ED 230 - ECE Field Placement III

5 Credits
Outline Effective Date: Academic Year 2025/2026
Revised Date: Aug 24, 2025
Date Approved: Aug 24, 2025

Practicum Hours: 200

Course Description:
This first practicum in the second year emphasizes working with children, faculty, and families. Students develop and operate a community-based children’s program with guidance from supervising personnel. Students plan, implement, reflect on, and evaluate an early childhood play program, and participate in individual and group feedback sessions. P/F.

Rationale:
This is a required course for Early Childhood Education diploma students. Work integrated learning provides students with opportunities to observe, develop, implement, and evaluate their interactions with children, families, and colleagues. This experience also allows for opportunities to apply knowledge gained in the Early Childhood Education program. Students use the College facilities to set up, implement and reflect on the early childhood program.

Prerequisites: Early Childhood Education Certificate.
Corequisites: Students must have completed or be in the process of successfully completing 4 second year courses including ED 243 with an overall GPA of 2.0 or greater.

Course Learning Outcomes:
A student who successfully completes the course will have reliably demonstrated the ability to

Demonstrate professionalism by showing respect for individuals, maintaining stamina and a strong work ethic, and communicating positively with others.
Apply appropriate programming skills and take responsibility for materials.
Design, plan, and implement an engaging play program for young children integrating curriculum and ongoing feedback.
Plan and implement experiences for young children based on observation and interests in a variety of ways through a play-based, Reggio-inspired approach in both the indoor and outdoor environment.
Engage in self-evaluation by reflecting on time management, interpersonal effectiveness, personal philosophy, planning and implementation abilities, and guidance techniques.
Evaluate program by reflecting on the guiding philosophy, quality of interactions, effectiveness of the environment, and organizational structure.

Required Resource Materials:
Early Childhood Education course materials.

Optional Resource Materials:
None

Conduct of Course:
Through practicum seminars and a four-week program, students design, implement, reflect on and evaluate an on-campus play program. The program operation is supervised by Early Childhood Education program instructors.

Regular attendance at seminars, program, set up and cleanup are necessary for success in the course. Absence for any reason does not relieve a student of the responsibility of completing course work. Absences require make up responsibilities in a childcare facility at the discretion of the instructors. Poor attendance may result in a student failing the course.

In cases of repeated absences due to illness, the student will be requested to submit a medical certificate. Instructors have the authority to require attendance at classes.

Content of Course:

Professionalism and Ethical Conduct
Designing and Promoting an Early Childhood Program
Building Positive Relationships with Children, Families, Faculty and Peers
Evaluating Program Quality Through Relationships, Environment, and Philosophy
Reflective Practice and Professional Self-Evaluation

Course Assessments:
Students are evaluated through direct observation and constructive feedback from college supervisors, and families, based on the criteria outlined in the Practicum Evaluation.

Midterm Evaluation

This evaluation is designed to give students and supervisors an opportunity to discuss performance and suggestions for improvement. If a student is having serious difficulties by this time they may be requested to withdraw or may fail the practicum.

Official final grades will be available on My Lakeland. Grades posted in D2L should be considered interim grades.
“Lakeland College is committed to the highest academic standards. Students are expected to be familiar with Lakeland College policies and to abide by these policies. Violations of these policies are considered to be serious and may result in suspension or expulsion from the College.”

Course Pass Requirements:
A Pass/Fail grade is awarded upon completion of the practicum.

Every effort has been made to ensure that information in this course outline is accurate at the time of publication. Lakeland College reserves the right to change courses if it becomes necessary so that course content remains relevant.

In such cases, the instructor will give students clear and timely notice of changes.

No part of this course outline may be reproduced in any form or resold without written permission from Lakeland College.

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Here at Lakeland College, we acknowledge that the land we gather on is the traditional homeland, hunting, and ceremonial gathering places of the First Nations, Métis and Inuit. The Plains Cree, Woodland Cree, Saulteaux, Blackfoot, Métis, Dene, and Nakota Sioux people have practiced their culture and languages on Treaty 6 and Métis Region 2 territories for generations and were the original caretakers of this land. Many First Nation, Métis and Inuit peoples call this land home today and have done so for millennia. We would like to acknowledge the history we have created together on this land, and to be thankful for the opportunity to walk together side-by-side in friendship, learning from our past, and promoting positive relationships for the past, present and future.