EDU4160 Numeracy, Literacy and STEM in Early Childhood

In Semester 3, 2023 this course will be delivered as a Transition (9 week) semester, commencing on 13 November 2023 and concluding on 12 January 2024.

This course consolidates your skills and understanding in purposefully and creatively teaching numeracy, literacy and STEM. In recent years there has been global recognition of the importance of numeracy, literacy and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, with research reinforcing the importance of children’s early experiences to later academic success. You will investigate children’s development of numeracy, literacy and STEM, through a variety of approaches including play. Contemporary research and a range of inquiry-based strategies will be used in developing your teaching in early childhood contexts.

You will focus on conceptual development, pedagogical approaches and practices for supporting children's learning of numeracy, literacy and STEM concepts. Through numeracy, literacy and STEM children develop academically, engage with imaginative inquiry, solve complex problems. You will explore children's use these concepts in making sense of their world, connecting with their environment and engaging with everyday activities.

Course participants will undertake a 30-day professional experience in this course. Students need to pass the competency Assessment in this Course and reach a total passing Mark of 50% to be awarded a passing Grade in this course. Failure of the Professional Experience component will result in a fail grade for the course, regardless of the graded mark. Full details of the Professional Experience particulars can be found on the Professional Experience website and in the Professional Experience Book.

On completion of this course students should be able to:

1. discuss contemporary theories about numeracy, literacy, and STEM learning;
2. demonstrate knowledge and understanding of pedagogies and practices that support children’s numeracy, literacy and language and STEM development in safe and ethical ways across the full range of children’s strengths, characteristics and diverse language and learning needs in early learning contexts;
3. plan play-based learning experiences encompassing numeracy, literacy and STEM learning that respond to children’s interests, abilities and needs;
4. evaluate resources for their effectiveness in supporting numeracy, literacy and STEM learning and development;
5. demonstrate competence in and appropriate use of language and literacy, including spelling, grammar, punctuation and bibliographic referencing;
6. demonstrate professionalism during preservice teacher placements through observation, practice and assessment of preservice teacher professional practice.