Principles and Practices in Early Childhood Education

The scenarios are based on real life events in early childhood settings and relate to the early childhood principles and practices that have been explored over the first three weeks of the unit. Develop a professional response to each scenario to demonstrate your knowledge of relationships and the environment, by referring to the EYLF, the NQS and unit materials to support your points. The questions specify the minimum requirements for each response, and you may add additional points, however, ensure you remain within the word limit.

Scenario 1:

You are the educator in this toddler room. You want to allow the children to have more autonomy in the room, to make choices for themselves and take control of their environment.

1. Describe what you might tell families about your improvement and why you are making these changes with justification using NQS Quality Areas.
2. What are one EYLF Learning outcome, Practice and Principle that align with your actions and why?

You are the educator responsible for a four-year-old room in a long day care centre. You are wanting to implement a healthier eating program within your room to achieve Exceeding status in the Assessment and rating process. You have diverse family groups from a wide variety of cultures and preferences (including families who are vegan).

1. What NQS Quality Area and Standard does this relate to and what one EYLF Practice and one Principle would you use to justify your changes?
2. What are two ways you could involve the children in implementing these changes? Use literature to support your ideas.

Scenario 3

You are the educator in the 18month old room. You have a number of new staff who do not understand why the children are so upset when their parents leave of a morning. You want to ensure they are aware that this is a normal stage of development.

1. Describe one theory you could refer to, to explain this separation anxiety?
2. Explain a strategy you could use to help the children build trust and settle each morning?
3. Outline to your staff an EYLF Principle and NQS Quality Area to justify why these actions are important for the child and family.