Graduate Diploma in Early Childhood Education

The GD204 Graduate Diploma in Early Childhood Education is designed to enable you to work as a professional teacher in early childhood education contexts.

You will be equipped with the necessary critical and pedagogical strategies to become an effective teacher across a range of early childhood education contexts.

The program primarily provides qualification as an early chilldhood teacher in early childhood settings in Australia.

The progarm also incorporates global perspectives, and is designed for you to develop a range of transferable skills to work here and overseas in related settings.Based on Australia’s national Early Years Learning Framework for early childhood teachers, this program prepares you to extend and enrich learning across the curriculum for infants, toddlers and young children from birth to five years.

You will support and design high quality learning experiences for young children that enable global citizens in yet-to-be-imagined futures.

Exploring possibilities for children as advocates, enablers, custodians and thinkers will underpin your philosophy of learning and teaching.You will join a community of inquiry located in the RMIT Pedagogies of possibilities Lab (PoPLab) - a virtual and physical space for innovative industry partnered research.

Here, you will have access to video technologies that will enable you to explore your practice with ‘real’ children in on-line and/or face to face modes of delivery.The program pays special attention to indigenous perspectives and approaches.

International trends and policies will also inform your practice.

You will explore inclusive learning and teaching practices including issues age, gender, ethnicity and ability.

You will interrogate a wide range of diverse philosophies and theories concerning ‘belonging, being and becoming’ in curriculum which shape the field, and you will develop dispositions of inquiry and advocacy accordingly.On completion of the program you will become an innovative and attuned professional teacher in the field of early years education (birth to five years) with an edu-portfolio that represents your professional narrative that you will be able to share proudly with potential employers.

You will also have the knowledge, skills and experience to work in private enterprise, government agencies and community based early childhood education settings locally and globally.The program employs innovative applications of communication technologies to deliver on-campus, on-line and in-practice learning experiences facilitated by an interdisciplinary team of experts.

Some courses are offered in intensive mode to facilitate a balance between theory and practice across the program.

Year One of Program

Complete the following Five (5) Courses:

Academic entrance requirements: An Australian undergraduate degree or its equivalent.

Please note that to undertake the Professional Experience courses in this program, you must provide a satisfactory working with children check. If you are not able to provide this, you will be unable to complete the program.

International English language requirements:

• IELTS (Academic): 7.0 (no band less than 6.5)
• TOEFL (Paper based): 600 (TWE 5.0)
• TOEFL (Internet Based Test – iBT): Overall score of 100 with minimum of 24 in writing and 22 in all other sections
• Pearson Test of English (Academic) (PTE(A)): 65 (no band less than 58)
• Cambridge English – Advanced (CAE): CAE Grade B
• RMIT English Worldwide (REW) – English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programs: (Advanced 2 certificate pre- 2011)

The GD204Graduate Diploma in Early Childhood Education prepares you to work in early childhood educational settings and related government agencies. The program learning outcomes have been aligned with recognised standards for preparing pre-service teachers to obtain national professional registration.

As a graduate of this program you will be able to:

• Critically reflect on and apply effective pedagogical and assessment approaches that enable ‘belonging, being and becoming’ of infants, toddlers, and young children as curriculum partners
• Apply a philosophical lens and critically interrogate historical and contemporary perspectives concerning local and global Early Childhood Education practices, policies and pedagogies that are inclusive of indigenous narratives
• Effectively plan, implement and evaluate an early years curriculum that is inclusive of all learners from diverse backgrounds, and which responds to their individual interests, learning priorities and abilities
• Examine the role of play in a holistic early childhood curriculum located in a post-digital world, with an emphasis on science, technologies, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) and sustainable futures
• Articulate a professional identity that demonstrates ethical leadership and the ability to advocate for learners
• Develop and apply effective problem-solving strategies to solve ‘wicked problems’ facing the early years community, critically evaluating discoveries in order to identify industry-based solutions
• Apply knowledge and skills as a teacher researcher, using self-review methodologies, to critically explore and assess a targeted aspect of pedagogy