Early Childhood Education Bachelor's Degree

B.S. in Early Childhood Education from Texas Tech

Texas Tech's early childhood education bachelor's degree offers a pre-kindergarten through 6th grade teaching certification and provides an outstanding foundation for a career as an early childhood teacher.

In this program you will:

• Gain broad knowledge of teaching the whole child, not only academically but also socially and emotionally
• Understand brain development and the factors that impact it and recognize special issues that affect development and learning such as risk, poverty, abuse and neglect
• Become equipped to build positive relationships with their students and work successfully with families and students from diverse backgrounds
• Understand behavioral issues of young children and become capable of identifying the unmet needs that may be causing those behaviors
• Apply the physical, cognitive, social and emotional development patterns that affect early learning
• Identify the factors that impact school readiness and implement that knowledge as they work with children in an authentic learning environment

Student Teaching & Lab Experience

Students complete two semesters of lab experience where they will design and implement learning environments, plan and facilitate student learning experiences and observe, analyze and document a specific child's learning and behavior to share with the family. Students also complete weekly field experience placements in one of three local school districts while concurrently completing their Early Childhood coursework. Immediate implementation will allow students to see and apply the techniques they are learning in a real world classroom setting, making engagement with the curriculum even more meaningful.

Certification

The Early Childhood Education degree is uniquely configured to provide students with a grounding in child development from the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences followed by courses in curriculum and instruction in the College of Education. The Early Childhood program meets current Texas requirements for teacher certification. Opportunity is afforded in the Christine DeVitt and Helen DeVitt Jones Child Development Research Center and Texas Tech University Early Head Start for the student to observe and interact with infants, toddlers, and young children. These learning laboratories provide authentic learning experiences in early childhood education as students observe and learn developmentally appropriate practice in teaching and guidance from experienced Early Childhood teachers. Both centers are accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

The program meets current Texas requirements for teacher certification and is accredited by the State Board for Educator Certification and the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP). State teacher certification is granted from early childhood through the sixth grade. See an academic advisor for updated certification requirements that may occur from recent legislative mandates. Admission to teacher certification is competitive and is based on not less than a 2.75 overall GPA. Students seeking teacher certification must meet all requirements outlined in the College of Education section of this catalog. To be recommended for certification, graduates must achieve satisfactory performance on the TExES, an examination prescribed by the State Board of Education.

Additional supplemental certifications (such as ESL and Special Education) are available in addition to the initial Generalist EC-6 certificate. Consult with the certification advisers in the College of Education.

• Degree Plan
• University Catalog