IDENTITY THE EARLY CHILDHOOD PROFESSIONAL

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Assignment 1: Report

Word limit: 2800 (+/- 10%)

Weighting: 60%

Due date: 5pm AEST Monday 15 August 2022 (Week 6)

After you have read this information, head over to the Assignment 1 Q&A discussion board to ask any questions and see what your peers are saying about this assignment.

Assignment overview

Reports are useful forms of assessment in pre-service teacher education programs as they assess what you have learned from your readings, research and class discussions. They also enable you to develop report writing skills and undertake the type of research task that is widely used in the education work place.

For this assignment you will be required to write a report on the current state of the Australian early childhood profession.

You are required to write a report, based on the following scenario:

You are a director of a local government early childhood education (ECE) setting. The council has asked you to write a report to inform them about the current state of the Australian early childhood profession as they are considering developing, funding, building and operating new community-based early childhood services in the municipality. Your aim is to inform the council of the benefits and challenges of funding and supporting new education settings.

You are being asked to make choices about what would be included in such a report as you research and report on the state of the early childhood profession in Australia today. A typical report investigates, describes, and analyses information in a thorough and logical manner. This information is then presented in a clear report format. Some features that typify a report format include:

numbered sections and/or headings
a contents page
information presented with images, tables, or diagrams
short paragraphs
illustrations and examples to guide the reader.

In the body of your report, you must cover the following essential discussion points:

Discuss the characteristics and complexities of the early childhood profession including current strengths and challenges in Australia today.
Identify trends and movements influencing ECE. There is no set number of trends or movements that you need to include as this will depend on the content of your report. Make sure you also discuss the Australian context in relation to international contexts. For example, compare Australia with one or two other countries.
Describe the key legal obligations and policies that impact the early childhood profession and their implications for teaching and service provision.
Include a SWOT analysis that outlines why council should support and fund community-based ECE services and some of the risks they should be aware of.

Your report should also include the following sections:

Table of contents (not included in the word count)
1. Create a table of contents in Word or a similar processing program you are using. The latest version of Microsoft Office is free for students to download.
1. The contents page should list the different sections and/or headings together with the page numbers.
1. Your contents page should be presented in such a way that the reader can quickly scan the list of headings and locate a particular part of the report through the page number.
1. Whatever heading and/or numbering system you use, make sure that the relationship with headings and sub-headings is clear and consistent.
Executive summary (approximately 200 words)
1. This is a short, clear summary of the whole report outlining who the report is for and what you are hoping to achieve with its creation (the purpose) and the summary of recommendations.
1. Write a short draft outline of this when planning your report and then rewrite when you have completed the report, making sure you include any changes you made during the process.
Introduction and terms of reference (approximately 300 words)
1. The introduction sets the scene for the main body of the report.
1. Introduce the early childhood profession and provide a rationale explaining the relevance of teachers having an understanding of current trends, policies and movements impacting on the early childhood profession.
1. Introduce and outline the key aspects of your report and any new terms with brief descriptions of each term. You can also include explanations of the acronyms or abbreviations used in your report by creation a short glossary.
Main body of the report (must include the essential discussion points)
1. The main body of the report is where you discuss your key ideas, with supporting literature that describes the profession. Think carefully about what is relevant for your council audience.
1. Use section headings and sub-headings where points are grouped and arranged in an order that is logical and easy to follow. You are able to use some bullet points to present a series of ideas in an easy-to-follow list, however, this section should be mostly discussion. Remember this is not an essay.
1. You can use images, photographs and diagrams to present your ideas; these must be labelled and the headings included in your table of contents. They must also include clear descriptions of what they are and referenced with APA in-text citations and in your reference list.
1. Use examples, illustrations, vignettes, quotes or case studies to guide the readers’ understandings of the report content.
Conclusion (approximately 300 words)
1. Short summary of key points.
1. Recommendations for the council outlining why they should invest in quality early childhood services for the community.
Reference list (not included in word count)
1. All sources used must be acknowledged with APA referencing throughout the report with in-text citations and the creation of a comprehensive reference list.
1. A report often contains many references as you are reporting information. You will need to include a minimum of 15 references, but it is highly likely that you will include many more.
Appendices (not included in word count)
1. This section may include supporting information such as examples of student work, projects and family feedback. (This section is additional and not compulsory or included in the word count.)

Throughout your teaching and learning journey, you will be required to use the nationally approved learning frameworks (the Early Years Learning Framework or the Australian Curriculum) or the approved learning frameworks for your state or territory. To help you further build capability in this area, and to prepare you for placements, at Swinburne Online you may choose to use the nationally approved learning frameworks or the approved learning frameworks for your state or territory in your assignments. For further information specific to your assignments for this specific unit, please seek advice from your eLAs and/or your Unit Coordinator.

Supporting resources

The following Student Hub resources will assist you with completing this assignment:

The Academic practice (Links to an external site.) page has sections on Referencing (Links to an external site.), ‘Academic integrity’ and ‘Assignment support’.
The Academic writing and presenting (Links to an external site.) page has a section on ‘Formatting and presentation’, which includes a handy resource for appendices.

ass [P 50–59%]	In order to pass this assignment, the requirements of all criteria must be met at a satisfactory level, and all work must be original unless correctly cited according to APA referencing conventions. Specifically, this means that the report: generally includes all outlined requirements and is logically presented, but may lack internal structure within and across paragraphsaddresses the topic and explores, in a minimal way, an understanding of the Australian early childhood profession with little reference to the international contextincludes a rudimentary explanation of the essential discussion points with some exampleshas a developing ability to use relevant scholarly literature, including course materials to support the task requirementshas correct citation where the work is not the author’s original workhas academic writing that is generally free from spelling and grammatical errors.
Credit [C 60–69%]	To be awarded a Credit, the student must fulfil all the requirements of the Pass level but with more sophistication. Specifically, this means that the report: is clear and logical with all required components and demonstrates a depth and clarity for how the key ideas are presenteddemonstrates the ability to guide the reader through the discussion with clear descriptions and exampleshas analysis that shows insight into the complexities of the ECE profession with discussion and examples of policies, trends and movements with reference to the international contextcovers a breadth of discussion points that are explored with analysis of the key ideas and worthwhile examples of what this could look likehas a choice of relevant scholarly literature, including course materials, to support the task elementshas correct citation where the work is not the author’s original workhas academic writing that demonstrates accuracy and the ability to research and report with clarity.
Distinction [D 70–79%]	To be awarded a Distinction for this assignment, students must meet all the requirements of the Credit level, but with a level of discernment that demonstrates the following: The report demonstrates the depth and breadth of content and accuracy that is required for such a document and therefore supports the outlined purpose.Clear and insightful understandings of the ECE profession have been outlined that offers a sophisticated capacity for engagement with the key ideas.Essential discussion points in the main body of the report are explored with depth and a comprehensive analysis of the key ideas and relevant examples of what this could look like.The SWOT analysis is insightful and detailed.Clear and perceptive connections have been made between legal obligations that impact the early childhood profession.There is precise integration of scholarly literature, including course materials and additional relevant texts.Referencing and citations are accurate.Academic writing demonstrates highly developed skills with structuring the discussion in relation to the needs of the audience, making sure the report does not contain unnecessary information.
High Distinction [HD 80–100%]	To be awarded a High Distinction for this assignment, students must meet all the requirements of the Distinction standard, outlined above, but to a highly sophisticated and insightful standard: The report demonstrates detailed, accurate, thoughtful, mature and professional knowledge and understanding of the importance of describing the strengths and challenges of the ECE profession.The report is professionally presented, with obvious care and attention to planning, editing, compilation and proofreading.Knowledge and understanding of policies, trends and movements are represented throughout the report, which capture the importance of the ECE profession to an unfamiliar audience.The Australian and international early childhood context is integrated into the report.The essential discussion points are described through the report with a comprehensive analysis of the key ideas and relevant examples of what this could look like. Additional ideas are also integrated with a seamless critique and analysis between legal obligations that impact the early childhood profession.The SWOT analysis reports and identifies relevant issues that could impact upon the profession offering a sophisticated level of knowledge and recommendations for the reader.The reporting is sound, clearly argued, and well supported in terms of the use of literature and evidence to support or refute claims. It is free from ambiguity and contradiction.There are no referencing errors and obvious care and attention has been given to planning, editing and proofreading.Academic writing is professional, engaging, interesting and insightful.