Graduate Diploma in Early Childhood Education

Following the overwhelming success of the revolutionary VU Block Model® with undergraduate students, we have rolled out the VU Block Model® to our postgraduate courses.

This course is delivered in four-week mode, which means you study one unit (subject) at a time over four weeks, rather than juggling several units at once. And with its focused timetables and smaller, collaborative classes, VU’s Block Model® gives you more time to connect with your peers, lecturers and industry partners, helping you to build strong professional networks.

The VU Block Model® has improved our student results and engagement, and has won multiple international awards for innovation and excellence.

You'll complete 60 days of supervised professional experience, including:

• 15 days with children aged birth – 35 months
• 15 days with 3–5 year olds
• 5 days community playspace, with children aged birth – 8 years
• 25 days in a 3–4-year-old, or 4–5-year-old, kindergarten program (preschool).

We have many exciting projects, partnerships and initiatives to help you learn from experience working with young children. VU will find you a placement, or you can also organise your own placement, if this is your preference.

This course has been approved by Australian Children's Education & Care Quality Authority (ACECQA), which oversees national quality frameworks in early-childhood education.

This means that you'll graduate with the latest early-childhood teaching methods and knowledge.

On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• initiate teaching and learning practices that foster learner engagement in complex contexts and foreground Aboriginal standpoints in early childhood education 
• critically review different ways of knowing, being, and doing founded on the view of children and families as capable contributors to conceptual and pedagogical decision-making in learning and teaching
• design teaching practices that reflect an ability to contextualise, question, resist, rethink, and act towards equity and the public good
• exhibit a broad and coherent body of knowledge of early childhood pedagogy, curriculum and assessment in relation to the changing nature of education in a rapidly-evolving global context
• appraise, adapt, and exemplify a range of oral and written communication techniques to engage and connect with learners, their parents/carers and the wider community
• create learning opportunities that embrace a rich and varied curriculum, reflecting culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds ensuring that learning and teaching approaches are based on sound ethical principles and foster reciprocal relationships in early childhood settings.