|Towards your ECA

Some general points:

Notes on Plagiarism:

ECA are regularly checked to make sure the work is original. The OU uses two different forms

of scanning. One compares your work with that of published materials and the second compares

it with work submitted by other students. So take the greatest of care to preserve your own

independence.

You are going to have to make your own decision on balance between sections here and my word

counts and illustrations are very approximate. Clearly if you only left 100 words to discuss your

plans at the end this would be insufficient: look back to the balance between sections in

previous TMA. Some of this will link to the person and so there should be some variation, it is

unlikely that someone else’s decision about an approach will work for you whether that is mine of

a colleagues so there are no hidden hints.

It would be a major error to allow your work to become confused so that it is not clear what

aspect of the question you are answering…almost any structure is better than no structure. You

will need to make use of sections, paragraphs and possibly subtitles to make this clear.

Referencing widely and deeply is essential in order to pass. Look at the assessment criteria.

Referencing widely means as an absolute minimum referencing from each Unit of the course and

form some of the associated Reader Chapters and DVD and the associated publications (EYFS,

ECM etc). Referencing deeply means using these to weave into your discussion, linking the

theory to practice and using this to question…leading to meaningful reflection.

Title=extending professional learning So the overall focus is on your learning

during the course: make sure this is

clear. Unit 6 explains much more

Word length =3000 words No more and not too many less This assignment must be submitted by 24

May 2010. Make sure you aim to finish early to

allow for mishaps, Extensions not

impossible but I cannot give any you

must phone the region: they are often

refused The end-of-course assignment gives you an

opportunity to review all you have learnt

as a result of following this course.

Review-go back over

All you have learnt= all the course

resources. You show learning by linking

course materials to reflection on your

practice and your changing practice We ask that you do this in a reflective

way, by examining how your practice and

understanding have developed, and also

more formally by reviewing your

achievements to date against the course’s

learning outcomes.

So reflective means to think over your

own practice and write about it. Try

to highlight how you have changed the

way you work and the way that you

think about your work. Then link this

to the learning outcomes (see chart

for the ones you identify. Unlike the TMAs, the ECA is not divided

into sections; it is for you to decide how

you structure your text.

You have to decide your structure- I

have indicated how this might be done

but it is your plan and your ECA there

is no one ‘right’ way. Now see notes

below

A conclusion Remember you might divide the ECA

into sections but for higher marks you

should make the whole thing hang

together. I would therefore finish

with a conclusion that rounds up the

main points about what you have said

linking that back to the original title in

particular.

References and detail Set aside time for checking your

references and you spelling and

grammar. I do this as a separate

activity. Check the guidance on this.

Introduction (100-150 words perhaps: more if no introduction to sections less if there is)

1. Make an ethical statement you might reference this to course materials.

2. Say how you have organised the assignment in general terms. (e.g. The

Assignment is approached in xxx sections. In the first section the

XXXXXXXX is examined. The second section looks at the

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX and I conclude with a final section that) You

have to choose how you divide up the ECA but as a guide either 2 or 3:

look at pervious TMA.

3. You might want to describe your role and setting here. There is room to

expand on this towards the end so be brief. If you do not explain this

here then you need to very soon. Make a link to course resources and

EYFS.

4. You might want to include a definition of terms you use a lot, or you might

not need to. For example ‘In the first section I examine my role as a

practioner both inside and outside the setting itself since as a home

liaison officer much of my work takes place in the homes of the children’

Section 1 (1500/2000 words?)

You need to think how you structure this section. You might use each Unit of

the course (apart from Unit 6 which you cover below anyway). Some units are

more substantial than others but that would link well to your TMA. Or you

might structure is by the areas outlined in the list of key areas below. Once you

have decided this you need to tell the reader what to look for in an short

introduction to the section as outlined above. Using this structure think how

many paragraphs you allocate to each section.

Give an account of the way in which your role as a practitioner has developed over the past year.

An account is telling a story but supporting it with argument and evidence. As

can be seen below there is an expectation that you will ‘quote’ specific areas of

change and use course resources to support you account. The focus is change

that can be linked to the course resources. Be ready to quote form a wide

range of different study topics, the Reader and the DVDs: the thinking you

have recorded in your journal will help here.

In particular, show how your understanding of the way children learn and develop and the way

early years settings support that learning and development may have changed. Refer back to key

elements of your four TMAs to support your arguments.

The focus is your understanding of the way children learn and

develop: what in the course materials has changes how you think about what is

happening. Read back through your TMA, you are not expected to have them as

appendices, you are meant to be making comments on them in a reflective and

general way but need to give enough information so that someone who has not

read those TMA knows what you are talking about see the guidance on

referencing to your TMA. You might include short ‘quotes’ from them, (your

TMA are already available in the ETMA system) do not expect whoever is

marking to go and read the whole of your TMA output to understand what you

are saying.

You need to focus on these areas in particular…remember if your practice has

not changed yet then you should identify how your thinking has changed

Show how your practice and understanding have developed in the following areas in particular:

communication with children and their families;

Notice this is about communication: check Book 2 and particularly Study Topic 9 and associated

reader chapters/DVD and TMA.

child development;

How have you changed the way you think about the way children develop. See Study Topic 4 to

start with.

safeguarding children and promoting their welfare;

You might want to say something about basic safe guarding, but you probably were doing

something already so you could start by saying…’In many ways our safeguarding practice was

already well developed however there have been changes in the way I think about this which will

be my focus…’ Study Topics 5 and 6, associated Reader chapters, DVD, TMA.

transitions; multi-agency working;

OK so this is Study Topics 7 and 8 associated Reader chapters, DVD, TMA

sharing information.

I am not sure and we should think about this as we discuss this but I think I would put thi ins

the context of working with other professionals, parents to safeguard children and promote

their welfare and learning. It could be used to sum up all the above. See Study Topic 1 some

sections discuss this as does Study Topic 18 but the issue comes up all over the place.

Support your view with evidence from observations of and interactions with the

children you support.

Section 2

Outline ways in which you would like to see your setting develop in the coming year,

using the course materials and other resources to support your arguments.

(600 words?)

Think about the implications of this first. Re read Study Topic 18 Sections 2

and 3 in particular. You may consider some practical changes or you may wish to

consider changes to the way you plan and monitor children’s learning. Try to be

realistic here, if your are third in charge of the toddler room you may not be in

a position to rebuild the setting. However the phrase is ‘would like’ so there is

an element of wish here. The making of this section is the way in which you

support your argument by linking to the course materials. If you are, for

example, a sole practioner you might be quite clear about changes you are going

to make.

Finally, outline the way you plan for your own role and career to develop in the medium

to long term and the steps you will take to support these plans.

(600 words?)

This is about developing a Professional Development Plan: I think it might be OK

to use a chart (as in Study Topic 18) here supported with text. See section 4 of

Study Topic 18. The focus is medium and long term; these are a bit loose. You

might start with a definition of what you mean here. e.g.

‘For the purposes of this section I define medium term as1 to 2 years and the

long term as greater than this (or 2 to 5 years).’ However feel free to define

your limits here. You have to think about where you want to be and how you

intend to get there and tie that into a time scale that is realistic.

Try to use the chart to make a reflection about your development needs, your

strengths and weaknesses: do reread section 4 to help with this. The higher

marks for this section are most likely to depend on the reflections and the way

that you use this to tie together some of the points you have made in the

previous sections of the ECA.

Notes from Study Topic 18:

One of the objectives of this course, maybe the prime objective, is to help you

change and develop the way that you think about what you do. Reflection is

about having conversations with yourself and others about what you do trying to

develop a better understanding of what is happening. In order to do this you

need to challenge or question what you (and to some extent others) do as a

practioner…what I would call developing a reflective critical perspective. You

then need to make a judgement about your own work, but in order to do this you

need to have some viewpoints other than your own. You might call upon the

views of other practioners, other professionals, parents/carers, theorists and

written materials. This is quite vital because you often cannot see the ‘wood for

the trees’: there are also several different ways of viewing the same event and

to understand what is happening you need to account for these. Note there is a

difference between thinking your thoughts, sharing your thoughts (articulating)

and writing your thoughts: listening and articulating are vital to the process and

each has their place.

Schon saw 2 sorts of reflection…reflection in action and reflection on action.

Reflection in action works best when you have a well developed pool of

professional experience and knowledge: this is part of what is developed in your

professional studies (knowledge in action). Reflection on action happens after

the event, draws on your knowledge but may also draw on perspectives other

than your own.

Where do you get you different perspectives from? How do you listen to

these? How often do you do this? How do you manage time to allow this to

happen.

Reflective practice takes events (observations for example) and interprets

them, analysing, discussing and explaining. The reflective practioner in this

sense becomes a leader moving others on in their understanding. In a reflective

setting all practioners and the children would be part of this process, building

dialogue. I would argue that reflection on action is what feeds and validates

reflection in action. This leads to section 2.

Section 2.

Centres on the work of Etienne Wenger- communities of practice where the

community develops and builds shared understanding about what events mean.

It takes time to fully understand this perspective but I believe it depends upon

the view that meaning and ‘knowledge’ are socially constructed. Think carefully

about the way different communities of practice might be formed. There is a

fairly vital bit about this at the end of page 137 start of 138. It introduces the

idea that you might have a limited position that makes it hard to build a

community of practice. The way forward is to identify where elements of this

‘community’ already exist and how you might build on this. It may as yet be a

partial community, yourself and a fellow practioner, you and a visiting

professional, you and your partner. How can you build on this?

What makes you a ‘leader’. Make sure you read list on page 142, which boxes

can you ‘tick’?

Section 3 Leadership and development

What sorts of professional learning are you involved with, how can you continue

to develop these?

How professionals operate varies but our aim here is to be a workforce that

constantly transforms, develops new directions. Think about the links to

possibility thinking. There is no permanent ‘right way’ to practice. Our practice

reflects our community and the society that it is in. Read and read again the

first and second paragraphs of page 146. Note it is not the collecting of

evidence that is significant it is the sense you make of the evidence.

How settings operate depends upon the way that the context and culture is

organised: ‘democratic and collegial means that each person contribution is

valued, each person is listened to. We could argue that this sort of structure

implies an openness that allows change to take place. When thinking of

leadership you might want to consider the difference between managing and

facilitating…telling others what they should be doing and creating situations

where all those involved construct what they are doing. Consider the impact

that these different staff environments might have on the children: what role

model does your leadership give the children.

Section 4 Your development

We shall be doing Activity 7 as part of our last tutorial. If you are not able to

come do have a close look at this. When discussing your development you need

to account for the fact that you are training and developing in a sector that is

fast moving and changing.

When you are thinking about your professional planning in part you may have

clear and rather simple future goals: I want to complete my degree and attain

EYP status. However it pays to dig beneath the surface and reflect on your

strengths and weakness. If I use myself as an example I might write something

like…

’In the medium term I would like to develop my ability to examine reflection in

Early Years setting. Whilst I am generally regarded as a strong reflective

practioner I find that I need to think more clearly about the reasons for this in

order to be able to lead my students (that is you in this case of course) into a

deeper understanding of what it means to be ‘reflective’. In order to do this I

will…and will review my progress after …’

SO in the above I have identified something I need to do, questioned my

practice identifying strengths and weaknesses thus producing a set of reasons

for developing this area and would then go on to say how and when I will achieve

my development.

Referencing your TMA

‘When you directly quote from of one of your TMAs in your ECA you

should present it in the following way....

In the text of your ECA, insert the page number where the

discussion/evidence is considered in your TMA.... e.g. Sarah Hutchones

quoting from her TMA 04 would write in text:

Hutchones (2010, TMA04, p.4)...........

and in her list of References at the end of the ECA:

Hutchones, Sarah(2010) E100, TMA 04.’

This is posted by the course chair and has the same weight as the Assessment

Guide. In your mind you need to think about your TMA as being published. It is

on the ECA system (even though you have had a copy back) and can be accessed.

SO you do not need to include it as an appendix but instead refer to the TMA.

How you do this is fairly clear I think.

You could also make a general reference….In TMA 04 I found that I did not

really have a real grasp of the way babies might think mathematically

Hutchones (2010, TMA04)

Any questions and further comment or worries please get in touch

Les

Les Hereward

07905243886

01372800822

leshere@ntlworld.com