Documentation: Educational Approaches in Australian State and Territory

This paper explores the different educational approaches in Australian state and territory in terms of documentation, planning, assessment, and pedagogies. It highlights the differences and similarities between the regions and their goals to provide safe and healthy learning environments for children.

documentation
Heena Verma

Documentation
The domains of early childhood and learning are a hotspot of the research for decades to
shape infants in a way that they become a responsible and healthy adult. In the recent era, early
childhood educators are being asked to have a complex understanding of child development and
early education issues and provides a rich, meaningful educational experience for all children
and families in care. As observed in mountain of the evidence, due to limited skilled professional
support well-constructed empirical studies are required for the professional's developmental
practice. To assess the effectiveness of the early childhood education and care experiences
different programs were designs. Slaughter et al. (2015) highlighted that in Australia 61.5% of
the children aged 3 to 4 attend early childhood education and care programs. The results
highlighted that children's experiences with these programs vary widely and it influences directly
the educational wellbeing, social and development. However, a considerate number of
researchers discussed on the different educational approaches were observed in state and
territorial level in Australia to which children were exposed. This paper will illustrate the
different range of approaches in Australian state and territory in terms of documentation,
planning and assessment methodologies and pedagogies in the following paragraphs.
Documentations, records of children’ assessment and evaluation is an effective way to
support children’s thinking, learning, and development. Educators explore a range of styles and
methods to determine which is best for children and family members. Slaughter et al. (2015)
argued that several ways of documenting the children's learning such as children’s work,
portfolio, learning stories, narratives, and photographs. The documentation of children's learning
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process is a massive part of the Reggio Emilia approach which is an educational philosophy
focused on the primary and preschool (Dickson-Swift et al., 2016). Reggio Emilia influenced
educators to observe, document and analyses the journey of children’s for making informed
diction for guiding them in future learning. Teachers share these documents and discuss this
domination to collaborate, interpret and evaluate each learning process which in turn highlighted
the potential of every child. Reggio Emilia Australian Information Exchange (REAIE),
highlighted that in Victoria, the majority of the documentation of children’ is reflected through
the portfolio of children’s work. Few of the educators in southern Australia and Victoria also
use narrative to show the journey of the children’s learning in order to guide them for future
learning. On the other hand, Ailwood, Boyd, .and Theobald (2016) argued that in New
queensland, educators use a multidimensional approach for the documentation such as they use
reflective journals, photographs, narrative, and learning stories and videos. Arthur et al. (2016)
argued that in northern territory of Australia, the educators focus on play-based learning,
therefore, they more focused on the documentation through learning stories and narratives and
encourage children to acquire extra curriculum skills for shaping their skills. In northern
territory of Australia, educators actively focus on the transition practice of the early childhood
education and they incorporate family members as well as community to provide details of the
documentation and share documentation with community and family members. However, in
Western Australia, the educators believed in reflective practice which shape the critical thinking
of children and personal development which unique from the other territory and states of
Queensland. Cumming, Sumsion and Wong (2015), argued that Tasmania, an isolated island
state off Australia’s south coast, the early childhood educational approach is not as strong as the
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main counterparts of Australia. Therefore, to promote effective learning for the children the
strong implementation of the national quality framework is required.
Sims, Ellis and Knox (2017), argued that planning is the basic element to learn and
development of children’s life. The purpose of planning in early childhood education is to
improve ways of educators to work with the child in diverse early childhood education areas.
The planning of program is, therefore, helps the engage children in the active learning process
and involve educators identify the children’s strength, interest, needs of children to design
teaching strategy. Moreover, the planning process of educators also involves the understanding
of each child from community and family context to design accurate learning environment for
the children (Hays-Grudo et al., 2018). Majority of the states recognize the importance of the
communication, social and environment for the development of the children before eight years.
Therefore, the majority of the state level education plan considers the engagement of children
along with family to identify the strength and needs of children and plan accordingly. Tayler et
al. (2016), argued that in northern territory of Australia, the educators follow Northern Territory
Government Early Years Strategic Plan ‘Great Start Great Future’ to identify the needs of
children need and to promote the safe learning. In northern territory, the educators also consider
health as a crucial part of the early childhood education and therefore, the planning of early
childhood education and care also include the healthcare services (Earlychildhood.nt.gov.au.,
2019). Care and education environments provided through Families as First Teachers programs
to identify the need of the children. On a contradictory note, Hemmeter et al. (2016),
highlighted that in Queensland’s, majority of the educators tend to engage the children through
outdoor plays to identify the needs and interest. They believe about risk-taking and safety, and
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their views about the regulatory environment and implications for their teaching practice.
Therefore, the planning of the educational program is mainly based on the play based approach.
Like northern territory of the Australia, in Victoria, the educators believe the health as a crucial
enabler for learning and development from birth (Ccasfdc.org.au., 2019). Therefore, during the
planning of the educational program every Victorian educator takes health as a prime focus of
the journey of early childhood learning and incorporates families to the planning process for the
wellbeing of planning. Considering the western Austrian planning process of early childhood
education, Darling-Churchill and Lippman (2016) highlighted that, the educators follow The
Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians (2008) to plan the learning
process and identify the needs of the health care. The educator of the educational institute is
beliefs that it is the responsibility of children respond to every student and their unique
characteristics which reflect through their panning methodologies. In Western Australia, the
conceptualizing framework of planning based on the individual education planning (IPE)
procedures that evaluate each child and they mainly focus on the quality of the education during
planning (Early Childhood Research Hub , 2016). highlighted that like Western Australia,
Tasmanian educators focused on individuals to design an effective plan for the children as they
believe in the individual education planning procedures. However, like Western Australia, the
education system is not strong enough to provide efficient early childhood education and
therefore, the skills educators and government policies are required to strengthen the educational
system of Tasmania (Ccasfdc.org.au., 2019).
The assessment for children's learning refers to the process of gathering and analyzing
information as evidence about what children know from the surrounding, can do in the learning
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environment and understanding from the educational institutes (Thorpe et al., 2015). Therefore,
planning, documenting, interpreting and organizing the information is part of the assessment
procedure of children’s learning. The assessment is crucial to evaluate the extra curriculum
skills, critical thinking skills and efficiency of the education process which further assist
educators to implement it in the further education of children. Garvis and Pendergast (2015),
mentioned that the northern territory of Australia, the educators engaged, responsive care with
organized and purposeful experiences and activities such as exposure to print, music, the natural
environment, languages and the arts or through different play-based activities to evaluate the
learning of children and assess their acting skills. The educators also engage the community and
families for the assessment (Northern Territory Government, 2017). The educators believe that
to shape the learning and thinking of children as well as understand cultural values and beliefs
plays a massive role along with the environment where they are growing. Therefore, educators
assess the children’s learning based on cultural beliefs and how it shows the thinking procedures
to promote healthy learning. Somerville and Williams (2015), suggested that Considering
Queensland and southern Australia, “Early Years Curriculum Guidelines (EYCG)’were followed
which provide the suggestions for planning, monitoring, interacting and assessing the reflection
that described as phases of learning and development. During the assessment of the ability of the
children, they also focus on the parent-child relationship by sharing what the child can do well
and all parties’ then work together to build a healthy future. Tayler et al. (2016) suggested that
“Effective Early Educational Experiences” were designed in Queensland to gain an
understanding of early childhood experiences of the children for identifying the skills of the
children. Considering Victoria, the educators incorporate the families in the assessment system
from birth and evaluate the outcome of the incorporation of the system (Somerville & Williams,
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2015). In southern Australia, they use “Reflect Respect Relate” as a hard copy resource and
produce a progress report for every child to assess the learning. Askell-Williams and Murray-
Harvey (2016), Western Australia, educators Monitor, assess children’s learning by engaging
them in diverse activities and provide feedback to the families according to the activities. They
focus on the reflection procedure to assess the children. In Tasmania, the assessment procedure is
not strong enough to provide health education.
Pedagogy refers to the theory and practice of educations which influence the growth of
the learning. Majority of the region of Australia follows five prime principles of Early Years
Learning Framework in pedagogy. Considering the northern territory of Australia, educators
believe that children should develop through play-based learning. They incorporate it in the work
practice to provide healthy learning. In South Australia, as a part of the pedagogy, they have
blue book project to record the development of their children, a progress report to provide
feedback to the child, preschool outdoor learning environment to encourage children to involve
in the learning environment to promote mental physical and educational wellbeing (Gilley et al.,
2016). In Queensland, EYLF focuses on the children's learning in there kindergarten year. They
embrace the exclusive vision of the children in their early learning years. In Victoria, EYLF
upholds the image of children’s as a right holder and a competent earning with the capacities to
learn. In the current context, Victorian EYLF depicts there element such as practice principles,
outcome, transition and continuity for the children and families. Goldfeld et al. (2016), stated
that in western Australia, the educator tailored programs were implemented to meet the diverse
need of the children. The educators consider t5he partnership as an important component of the
framework to promote so that each child gets comfortable for their learning. They also follow the
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Queensland students authority 2010 guideline to plan, design, document, monitor and analysis
early childhood learning procures. Considering Tasmania, Noble and Grant (2018), stated that
there were no differences in the pedagogy was observed in Tasmania and they incorporate
aboriginal cultural values and beliefs in the learning experience to promote healthy learning.
Thus, it can be concluded that early childhood education is the primary to every child to
shape them as an adult. Early childhood educators are being expected to have a complex
understanding of child development and early education issues and provides a rich, meaningful
educational experience for all children. In different parts of Australia, a different educational
approach in terms of documentation, planning, assessment, and pedagogies are used to provide
safe and healthy learning educations. It was observed that although there were differences in the
educational approach the prime goal of every state and territory is to provide the safe
environment for learning and to stimulate their critical thinking and personal development and
extra curriculum skill. This paper explored a different part of Australia discussed about a range
of educational approach. The paper highlighted that there was a few difference between a
northern territory and other parts of Australia since in northern territory they incorporate the
indigenous values in the education. Therefore, this knowledge and differences influence future
pedagogical strategy for a better future.
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