ECE Principles and Practices – Introduction
INTRODUCTION TO ECE Principles and Practices PreK-4
Welcome to Bucks County Community College’s Early Childhood Education program. We are so excited you have decided to join us on your journey into the wonderful world of young children!
If you are reading this, you’re likely interested in learning more about becoming an early childhood professional. Perhaps you’re just curious and want to know a little bit more about young children. Maybe you want to make up your mind after finding out a little bit more about what is involved. In either case, your interest and curiosity are two key characteristics that will make this a positive growth experience for you.
You probably had other options but made coming to this class a priority. You care about children. You have an audacity of kindness and passion for teaching. Adhering to these qualities is the launching pad for successful early childhood professionals.
STRUCTURE OF THIS BOOK
You will notice that each chapter begins with important information that pertains to the field of early childhood education as well as providing you with the learning objectives for each chapter. This will help you navigate the content with a deeper understanding.
1. Learning Objectives – Those objectives are identified in the course outline of record. This is what we plan for in setting up the course content. There is an overall arching objective which is called the Course Learning Goals. You will see this identified in all of the courses that you will take to complete your degree in Early Childhood Education.
2. Pennsylvania Early Childhood Educator Competencies – This is a robust document created by a group of professionals to help to guide the field in creating early childhood professionals with the competencies that they need to become quality educators of young children.
3. National Association for the Education of Young Children Standards for Early Childhood Professional Preparation – These are national competencies, referred to as standards, that help to inform the field and to provide our department with the structure to ensure that when you finish our course of study, you will be prepared to work with young children and their families.
4. National Association for the Education of Young Children Code of Ethical Conduct – This code is our promise to provide children, families, our colleagues, and the community with the integrity needed to be professional early childhood educators.
FLOW OF THE BOOK
The flow of the text is designed with chapters that build upon each other, so starting at the beginning and moving through in order may make the most sense. In addition to content, we include images, quotes, links (which we will update frequently but may change without our knowledge, so we apologize in advance if that is the case for you), and places to pause and reflect on what you have just read.
The chapters are as follows:
- Chapter 1 History: presents a little about the history of our field and encourages you to dig deeper as your interest dictates
- Chapter 2 Theories: introduces you to some of the major ideas and frameworks used to guide our practices with young children
- Chapter 3 The Early Childhood Teaching Profession: answers many initial questions students may ask about roles, responsibilities, and opportunities in the field of early childhood education
- Chapter 4 Observation and Assessment: Introduces you to the skills of gathering information about young children
- Chapter 5 Developmental Ages and Stages: builds on observational skills to understand the unique characteristics of children at various ages and stages of development
- Chapter 6 Curriculum Basics: builds even further on observational skills and an understanding of developmental ages and stages to provide appropriate interactions and learning experiences for young children
- Chapter 7 Environments: expands beyond the curriculum to bring an awareness of the many aspects of planning physical spaces, routines, and an interpersonal tone that meet the needs of young children
- Chapter 8 Partnering with Families: introduces the concept of valuing families as a child’s first teacher and the importance of partnering to provide positive collaboration between a child’s most important worlds, home, and school.
Information moving forward to other ECE courses:
- The content in Chapter 1 (History), Chapter 2 (Developmental Theories), and Chapter 3 (The Teaching Profession) Chapter 5 (Developmental Ages and Stages) Chapter 7 (Environments), and Chapter 8 (Partnering with Families) will be touched upon in many of your other ECE courses.
- The content in Chapter 4 (Observation and Assessment), Chapter 5 (Developmental Ages and Stages) Chapter 6 (Curriculum Basics), will each have their own course where you will study that particular topic in much more detail.
The State of Pennsylvania, Department of Health and Human Services houses a child care licensing program. A portion of 55 Pa. Code of these regulations stipulates requirements for early childhood programs, which includes educational requirements, to which this course applies.
The State of Pennsylvania Department of Education further regulates early childhood programs receiving any form of state funding. This course meets a portion of that academic requirement.
The National Association for the Education of Young Children offers Accreditation to those programs that apply and meet all qualifications of a quality program as defined by this organization. This course is included in the academic requirements.
The regulations above are covered in Chapter 3 (The Early Childhood Teaching Profession) with the links included for you to investigate further. Knowledge of the regulations that govern our work with children and families is important as it provides the basis for our profession.
You will also find useful information about the Education Area at Bucks County Community College, as well as state and national content in Chapter 3. Our PreK-4 Early Education major has many links in place to assist you in your endeavors. We encourage you to visit it often and take full advantage of the content that is there for you.\
BEGINNING YOUR JOURNEY
As the Education Area, we believe strongly in supporting future educators, as a group, and as individuals. As you begin your course work with us, we see you as just that. You are now beginning your college journey that will end with your successful completion of the coursework required to work with young children and their families. As such, we are here to hold you to high standards and to support you in meeting those standards. Working with children can be very rewarding as well as challenging.
In your work with young children and families, you will be expected to:
- work hard
- arrive on time
- come prepared
- participate fully
- continue to grow and learn
- be respectful to yourself, others, and property
- maintain confidentiality
- behave in a professional and ethical manner at all times
What better place to practice these skills than in your ECE courses. We will expect that you will practice each of the skills mentioned above in every early childhood course you take so that they are perfected by the time you begin your career. This is also a time for you to
- Ask questions
- Try new things
- Step outside your comfort zone
- Join our campus organizations
- Get to know your current classmates who will be your future colleagues
- Get to know your professors, they are here to support you
- Have fun and enjoy the experience
What a wonderful balance! Learning new content as well as the professional skills needed to succeed in your future career!
NAEYC STANDARDS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD PROFESSIONAL PREPARATION
As mentioned early, the beginning of each chapter includes a list of the professional standards that the chapter will be addressing. At Bucks County Community College, we use the NAEYC Standards to guide our course content. What that means, is that we need to use the standards to frame what we teach you and why. You can think of them as competencies that help to inform what early educators need to know to become professionals. They include:
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- Standard 1: Having knowledge of how children grow and develop and using that to create respectful learning environments.
- Standard 2: Engaging with families to respect their diversity and involve them in their children’s school life promotes more satisfactory school experiences for both the child and the family.
- Standard 3: Using observation and assessment to guide what we do in the classroom is critical in supporting young children and their families.
- Standard 4: The use of positive relationships coupled with strategies that are geared toward the development of the child, allows us to connect with children and families. (E
- Standard 5: Understanding how to build a meaningful curriculum comes from your understanding of how children grow and develop, what is meaningful to them, and what is appropriate for them to explore. Increasing skills of inquiry, specifically, acknowledgment of children’s curiosity, guides how we plan and implement our curriculum and environment.
- Standard 6: Engaging in continuous learning, reflective practice, advocacy for children and their families, and upholding ethical and professional standards is our professional responsibility.
- Standard 7: Engaging in field experience enhances our connection with high-quality programs that follow the previous standards, applying the knowledge learned in your course of study, affords you opportunities to develop your beliefs (philosophy) of how children grow and develop and your role as a future teacher.
Bucks County Community College’s PROGRAM OF STUDY
In looking over these 7 standards, we hope that you are able to make the connection to our course of study. EDUC 105 – Foundations for Early Learning Prek-4, the course you are currently enrolled in, is a survey course. It looks at the broad spectrum of the field. As you continue on your journey through our program, you will take courses that specifically address each standard. We hope that when you have completed the entire program of Early Childhood Education, you will meet the competencies needed to begin your journey as an early childhood professional. Those courses are
- EDUC105 Foundations for Early Learning Prek-4
- EDUC115 Observing and Recording the Behavior of Young Children
- EDUC120 Early Learning and Development I: ages birth-5
- EDUC130 Early Learning and Development II: ages 6-11
- EDUC150 Math and Science Experiences for Young Children
- EDUC160 Introduction to Exceptionalities
- EDUC170 Language and Literacy Development in EC: ages birth-5 years
- EDUC200 Integrated Art, Movement and Play
- EDUC205/206/220 Fieldwork or Practicum
Welcome to the field, future colleagues. We wish you well!
Bucks County Community College, Education Area
