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Reflecting on Professional Knowledge in Early Years (16400X)

30 credits, Level 7 (Masters)

Spring and summer teaching

On this module, you’ll focus on developing and auditing your professional knowledge and reflecting critically upon how this has emerged from academic study, your own Early Years classroom experiences and investigations and your work with other professional practitioners.

Central to this process will be your ability to organise and verbally articulate the evidence you need to demonstrate Early Years Teaching Standards (EYTS), understand how scholarship and research has informed your development and identify on going targets for professional development. It will include the preparation of a portfolio including evidence for meeting the EYTS Standards and reflection on critical incidents or professional challenges encountered during the course.

A key target for you will be reflection upon your own understanding and knowledge of the eight EYFS (Early Years Foundation Standards) Standards and the identification of your own strengths and needs. Gaps in Early Years knowledge will become a focus for personal research and the presentation of new curriculum knowledge will be a key requirement as will an understanding of the frameworks in which that knowledge is organised and delivered as part of the Early Years curriculum (as designated within the Early Years Foundation Standards (EYFS) framework.

You’ll also be introduced to current developments, initiatives and professional issues in education and critically reflect upon the intersection between theoretical positions, your own Early Years practice and observations and the guidance offered by experienced professionals. Such professional studies are likely to include the following (amongst others):

• Early Years contexts and behaviour management
• the role of play
• child protection
• diversity in education
• assessment for learning
• special educational needs (SEN)
• child development
• how children learn
• personal, social and health education
• role of parents and carers
• equal opportunities
• cross-curricular issues
• literacy and numeracy across the curriculum
• English as an Additional Language.

Professional knowledge will be developed within the context of current Early Years research.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 150 hours of work. This breaks down into about 48 hours of contact time and about 102 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.