Abstract
This text is aimed at students studying at university undergraduate levels 4 and 5 and encourages the reader to engage with the skills, knowledge and understanding required for the early practitioner role.
The text offers a substantial list of contributing authors with a range of opinions and insights. From a range of contributors, knowledge arises from their work in several pre-school settings and different experience levels.
Each chapter begins with an outline of key learning outcomes to focus the reader and define the boundaries of knowledge and understanding. Within each chapter, there are also ‘reflective practice’ activities, which encourage and support the reader to ‘think about the implications of their actions, assumptions and practice’ (p. xi). The Case Studies within each chapter help put chapter information into context and make the vital link between theory and experience. Each chapter also highlights suggestions for further reading and useful websites to support the reader to take their understanding further.
The book consists of four parts: Part I: The Student-Practitioner-Professional, Part II: The Learning and Development of Children 0–5, Part III: The Child, Family and Society and Part IV: The Senior Practitioner-Professional. The text has a clear structure comprised of different chapters within each defined ‘part’. This approach breaks down the detail and allows the reader to access information in sections corresponding to different layers of learning.
In Part I: The Student-Practitioner-Professional focus helps the undergraduate student begin their studies with guidance. In Chapter 2, Jonathan Ratcliffe outlines the start line for undergraduate study very clearly. Within this chapter, readers are walked through ‘identifying how you learn best’ (p. 18), followed by ‘Studying: the work-life balance’ (p. 21). This approach really begins to support the understanding that study if often one spoke of many and embraces part-time study, which can often be the reality for many students.
In Chapter 6, Karen Hanson and Karen Appleby begin to unfold the essential approach of ‘reflective practice’, which is the lifeline of the reflective practitioner. The notion of true reflective practice is often difficult for students to visualise, and it takes a while before their understanding about this becomes clear. It would have been helpful to include a ‘model’ reflective piece of writing within this chapter. An example extract from a working journal to exemplify reflection upon daily practice would have been a welcome addition here, too. Despite the limited examples, this chapter carefully lays the foundations for understanding and the subheadings, such as ‘a reflective disposition’ (p. 84) and ‘reflective thinking, learning and action’ (p. 87), guide thinking in small bursts.
Part II: The Learning and Development of Children 0–5 breaks down child development into structured chapters. Part II is an important section of the book as it is imperative that students have a clear understanding about how a child changes and develops. Without this clear understanding, an ability to align strategies for teaching and learning would be difficult. The first chapter in this section (Chapter 7) focuses on babies, and the subsection ‘what has neuroscience discovered about the way babies develop?’ (p. 99) begins to outline essential information regarding early brain development. Building very carefully upon this, within Chapter 8, the next stage of development up to age 3 becomes the focus. Key aspects such as ‘communication and language’ and ‘physical development’ are discussed in subsections and this thoroughly introduces the prime areas of development that are so prominent within early years. However, one area of discussion that is clearly missing is a reflection upon how the prime areas relate to specific areas within teaching and learning. In Chapter 9, The Foundation Years: 4–5 Year Olds, the early years curriculum features again but the vital link between teaching ‘specific area’ knowledge and ‘prime area’ skills is still not mentioned. Within the revised 2017, Statutory framework for early years foundation stage, it very clearly outlines the Prime Areas – Physical Development, Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Communication and Language alongside the Specific Areas – Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World and Expressive Arts and Design in Harmony. Alongside details of these areas, it also states that ‘all’ areas of learning are important and should be inter-connected. Furthermore, the documents specify that there should be a balance of equal focus between prime and specific areas as children grow in confidence and develop. Considering this early years statutory guidance, why is this equal balance and inter-connection of prime and specific areas not discussed within the chapters? Such a glaring omission reduces the impact of Part II within this book as it indicates that early years teaching and learning is not in accordance with statutory expectations.
Within Chapter 10, Viki Bennet et al. begin to introduce complex thinking about holistic development and how children play. Also, outlined in good detail, are the types of play and the role of the practitioner in promoting and supporting this. A welcome addition within this chapter would have been some detailed guidance about practitioner-questioning (approaches to questioning, e.g. attention-focusing, open, closed) and actual questions (examples of actual questions to provide a model). The ‘provocation’ section on p. 31 displays a conversation between a practitioner and a five-year-old, before directing the reader with the question ‘How does the practitioner use effective questioning to support and challenge this child?’ This task does not fit comfortably within the chapter, as it requires the reader to reflect upon effective questioning without prior explanation of this topic in the chapter.
Other chapters within this part examine different aspects of holistic development, such as health and wellbeing, social and emotional needs and communication and language. An advantage of this book is the outline of essential details through different chapters, thus allowing complex information to be absorbed gradually.
Part III: The Child, Family and Society opens with Chapter 18, ‘Society’s expectations of children’ by Dawn Evans and Katherine Goodsir. The clear subsection that asks ‘what is childhood and what shapes childhood?’ (p. 284) beckons reflection about how the definition of ‘childhood’ has changed over the years and the understanding that we have of childhood today. Modern children are often encouraged to speak out and share their views, and school roles as ambassadors or school council participants encourage this, so the section titled ‘the child as a citizen and active participant’ (p. 292) begins to tackle this well. In Chapter 20, the essential early years principle of working in partnership with parents is explored. The notions of ‘partnership’ (p. 317) and ‘trusting relationships’ (p. 319) are clearly and expertly outlined. It is essential that any trainee early years practitioner grasps the importance of this union, and this chapter defines this very clearly. In Chapter 21, Allison Boggis outlines the importance of ‘safeguarding young children’ and the legalities that surround this fundamental aspect of education. She also highlights the important role that early years practitioners have through ensuring child safety, which is a welcome reality check for all trainees. SEND and inclusion are also focused upon in Chapters 22–24, and the clear message about needing a ‘joined up approach’ (p. 379) is very clearly defined.
In the final part to the book, Part IV: The Senior Practitioner-Professional, there is a focus on leadership and management within the early years setting. Within Chapter 25, ‘legal and professional responsibilities which bind you as a practitioner in early years’ (p. 385) are summarised in conjunction with government legislation. Building upon essential requirements, further chapters deal with the challenges that early years leadership can entail. Such challenges are broken into sections, such as ‘Mentoring, coaching and supervision’ (Chapter 28) and ‘The effects of poverty on early years attainment’ (Chapter 30), which really begin to link the day-to-day challenges and legal requirements of the role.
Despite highlighted gaps and omissions, this book does outline some important information intended to support early years practitioner training, yet does not overburden the reader. It could therefore be a useful text to support the development and training of aspiring early years practitioners.