Shaila Banu

Biography

I am the Lecturer in Early Childhood Education of Faculty of Education at Melbourne City Campus of the Southern Cross University. I have demonstrated remarkable achievements across my academic career, particularly in teaching, research, and leadership.

Teaching

In learning and teaching, I have been playing a pivotal role in coordinating and delivering multiple courses within Early Childhood Education programs. My responsibilities encompass developing unit content, refining assessments, and ensuring alignment with educational standards. Notably, my expertise extends across various units, exemplifying my comprehensive understanding of Early Childhood Education principles and practices.

My teaching philosophy highlights the importance of social interaction and guidance which is aligned with Vygotsky’s Sociocultural theory and Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological theory. Collaborative learning approaches, group activities and inquiry-based learning strategies are the significant methods in my teaching and learning process for Initial Teacher Education.

Research

My dedication to research is evident through my active involvement in significant projects. As a principal investigator for my PhD research, I developed robust objectives, theoretical frameworks, and methodologies, showcasing my research acumen. Additionally, my contributions to ongoing research projects, such as the comparative study on play-based curricula, underscore my commitment to advancing the field through rigorous inquiry and cross-cultural exploration.

My PhD research used the Postcolonial Theory to explore the quality of classroom teaching practices of pre-primary schools in Bangladesh. The study was quite related with the active engagement of children in classroom settings which elevated awareness among policy makers and teachers about children’s voice and engagement in teaching-learning process for their holistic development. My research focuses on the quality of early childhood education and care; teachers’ perceptions to quality ECEC; government policies and frameworks to provide the quality ECEC services in developing countries; play-based pedagogy; pre-service and in-service teachers’ perceptions to play-based pedagogy and STEAM activities; children’s social and emotional wellbeing.

Supervision

I am available to supervise Masters and Doctoral projects in Early Childhood Education and Care.