Duration
20h Th, 15h Pr
Number of credits
| Master in education, professional focus | 3 crédits |
Lecturer
Language(s) of instruction
French language
Organisation and examination
Teaching in the first semester, review in January
Schedule
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Learning unit contents
Supporting professionals in early childhood education and care (ECEC) requires skills that are both specific to the field of early childhood and useful across the domains of education, training, and professional development. This course aims to help students understand the specific characteristics of the support role in the early childhood sector and to develop the skills needed to facilitate reflection, analysis, and professional development within teams. It will examine the foundations, objectives, and manifestations of this emerging support role in the field of early childhood education in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, while offering a critical perspective on the sector's current transformations and the challenges of professionalization it faces.
Drawing on real-life situations from childcare settings, the course offers a step-by-step approach that integrates needs assessment, problem identification, observation, educational documentation, and reflective analysis of practices with a view to refining them. Particular attention is paid to the facilitator's approach, to taking into account the different perspectives of the stakeholders involved, and to drawing on scientific and professional resources to shed light on the situations encountered. Students are also encouraged to experiment with various collaborative approaches to fostering reflection and analyzing practices, and are made aware of the challenges involved in facilitating change within educational teams.
Learning outcomes of the learning unit
By the end of the course, each student will be able to:
- analyze a request from a childcare setting and transform it into a
professional challenge that can be addressed through a support process, - adopt a professional observational stance and collect relevant data through observation and the pedagogical documentation of educational situations (for example: mealtimes, nappy time, bedtime routines, playtime, etc.),
- reflectively analyze an educational situation by drawing on different levels of interpretation and appropriate scientific and professional resources,
- formulate and communicate questions, hypotheses, and avenues for reflection from a comprehensive, non-prescriptive perspective that respects the knowledge of
practitioners in the field, - participate in the design, implementation, analysis, and evaluation of a project that supports the professional development of early childhood education and care (ECEC) practitioners.
Prerequisite knowledge and skills
P :PEDA0069-Ab
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
From the start of the course, students contact a person who works in a psycho-educational support role in the early childhood care sector and conduct an interview with that person. The interview will consist of two parts, aimed respectively at:
1) understanding and documenting how this psycho-educational support role is implemented and carried out within this early childhood care setting(s),
2) identifying and exploring a project, a request, a work-related issue, etc., that could serve
as the focus of a project-based approach (observation, documentation, analysis, and
reflective support).
Students are then guided to share and discuss the results of their interviews in groups, with the aim of pooling their observations and comparing perspectives. The professor will provide a list of contact information for key informants and will oversee the preparation and conduct of in-person interviews. She will facilitate a discussion comparing the collected data with the findings of current research.Working alone or in pairs, students then contact a team from an early childhood education and care (ECEC) service or network (potentially the one where the psycho-educational support they met works) to learn how to observe and document educational practices related to the identified educational situation or the project defined with the team. The instructor will provide a (non-exhaustive) list of contact information for partner teams and will oversee the preparation and implementation of in-person observations.
In parallel with these field activities, the professor organizes a series of lectures and
group seminars focused on professional support and the challenges of professionalization in the early childhood education and care sector. These sessions combine theoretical input, analyses of educational situations, peer supervision exercises, and group discussions centered on the
challenges faced by students. They aim to support the development of a
reflective and analytical approach, as well as to foster the gradual development of a critical perspective on support practices. The entire program is based on an active and progressive teaching approach that combines fieldwork, group analysis, and theoretical underpinnings, and guides students to gradually develop a professional research question as well as a project involving the analysis or support of professional practices, which is presented at the end of the four-month term.
This course is complemented by 15 hours of practical work focusing on:
1) conducting an interview with a professional working in a psycho-educational support role;
2) carrying out non-participant observation of an educational situation in an Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) setting, in connection with a supported project; and
3) facilitating, with the guidance of a psycho-educational professional, a reflective practice session aimed at supporting the team's reflexivity, based on the work carried out beforehand.
The organization of these learning activities will be adapted to the health requirements.
Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)
Face-to-face course
Further information:
Blended learning
Further information:
- seminars led by the Professor and her assistant
- individual, pair, or group works
- reading and analysis of articles and mains references
- interviews with professionals
- non participative observation and interview of practitionners in childcare services sustained by a period of intervision/supervision with the assistant team.
Course materials and recommended or required readings
Platform(s) used for course materials:
- eCampus
Further information:
A reading file including articles, legal texts, source as well as bibliographic references providing a deeper look into the subject will be placed at students' disposal (e-campus). This will be a central reference for the course as well as necessary to carry out practical work.
Exam(s) in session
Any session
- Remote
oral exam
Written work / report
Further information:
Exam(s) in session
Any session
- Remote
oral exam
Written work / report
Further information:
Personal remotely interview based on a report that will be written on the basis of the data collected during practical work. Students will mobilize skills experienced during the class and discuss related concepts / notions.
Criteria:
- documentary richness,
- relevance of the situation identified in the team project, in terms of professionalization difficulties in the sector,
- relevance and detailed analysis of the gathered data (interviews, transcriptions, written documents, etc.), of the talking points in regard to professionalization challenges,
- relationship between theory and practice.
Work placement(s)
15h of practical work devoted to conducting interviews with professionals, non participative observation of educational situations in ECEC services (see learning activities), and facilitating a reflective practice with the team. The organization of this practical work will be adapted according to the health requirements.
The YSGT9035 Partim 1-ASC internship (90 hours of fieldwork/180 hours total) is a co-requisite for this course. Students who enroll in this course are therefore expected to complete, in the same academic year, an internship focused on participating in a project at a childcare center or centers (design, implementation, documentation, and analysis for the purpose of adjustment).
Organisational remarks and main changes to the course
Cursus accessible to the students who passed PEDA0069-A-b.
First seminar: on the 25th September 2026 (1:00 PM - 3:00 PM)
Please note: A minimum enrolment of three students is required for the course sessions to be delivered.
Contacts
Florence Pirard, Professor, contact preferably by email: florence.pirard@uliege.be (B33, office 2/30, 2nd floor)
Christophe Genetteassistant, contactable by preference by email christophe.genette@uliege.be (B33, office 2/29, 2nd floor)
Jasna Vorgic, secretary, jasna.vorgic@uliege.be.