Collaboration with ASEAN, APEC and Asia-Pacific Countries for Australia's Education and Research Sectors

This article discusses the benefits of forming global partnerships and fostering relationships with key educational institutions in ASEAN, APEC and Asia-Pacific countries. Collaborative partnerships will enhance the internationalization of Australia’s education, training and research sectors to a great degree. The article also highlights the benefits of Australia’s National Strategy for International Education 2025 and how it aligns with forming partnerships with these countries. The article also discusses how pursuing a Master of Teaching in Early Childhood will assist in professional development and leadership skills.

Running head: Scholarship Application
Scholarship Application
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION
Assessment Criterion 1: Australia’s education, training and research sectors will
benefit a lot if Australia decides to collaborate with ASEAN, APEC and Asia-Pacific countries.
Collaborative partnerships with key educational institutions in ASEAN, APEC and Asia-Pacific
countries will enhance the internationalization of Australia’s education, training and research
sectors to a great degree (Bedel, 2015). This would immensely help students like me who
want to pursue a Master of Teaching in Early Childhood as we would get a global
exposure. Internationalization of Australian universities ensures quality assurance,
allowing higher education institutions of different countries to promote mobility and
cooperation for both scholars and students. They will make students confident and
ready to pursue one’s teaching career. It will qualify one to teach in childcare,
preschool and kindergarten settings and to support a child’s transition to school. It
would also help me to develop cross-cultural learning skills on campus. This would
also help develop joint programs in cooperation with research centres and foreign
institutions.
By forming global partnerships and fostering and nurturing relationships with other
institutions of the world, not only universities but students as well would benefit a lot as students
would gain a lot of exposure to different cultures of the world and would become global citizens,
which in turn would help them in their learning process. The number of students applying to
universities abroad is rising by the day and so it is necessary and imperative that universities
adopt a global culture. With the advent of technology and consequently easy modes of
communication and convenient and faster travel, writers and scholars are finding it easier to
collaborate with their foreign counterparts. Scientific papers are thus being co–authored

2SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION
internationally (Jennings, 2015). The ability to debate, scrutinize is extremely important to
academic work and international partnerships helps to facilitate this. Thus, collaborations and
partnerships lead to academic progress. Australia would benefit a lot by partnering with these
countries because these countries have a highly advanced education systems with learning
centres of excellence focusing on science, mathematics, technology and engineering among other
fields of knowledge and partnering with these countries and working in collaboration with these
countries would help Australia in the field of research and development (Jennings, 2015).
Assessment Criterion 2: Australia’s National Strategy for International Education
2025 enables Australia’s international sector of education to be more innovative with its focus on
the future, and be globally engaged. It is based on three guiding principles and that is,
strengthening Australia’s education system and their training and research system, building
partnerships between people and governments and institutions at home and abroad and
competing globally by meeting the requisite skills for global education of students. Thus forming
a partnership with ASEAN, APEC and Asia-Pacific countries, is in line with the thought that was
behind establishing Australia’s National Strategy for International Education 2025 (Jennings,
2015). The purpose of National Innovation and Science Agenda was formed to provide all kinds
of support and assist Australian entrepreneurs in taking risks and in pursuing innovative and
creative ideas. It was also created to find solutions to the problems plaguing the world and to
create jobs thereby helping in growth. It was further created to attract as well as develop the best
of minds nationally and internationally for future jobs. Thus, the guiding principle behind
forming the National Innovation and Science Agenda is in sync with the idea that Australia
should form partnerships with ASEAN, APEC and Asia-Pacific countries for economic
development, growth and prosperity (Wohlwend, 2015). Collaborating with ASEAN, APEC and

3SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION
Asia-Pacific countries would also help Australia to increase opportunities for institutions and for
the people living in regional Australia and also promote participation of underrepresented groups
which includes the indigenous people of Australia.
Assessment Criterion 3: It will assist me in my professional development and help
me be a leader in my field in several ways. I am at present working as a teacher assistant at a
childcare center. I would like to further my studies in this field to develop skills, knowledge and
professional values to become an effective educator.
Assessment Criterion 4: I have clinical reasoning and thinking capabilities. I am a
good leader and I tend to solve problems easily. I make decisions based on evidence and am
creative and innovative and a life-long learner. I believe in collaborating with others and working
together as a team. I link theory with practice and focus on research. I try to improve myself
continuously and learn as much as I can. I am self-directed and can work without any
supervision and respond to a changing landscape in the field of education. I am kind and
compassionate and have a way with children. I am extremely patient and that helps me
immensely when I interact with children.
The proposed activity will develop my leadership skills. It will build on my ability in
several ways and contribute to my study, training, research upon my return to my home country.
It will help me to critically reflect on the ways in which research and educational theory has an
effect on teaching practice. It will help to create a powerful environment that is conducive to
both teaching and learning thereby empowering my students. It will help me to interpret and
design and also implement the requisite curriculum that is relevant, and integrate the latest
technology into my teaching methods. I would be able to design assessment tasks and tools and

4SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION
interpret evidence and data in order to make sound clinical judgments about interventions on
teaching. I shall also be able to teach my students the latest skills and help them to inculcate
those skills as well and I shall also be able to incorporate the latest skills in my teaching. I shall
also be able to create supporting environment for learning that is also safe and conducive to
teaching children. I will maintain and establish respectful and ethical relationships with
colleagues, students and their parents working collaboratively and independently. It would also
help me to demonstrate continuous learning through research and apply the lessons learnt to my
method of teaching. The proposed activity would further my knowledge and give me a wide
exposure in this field. Upon returning to my home country, I would be able to teach students in a
compassionate manner, be patient with them, and help them to rectify their mistakes in a caring
and a compassionate way. I would encourage their curiosity and try to quench their thirst for
knowledge. I would encourage discussions in class and would also encourage debates, sharing of
knowledge and constructive criticism. I will try my best to be a good teacher and ensure that I
don’t let my teachers and my university down.

5SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION

6SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION
REFERENCES:
Bedel, E.F., 2015. Exploring academic motivation, academic self-efficacy and attitudes toward
teaching in pre-service early childhood education teachers. Journal of Education and Training
Studies, 4(1), pp.142-149.
Blackwell, C.K., Lauricella, A.R. and Wartella, E., 2014. Factors influencing digital technology
use in early childhood education. Computers & Education, 77, pp.82-90.
Conroy, M.A., Sutherland, K.S., Vo, A.K., Carr, S. and Ogston, P.L., 2014. Early childhood
teachers’ use of effective instructional practices and the collateral effects on young children’s
behavior. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 16(2), pp.81-92.
Epstein, A. and Willhite, G.L., 2017. Teacher efficacy in an early childhood professional
development school. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, 7(2), pp.189-
198.
Jennings, P.A., 2015. Early childhood teachers’ well-being, mindfulness, and self-compassion in
relation to classroom quality and attitudes towards challenging students. Mindfulness, 6(4),
pp.732-743.
Pugh, E.L., 2017. Multiliteracies in Early Childhood Education: Engagement and Meaning-
Making in Primary Classrooms.
Van Hoorn, J.L., Monighan-Nourot, P., Scales, B. and Alward, K.R., 2014. Play at the center of
the curriculum. Pearson.
Wohlwend, K.E., 2015. Playing their way into literacies: Reading, writing, and belonging in the
early childhood classroom. Teachers College Press.