co-operation with parents
• Children’s daily activities

Esitietovaatimukset

The course is aimed at students of teacher education.

Arviointikriteerit, tyydyttävä (1)

1-5/fail

Arviointikriteerit, hyvä (3)

3-4
- attending in practicing
- the learning report is well organized and to the point
- the report contains both successful learning and difficulties (if any) the student encountered during the course; those are presented in a constructive way
- the report includes both entries about what happened ( a short list, or a brief description) and description of student’s reaction and what they learned during the process; those reflections include references to previous learning experiences and learning expectations but not learning theories; the learning process of the student is not described quite clearly
- the report includes a description rather than evaluation of teaching methods with regard to student’s learning: what helped and hindered learning; only a few alternative solutions are proposed
- the learning process is well analysed; the report includes immediate benefits of the course but does not indicate how the learning experience can be used in the future by the student as an individual or an expert in the field
- The student is able to reflect on own teaching and evaluate the teaching experience thoroughly. Both strengths and areas to improve are considered. The report includes accurate analysis of the teaching experience with frequent links to theory. The student demonstrates a good level of self-evaluation skills. It is evident that the student can use the learning experience in future teaching.

Arviointikriteerit, kiitettävä (5)

5
- attending in practicing
- the report is very well organized and to the point
- the report contains both successful learning and difficulties (if any) the student encountered during the course; those are presented in a constructive way
- the report includes both entries about what happened ( a short list, or a brief description) and description of student’s reaction and what they learned during the process; those reflections include references to learning theories, previous learning experiences and learning expectations; the
learning process of the student is described explicitly
- the report includes evaluation of teaching methods with regard to student’s learning: what helped and hindered learning; alternative solutions are proposed
- the learning process is very well analysed; the report includes immediate benefits of the course and what can be used later with regard to students as individuals and professionals in their fields of study
- The student is able to reflect on own teaching and evaluate the teaching experience in an excellent way. Both strengths and areas to improve are considered. The report includes in-depth analysis of the teaching experience with links to theory. The analysis follows, or extends, guidelines. The
student demonstrates a high level of self-evaluation skills. It is evident that the student can use the learning experience in future teaching.

Arviointikriteeri, hyväksytty/hylätty

Pass: see criteria 3-5
Fail: see criteria 0-2

Lisätiedot

The evaluation:
Pass/Fail
However, if the home university of a student requires a grade, it can be granted on request.

Toteutustavat

•Professional experience:
o Active participation in the planning and conducting of activities with children
o Discussions with the ECEC staff within the setting (e.g. local curriculum)
•A report, in which students address:
o The most important things learned during their ECEC placement
o Any aspect of Finnish ECEC that they find most interesting or most different from the systems in their home countries (e.g. the most positive features; elements of the Finnish system that students would like to change; questions that students would like to ask)

Suoritustavat

•Professional experience: ECEC placement for 4 weeks
o 1. week: observation and planning (at least 15h/week)
o 2.-4. week: teaching or conducting activities 10h/week
o Total 120 h work: 45 h observation and practice and 75 h planning and assessment
•Individual work: Report
o After the practice a student will write a reflective essay based on his/her experiences and literature.
o Total 40 h work (length of essay 20 pages).