EDUC311 Contemporary Understandings of Young Children as Learners

Advanced investigation into the issues and contexts that both enhance and constrain the learning of young children in educational settings.

^ Top of page

Prerequisite

One 200-level EDUC or SOCI paper

Restriction

EDUT 331

Schedule C

Arts and Music

Contact

Dr Ruth Gasson, ruth.gasson@otago.ac.nz

Teaching staff

Paper Co-ordinator: Dr Ruth Gasson (Dunedin)
Other staff: Meredith Kelly(Southland); Dr Sonya Gaches (Dunedin)

Paper Structure

Diversity, inclusion and changing participation in early years settings

• Theorising difference, diversity and inclusion
• A learning community approach
• Pedagogical responses to difference and diversity

Rights and Citizenship

• National and international responses to children's rights and citizenship
• Rights and citizenship within early years settings
• Upholding rights and practising citizenship: successes and challenges for thinking and practice
• Learning, development and assessment: debating perspectives in the early years
• Contested perspectives on learning, development and assessment
• Critical questions of contemporary theories and practices in learning, development and assessment
• Researching learning, development and assessment

Transitions: shifting terrains

• Curriculum continuities and discontinuities
• Changing conceptions of knowledge and moves towards testing

Textbooks

Required Text:
Carr, M. & Lee, W. (2012). Learning stories: Constructing learner identities in early childhood education. Los Angeles: Sage.

Graduate Attributes Emphasised

Interdisciplinary perspective, Scholarship, Critical thinking, Ethics, Information literacy, Research, Self-motivation, Teamwork.
View more information about Otago's graduate attributes.

Learning Outcomes

1. To gain understandings of current literature and debates on children's rights and citizenship and what this might mean for educational settings
2. To investigate concepts of diversity and inclusion as educational issues for young children
3. To appraise and consider the wider politics of assessment practices and purposes in education
4. To gain knowledge and understanding of contestable theories and thinking about children's learning

^ Top of page