The power of play: preparing international higher education students for practicum Joseph, Dawn and Rouse, Elizabeth 2016, The power of play: preparing international higher education students for practicum, in HERDSA 2016 : The Shape of Higher Education : Proceedings of the 39th Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia International Conference, Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia, Hammondville, N.S.W., pp. 137-145. Attached Files Name Description MIMEType Size Downloads joseph-powerofplay-2016.pdf Published version application/pdf 663.55KB 47 Title The power of play: preparing international higher education students for practicum Author(s) Joseph, Dawn orcid.org/0000-0002-6320-900X Rouse, Elizabeth orcid.org/0000-0002-2889-5382 Conference name Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia. International Conference (39th : 2016 : Fremantle, Western Australia) Conference location Freemantle, Western Australia Conference dates 4-7 Jul. 2016 Title of proceedings HERDSA 2016 : The Shape of Higher Education : Proceedings of the 39th Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia International Conference Editor(s) Davis, Melissa Goody, Allan Publication date 2016 Conference series Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia International Conference Start page 137 End page 145 Total pages 8 Publisher Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia Place of publication Hammondville, N.S.W. Keyword(s) play as a tool early childhood teaching higher education Summary With an increased number of international students undertaking higher education courses (degrees), Australian universities are challenged to prepare international students with the necessary understandings, knowledge and skills to effectively participate in the workplace. For many students, understanding Early Childhood Education in Australia is a new way of viewing teaching and learning from their own cultural perspective. In order to facilitate successful engagement during pre-service teacher practicums (placements) and in response to concerns raised by mentorteachers in the workplace, a pilot program was run at Deakin University in 2015 for students to undertake before placement. The program focused on ‘play’ as an innovative model of teaching. This paper situates itself as part of a wider study Improving work placement for international students, their mentors and other stakeholders. It draws on narrative reflection, classroom observation, questionnaire and interview data from the early childhood strand within the Master of Teaching course at Deakin University. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis the data was analysed and coded into two emerging themes: building confidence and competency skills and connecting to the early childhood context. Generalisationscannot be made to other educational institutions or context however; the findings reveal that ‘play’ can be used as a powerful tool to empower students to make connection with early childhood settings. It is hoped that the findings may provide a platform for further dialogue with other universities regarding how best we can prepare international education students at Australian universities for their practicum experience. ISBN 9780908557967 ISSN 1441-001X Language eng Field of Research 130103 Higher Education 130102 Early Childhood Education (excl Maori) 130201 Creative Arts, Media and Communication Curriculum and Pedagogy 130313 Teacher Education and Professional Development of Educators Socio Economic Objective 930102 Learner and Learning Processes HERDC Research category E1 Full written paper - refereed Copyright notice ©2016, HERDSA and The Authors Free to Read? Yes Persistent URL http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30085579 Document type: Conference Paper Collections: Faculty of Arts and Education School of Education Open Access Collection Related Links Link Description Connect to Elements publication management system Go to link with your DU access privileges     Unless expressly stated otherwise, the copyright for items in DRO is owned by the author, with all rights reserved. Every reasonable effort has been made to ensure that permission has been obtained for items included in DRO. 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