EMA Extending professional learning
Write an account of the way in which your role as a practitioner has developed over the past year
Part One
For this EMA, I shall be talking about the varying ways my role as a practitioner has developed over the last year including my knowledge of children’s learning and development and how early years settings support children’s learning and development. I will explain how i have facilitated the development of my setting, how through studying the E100 course has benefited the children in my care and how it has made me consider and develop my own role as a practitioner. In this TMA all names have been changed to protect identity. The setting, children and parents have given their consent to activities being used in this assignment and participants have been told they can withdraw at any time.
Part Two
Since beginning the E100 course in October, I have learnt a variety of new knowledge about achieving positive learning opportunities for children which will enable their learning and development to thrive. I have learnt how other childcare settings including nurseries, pre schools, children’s centres etc support children’s learning and development and have compared their techniques with that of my own setting and considered whether I can build on them.
The most beneficial knowledge I have gained throughout my studies include promoting children’s Personal, Social and Emotional Development an how this relates to the other areas of development, working with others including other practitioners and parents to encourage children’s learning and development and
The Essay on Human Development & Learning/ Personality & Emotional Development
There are different skills that are important and which contribute to positive social development in life. These skills help a person to be able to carry out social roles and responsibilities. Children need to learn all these skills both in school and in their homes so that they are able to handle life situations. Conflict resolution skills are very necessary for children. This is because ...
Early on in the course in study topic 3, I read about the different learning approaches such as Reggio Emillio, Rudolf Steiner etc. I found these approaches interesting particularly Rudolph Steiner as my setting involves some of his concepts when planning music and dance sessions such as ‘Eurythmy’, a form of movement exercise (Study Topic3, pg 55).
As I mentioned in Tma 01, one of my responsibilities is to plan for our weekly music sessions. I have continued to take inspiration from Rudolfs approach during planning for these sessions and due to the further knowledge I have gained from studying E100 about this approach I have been able to incorporate more Steiner ideas into these sessions. For example I read in study topic 3, pg 55, Steiner wanted to encourage ‘free thinkers rather than national socialists’. I have taken this idea of ‘free thinking’ by encouraging children in my setting to create their own movement and express their own ideas about the sounds they are hearing rather than just copy my actions. Every child is able to present these movements to the other children and work together to create different types of movement.
One of the main enhancements to my knowledge was about multi agency working to benefit children particularly working with parents. I
I plan to continue to strive towards my Degree in Early Years and have registered on the E105 starting in October 2012. I have created a Personal Development Plan included as an appendix at the end of the assignment (Appendix One).
