Assessment Success Guide
ECEC300 Policy, Pedagogy & Curriculum for infants and toddlers (Birth – 2)
Prepared by: Claire O’Brien
Date: 4th Sept 2025
ASSESSMENT REQUIREMENTS
Assessment 1: Essay
Due: Week 6 (Friday, 13th March 2026, 11:59PM)
Length: 1500 words
Weighting: 30%
Please note that the word count for this assessment allows a 10% variation (+/-). The word count includes all in-text citations but excludes Assessment Cover Page and Reference List. Submissions falling outside this range may not be assessed
Task description: Choose a topic, debate, or issue covered in this unit. Critically discuss the topic and reflect on its significance for your current or future work with infants and toddlers. Your response should consider how this issue impacts the quality of care and education provided in early childhood settings. Support your discussion with relevant theory, research, and curriculum
Key Topics to Choose From:
> The importance of the first 1,000 days
> Care in the early childhood curriculum
> Indigenous approaches to child-rearing
> Relationships as the foundation of infant-toddler learning
> Child Protection and mandatory reporting
Assessment Purpose
This essay invites you to critically discussONEtopic, issue or debate covered in this unit(ECEC300),focusing on:
- Understanding of the selected topic and its implications for professional practice with infants and toddlers
- Connecting your understanding of the topic to theory and context, providing clear reference to research, curriculum frameworks and theory.
- Critical analysis of the selected topic, including reflections on the strengths and limitations of the issue within professional contexts
Instructions for completing this Essay
Plan Your Structure
| Section | Recommended word count | Content |
|---|---|---|
| Introduction | 150words | Briefly introduce your chosen topic, issue or debate covered in this unit. Outline the importance of this issue, with a brief rationaleas to why you have chosen to focus on this topic. |
| Discuss the chosen topic with reference to theory | 300 words |
|
| Reflect on the significance of your chosen topic for current/ future work with infants and toddlers | 300 words |
|
| Discuss how the quality of care and education provided in early education settings may be impacted or affected by your chosen topic | 300 words |
|
| Critically analyse the strengths/ limitations of the issue within professional contexts. | 300 words |
|
| Conclusion | 150words | Summarise your key points, do not introduce new information |
Address Each Criterion effectively:
1)Topic/ Debate/ Issue Selection (40%)
- Outline the chosen topic/ issue/ debate, providing clear evidence of your understanding of the topic.
- Discuss the significance of the chosen topic – why is this significant in the early childhood context?
- Discuss the implications of your chosen topic for professional practice. This might unpackhow quality care is provided within early childhood settings, the impact of “schoolification” on how care is perceived in the Australian context, families’ perception of education versus care in the early years, etc
- Provide clear connections to theory through in-text citations
2)Analysis& Reflection(40%)
- Provide areflection on your discussions of your chosen debate/ issue/topic, using critical thinking skills.
- Engage in analysing these topics in greater depth, focusing on aspects such as the strengths and limitations of the issue within professional contexts. You could also use critical thinking skills such as outlining measures to address these issues in the Australian context and assessing their efficacy.
- Academic Skills (20%)
- Use at least 6 scholarly or professional sources. These should be from a wide range of current academic sources
- Include in-text citations and a reference list in APA 7th style.
- Provide clear, cohesive and structured writing throughout the essay.
*Important Information*
Submission format:
Please submit a single Word document (.doc or .docx) containing the following components:
1. A completed Assessment Cover Page
2. The written research project
3. Reference list in APA 7th, list all sources cited in-text
Extensions and Late Submissions:
You are encouraged to plan your time in advance, as the assessment schedule is particularly busy over the coming weeks. Late submissions will incur a penalty in accordance with the institution’s assessment policy
Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI):
The use of AI-generated content is strictly prohibited for this assessment. Submitting work that is generated by AI may result in a failing grade and could be considered a breach of the institution’s Academic Integrity Policy, leading to potential academic misconduct proceedings. Please note that tools such as Grammarly, CoPilot, Chat GPT, etc are considered forms of artificial intelligence.
This Success Guide is intended to serve as a detailed and supportive resource to assist students in successfully completing the assessment; however, it remains a guide, and students are required to determine how best to structure and present their assessment. The word count provided in the Success Guide is a recommendation rather than a strict requirement. Students have the discretion to determine their word count based on the criteria outlined in the assessment rubric.
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