Early Childhood Education and Family Systems, BAAS

Major in BAAS Early Childhood Education and Family Systems

The Early Childhood and Family Systems Program in the Department of Urban Education offers those persons seeking a non-certification degree the opportunity to earn a Bachelor degree that emphasizes early childhood development and family systems. This degree program will provide courses that focus on developmentally appropriate practices in early childhood settings, with an emphasis on literacy, numeracy and family involvement and aimed at developing teachers with the capabilities to teach at-risk and vulnerable populations. It provides authentic experiences in early developmental education, psychology, sociology, and family systems. The degree offers students theoretical perspectives that are linked to classroom practice through multidimensional approaches that encourage immediate application. The focus of the degree and its courses is on whole childhood development, developmentally appropriate practice (DAP), curricular decisions, individualized instructional strategies, and authentic evaluation/assessment, and the support and involvement of families from a combination of educational, psychological and sociological theories and practices of early childhood through second grade.

Program Objectives

1. Provide hands-on early childhood training to persons serving young children birth to age 6 in a variety of educational settings.
2. Provide persons working with young children birth to age 5 with current, developmental information, regarding best practices for teaching children in diverse multi-cultural settings.
3. Develop links between theoretical research and current practice in the early childhood classroom.
4. Explore frameworks to enhance the family role in early childhood education.
5. Participate in developmentally appropriate literacy strategies to enhance literacy learning in young children.
6. Participate in developmentally appropriate numeracy strategies to enhance number sense learning in young children.
7. Promote the importance of play in early childhood classrooms.