Education, Early Childhood Education and Child Development - Associate in Arts

Program Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this program, a student will be able to:

1. (a.) Understand the developmental period of early childhood from birth through age 8 across physical, cognitive, social and emotional, and linguistic domains, including bilingual/multilingual development. (b.) Understand and value each child as an individual with unique developmental variations, experiences, strengths, interests, abilities, challenges, and approaches to learning, and with the capacity to make choices. (c.) Understand the ways that child development and the learning process occur in multiple contexts, including family, culture, language, community, and early learning setting, as well as in a larger societal context that includes structural inequities. (d.) Use this multidimensional knowledge—that is, knowledge about the developmental period of early childhood, about individual children, and about development and learning in cultural contexts—to make evidence-based decisions that support each child. (Child Development and Learning in Context)
2. (a.) Know about, understand, and value the diversity of families. (b.) Collaborate as partners with families in young children’s development and learning through respectful, reciprocal relationships and engagement. (c.) Use community resources to support young children’s learning and development and to support families, and build partnerships between early learning settings, schools, and community organizations and agencies. (Family-Teacher Partnerships and Community Connections)
3. (a.) Understand that assessments (formal and informal, formative and summative) are conducted to make informed choices about instruction and for planning in early learning settings. (b.) Know a wide range of types of assessments, their purposes, and their associated methods and tools. (c.) Use screening and assessment tools in ways that are ethically grounded and developmentally, ability, culturally, and linguistically appropriate in order to document developmental progress and promote positive outcomes for each child. (d.) Build assessment partnerships with families and professional colleagues. (Child Observation, Documentation and Assessment)
4. (a.) Understand and demonstrate positive, caring, supportive relationships and interactions as the foundation of early childhood educators’ work with young children. (b.) Understand and use teaching skills that are responsive to the learning trajectories of young children and to the needs of each child, recognizing that differentiating instruction, incorporating play as a core teaching practice, and supporting the development of executive function skills are critical for young children. (c.) Use a broad repertoire of developmentally appropriate, culturally and linguistically relevant, anti-bias, evidence-based teaching skills and strategies that reflect the principles of universal design for learning. (Developmentally, Culturally, and Linguistically Appropriate Teaching Practices)
5. (a.) Understand content knowledge—the central concepts, methods and tools of inquiry, and structure—and resources for the academic disciplines in an early childhood curriculum. (b.) Understand pedagogical content knowledge—how young children learn in each discipline—and how to use the teacher knowledge and practices described in Standards 1 through 4 to support young children’s learning in each content area. (c.) Modify teaching practices by applying, expanding, integrating, and updating their content knowledge in the disciplines, their knowledge of curriculum content resources, and their pedagogical content knowledge. (Knowledge, Application, and Integration of Academic Content in the Early Childhood Curriculum)
6. (a.) Identify and involve themselves with the early childhood field and serve as informed advocates for young children, families, and the profession. (b.) Know about and uphold ethical and other early childhood professional guidelines. (c.) Use professional communication skills, including technology-mediated strategies, to effectively support young children’s learning and development and to work with families and colleagues. (d.) Engage in continuous, collaborative learning to inform practice. (e.) Develop and sustain the habit of reflective and intentional practice in their daily work with young children and as members of the early childhood profession. (Professionalism as an Early Childhood Educator)

Requirements

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A minimum of 60 credits must be completed to earn the AA degree and 30 of those credits must apply to the General Education requirements. If a student did not meet all General Education area requirements as prescribed above, these 6 credits may be used to meet those requirements.  

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Work-based learning course

Recommended Course Sequence

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Work-based learning course

Transfer

Please meet with an Academic Advisor/Student Success Coach if you are interested in earning a bachelor's degree. Your Academic Advisor will help you select the courses that best prepare you for transfer to a four-year college or university.

Check out the Joint Admissions Agreement if you are interested in transferring to Rhode Island College or the University of Rhode Island. The JAA program offers seamless transfer to RIC or URI with additional benefits. Transfer information, events, and articulations are available on the Transfer Center website.