Early Childhood Studies

To produce new professionals who have the requisite knowledge, competencies, and dispositions to become a highly qualified practitioner in the field of early childhood, our program goals have been aligned to the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s (NAEYC) Standards and Competencies for Early Childhood Professionals. Specifically, graduates of the Bachelor of Science in Early Childhood Studies will be...

1. Knowledgeable and competent in child development and learning in multiple contexts, graduates will be grounded in an understanding of the developmental period of early childhood from birth through age 8 across developmental domains and will understand each child as an individual with unique developmental variations and contexts
2. Knowledgeable and competent in understanding family–teacher partnerships and community connections, graduates will understand that successful early childhood education depends upon educators’ partnerships with the diverse families of the young children they serve and with the community resources that support young children’s learning, development and their families.
3. Knowledgeable and competent in child observation, documentation, and various assessment strategies and tools, graduates will understand that the primary purposes of assessments are to inform instruction and planning and in doing so to partner with families and professionals.
4. Knowledgeable and competent in developmentally, culturally, and linguistically appropriate teaching practices, graduates will understand that teaching and learning with young children is a complex enterprise, and its details vary depending on children’s ages and characteristics and on the settings in which teaching and learning occur.
5. Knowledgeable and competent in the application, and integration of academic content in the early childhood curriculum, graduates will have knowledge of and implementational skills in the content of the academic disciplines (e.g., language and literacy, the arts, mathematics, social studies, science, technology and engineering, physical education) and of the pedagogical methods for teaching each discipline.
6. Knowledgeable and competent in professionalism as an early childhood educator and will identify and participate as members of the early childhood profession, graduates will be ready to practice reflectively and ethically and to serve as informed advocates for young children, for the families of the children in their care, and for the early childhood profession.