1. |Towards your ECA
Some general points:
Notes on Plagiarism:
ECA are regularly checked to make sure the work is original. The OU uses two different forms
of scanning. One compares your work with that of published materials and the second compares
it with work submitted by other students. So take the greatest of care to preserve your own
independence.
You are going to have to make your own decision on balance between sections here and my word
counts and illustrations are very approximate. Clearly if you only left 100 words to discuss your
plans at the end this would be insufficient: look back to the balance between sections in
previous TMA. Some of this will link to the person and so there should be some variation, it is
unlikely that someone else’s decision about an approach will work for you whether that is mine of
a colleagues so there are no hidden hints.
It would be a major error to allow your work to become confused so that it is not clear what
aspect of the question you are answering…almost any structure is better than no structure. You
will need to make use of sections, paragraphs and possibly subtitles to make this clear.
Referencing widely and deeply is essential in order to pass. Look at the assessment criteria.
Referencing widely means as an absolute minimum referencing from each Unit of the course and
form some of the associated Reader Chapters and DVD and the associated publications (EYFS,
ECM etc). Referencing deeply means using these to weave into your discussion, linking the
theory to practice and using this to question…leading to meaningful reflection.

2. Title=extending professional learning So the overall focus is on your learning
during the course: make sure this is
clear. Unit 6 explains much more
Word length =3000 words No more and not too many less
This assignment must be submitted by 24 Make sure you aim to finish early to
May 2010. allow for mishaps, Extensions not
impossible but I cannot give any you
must phone the region: they are often
refused
The end-of-course assignment gives you an Review-go back over
opportunity to review all you have learnt All you have learnt= all the course
as a result of following this course. resources. You show learning by linking
course materials to reflection on your
practice and your changing practice
We ask that you do this in a reflective So reflective means to think over your
way, by examining how your practice and own practice and write about it. Try
understanding have developed, and also to highlight how you have changed the
more formally by reviewing your way you work and the way that you
achievements to date against the course’s
think about your work. Then link this
learning outcomes.
to the learning outcomes (see chart
for the ones you identify.
Unlike the TMAs, the ECA is not divided You have to decide your structure- I
into sections; it is for you to decide how have indicated how this might be done
you structure your text. but it is your plan and your ECA there
is no one ‘right’ way. Now see notes
below
A conclusion Remember you might divide the ECA
into sections but for higher marks you
should make the whole thing hang
together. I would therefore finish
with a conclusion that rounds up the
main points about what you have said
linking that back to the original title in
particular.
References and detail Set aside time for checking your
references and you spelling and
grammar. I do this as a separate
activity. Check the guidance on this.

3. Introduction (100-150 words perhaps: more if no introduction to sections less if there is)
1. Make an ethical statement you might reference this to course materials.
2. Say how you have organised the assignment in general terms. (e.g. The
Assignment is approached in xxx sections. In the first section the
XXXXXXXX is examined. The second section looks at the
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX and I conclude with a final section that) You
have to choose how you divide up the ECA but as a guide either 2 or 3:
look at pervious TMA.
3. You might want to describe your role and setting here. There is room to
expand on this towards the end so be brief. If you do not explain this
here then you need to very soon. Make a link to course resources and
EYFS.
4. You might want to include a definition of terms you use a lot, or you might
not need to. For example ‘In the first section I examine my role as a
practioner both inside and outside the setting itself since as a home
liaison officer much of my work takes place in the homes of the children’
Section 1 (1500/2000 words?)
You need to think how you structure this section. You might use each Unit of
the course (apart from Unit 6 which you cover below anyway). Some units are
more substantial than others but that would link well to your TMA. Or you
might structure is by the areas outlined in the list of key areas below. Once you
have decided this you need to tell the reader what to look for in an short
introduction to the section as outlined above. Using this structure think how
many paragraphs you allocate to each section.
Give an account of the way in which your role as a practitioner has developed over the past year.
An account is telling a story but supporting it with argument and evidence. As
can be seen below there is an expectation that you will ‘quote’ specific areas of
change and use course resources to support you account. The focus is change
that can be linked to the course resources. Be ready to quote form a wide

4. range of different study topics, the Reader and the DVDs: the thinking you
have recorded in your journal will help here.
In particular, show how your understanding of the way children learn and develop and the way
early years settings support that learning and development may have changed. Refer back to key
elements of your four TMAs to support your arguments.
The focus is your understanding of the way children learn and
develop: what in the course materials has changes how you think about what is
happening. Read back through your TMA, you are not expected to have them as
appendices, you are meant to be making comments on them in a reflective and
general way but need to give enough information so that someone who has not
read those TMA knows what you are talking about see the guidance on
referencing to your TMA. You might include short ‘quotes’ from them, (your
TMA are already available in the ETMA system) do not expect whoever is
marking to go and read the whole of your TMA output to understand what you
are saying.
You need to focus on these areas in particular…remember if your practice has
not changed yet then you should identify how your thinking has changed
Show how your practice and understanding have developed in the following areas in particular:
communication with children and their families;
Notice this is about communication: check Book 2 and particularly Study Topic 9 and associated
reader chapters/DVD and TMA.
child development;
How have you changed the way you think about the way children develop. See Study Topic 4 to
start with.
safeguarding children and promoting their welfare;
You might want to say something about basic safe guarding, but you probably were doing
something already so you could start by saying…’In many ways our safeguarding practice was
already well developed however there have been changes in the way I think about this which will
be my focus…’ Study Topics 5 and 6, associated Reader chapters, DVD, TMA.
transitions; multi-agency working;
OK so this is Study Topics 7 and 8 associated Reader chapters, DVD, TMA

5. sharing information.
I am not sure and we should think about this as we discuss this but I think I would put thi ins
the context of working with other professionals, parents to safeguard children and promote
their welfare and learning. It could be used to sum up all the above. See Study Topic 1 some
sections discuss this as does Study Topic 18 but the issue comes up all over the place.
Support your view with evidence from observations of and interactions with the
children you support.
Section 2
Outline ways in which you would like to see your setting develop in the coming year,
using the course materials and other resources to support your arguments.
(600 words?)
Think about the implications of this first. Re read Study Topic 18 Sections 2
and 3 in particular. You may consider some practical changes or you may wish to
consider changes to the way you plan and monitor children’s learning. Try to be
realistic here, if your are third in charge of the toddler room you may not be in
a position to rebuild the setting. However the phrase is ‘would like’ so there is
an element of wish here. The making of this section is the way in which you
support your argument by linking to the course materials. If you are, for
example, a sole practioner you might be quite clear about changes you are going
to make.
Finally, outline the way you plan for your own role and career to develop in the medium
to long term and the steps you will take to support these plans.
(600 words?)
This is about developing a Professional Development Plan: I think it might be OK
to use a chart (as in Study Topic 18) here supported with text. See section 4 of
Study Topic 18. The focus is medium and long term; these are a bit loose. You
might start with a definition of what you mean here. e.g.
‘For the purposes of this section I define medium term as1 to 2 years and the
long term as greater than this (or 2 to 5 years).’ However feel free to define
your limits here. You have to think about where you want to be and how you
intend to get there and tie that into a time scale that is realistic.

6. Try to use the chart to make a reflection about your development needs, your
strengths and weaknesses: do reread section 4 to help with this. The higher
marks for this section are most likely to depend on the reflections and the way
that you use this to tie together some of the points you have made in the
previous sections of the ECA.

7. Notes from Study Topic 18:
One of the objectives of this course, maybe the prime objective, is to help you
change and develop the way that you think about what you do. Reflection is
about having conversations with yourself and others about what you do trying to
develop a better understanding of what is happening. In order to do this you
need to challenge or question what you (and to some extent others) do as a
practioner…what I would call developing a reflective critical perspective. You
then need to make a judgement about your own work, but in order to do this you
need to have some viewpoints other than your own. You might call upon the
views of other practioners, other professionals, parents/carers, theorists and
written materials. This is quite vital because you often cannot see the ‘wood for
the trees’: there are also several different ways of viewing the same event and
to understand what is happening you need to account for these. Note there is a
difference between thinking your thoughts, sharing your thoughts (articulating)
and writing your thoughts: listening and articulating are vital to the process and
each has their place.
Schon saw 2 sorts of reflection…reflection in action and reflection on action.
Reflection in action works best when you have a well developed pool of
professional experience and knowledge: this is part of what is developed in your
professional studies (knowledge in action). Reflection on action happens after
the event, draws on your knowledge but may also draw on perspectives other
than your own.
Where do you get you different perspectives from? How do you listen to
these? How often do you do this? How do you manage time to allow this to
happen.
Reflective practice takes events (observations for example) and interprets
them, analysing, discussing and explaining. The reflective practioner in this
sense becomes a leader moving others on in their understanding. In a reflective
setting all practioners and the children would be part of this process, building

8. dialogue. I would argue that reflection on action is what feeds and validates
reflection in action. This leads to section 2.
Section 2.
Centres on the work of Etienne Wenger- communities of practice where the
community develops and builds shared understanding about what events mean.
It takes time to fully understand this perspective but I believe it depends upon
the view that meaning and ‘knowledge’ are socially constructed. Think carefully
about the way different communities of practice might be formed. There is a
fairly vital bit about this at the end of page 137 start of 138. It introduces the
idea that you might have a limited position that makes it hard to build a
community of practice. The way forward is to identify where elements of this
‘community’ already exist and how you might build on this. It may as yet be a
partial community, yourself and a fellow practioner, you and a visiting
professional, you and your partner. How can you build on this?
What makes you a ‘leader’. Make sure you read list on page 142, which boxes
can you ‘tick’?

9. Section 3 Leadership and development
What sorts of professional learning are you involved with, how can you continue
to develop these?
How professionals operate varies but our aim here is to be a workforce that
constantly transforms, develops new directions. Think about the links to
possibility thinking. There is no permanent ‘right way’ to practice. Our practice
reflects our community and the society that it is in. Read and read again the
first and second paragraphs of page 146. Note it is not the collecting of
evidence that is significant it is the sense you make of the evidence.
How settings operate depends upon the way that the context and culture is
organised: ‘democratic and collegial means that each person contribution is
valued, each person is listened to. We could argue that this sort of structure
implies an openness that allows change to take place. When thinking of
leadership you might want to consider the difference between managing and
facilitating…telling others what they should be doing and creating situations
where all those involved construct what they are doing. Consider the impact
that these different staff environments might have on the children: what role
model does your leadership give the children.

10. Section 4 Your development
We shall be doing Activity 7 as part of our last tutorial. If you are not able to
come do have a close look at this. When discussing your development you need
to account for the fact that you are training and developing in a sector that is
fast moving and changing.
When you are thinking about your professional planning in part you may have
clear and rather simple future goals: I want to complete my degree and attain
EYP status. However it pays to dig beneath the surface and reflect on your
strengths and weakness. If I use myself as an example I might write something
like…
’In the medium term I would like to develop my ability to examine reflection in
Early Years setting. Whilst I am generally regarded as a strong reflective
practioner I find that I need to think more clearly about the reasons for this in
order to be able to lead my students (that is you in this case of course) into a
deeper understanding of what it means to be ‘reflective’. In order to do this I
will…and will review my progress after …’
SO in the above I have identified something I need to do, questioned my
practice identifying strengths and weaknesses thus producing a set of reasons
for developing this area and would then go on to say how and when I will achieve
my development.

11. Referencing your TMA
‘When you directly quote from of one of your TMAs in your ECA you
should present it in the following way....
In the text of your ECA, insert the page number where the
discussion/evidence is considered in your TMA.... e.g. Sarah Hutchones
quoting from her TMA 04 would write in text:
Hutchones (2010, TMA04, p.4)...........
and in her list of References at the end of the ECA:
Hutchones, Sarah(2010) E100, TMA 04.’
This is posted by the course chair and has the same weight as the Assessment
Guide. In your mind you need to think about your TMA as being published. It is
on the ECA system (even though you have had a copy back) and can be accessed.
SO you do not need to include it as an appendix but instead refer to the TMA.
How you do this is fairly clear I think.
You could also make a general reference….In TMA 04 I found that I did not
really have a real grasp of the way babies might think mathematically
Hutchones (2010, TMA04)
Any questions and further comment or worries please get in touch
Les
Les Hereward
07905243886
01372800822
leshere@ntlworld.com