Education Specialist in
Early Childhood Education
(EdS)

Your communication abilities have a big influence on your professional reputation. In this course, you’ll develop skills to establish yourself as a competent professional with strong communication skills. You’ll learn competencies related to written, oral, and visual forms of communication appropriate to specific media and audiences. You’ll also explore how the iterative nature of preparing communications and integrating feedback into your work products can support your development and advancement as a professional.

Leadership during times of change can be challenging. This course supports your professional development as an effective leader of educational organizations during periods of change. You’ll explore strategies and techniques for self-reflection, evaluating culture, integrating stakeholder feedback, and incorporating data as part of improvement processes. To conclude the course, you’ll synthesize these skills to design a comprehensive improvement plan that addresses a specific problem within an educational organization.

This course introduces you to the research process by exploring its underpinnings, examining its paradigms, and investigating the foundations of qualitative and quantitative methodologies used in educational studies. You’ll identify criteria for the development of quality research studies that are ethical, accurate, comprehensive, cohesive, and aligned. Specific course topics involve the ethics of conducting research; data collection and analysis techniques; and issues of feasibility, trustworthiness, validity, reliability, transferability, and rigor. The goal is to familiarize yourself with the concepts and skills associated with conducting theoretical and applied research.

A focus on qualitative research methodology and the designs and methods used to collect and analyze data in educational research. You’ll examine the principles of qualitative research and explore commonly used designs (also referred to as qualitative traditions or genres) with a focus on application and feasibility. Qualitative data collection and analysis methods will be examined for their suitability with regard to the research design selected. Alignment between qualitative designs and research methods, issues of trustworthiness, and the responsibilities of the qualitative researcher will also be explored.

An exploration of quantitative research methodologies and associated designs and methods. You’ll examine paradigmatic perspectives along with the tenets and conventions of quantitative research. Topics for examination include feasibility, validity, reliability, variable operationalization, inferential designs, and analytic software applications used within the quantitative research paradigm. You’ll also look at the components of quantitative research designs that support meaningful studies within the field of education.

As the capstone to your EdS studies, you’ll work with a specific educational program relevant to your current or future professional aims. You’ll review the related literature and evaluate data to inform your development of potential solutions and future areas of research related to your identified problem. Finally, you’ll reflect on your personal learning journey throughout the EdS program.

ECE-7010 Principles of Early Childhood Education

This course presents an overview of early childhood education, which includes children from pre-K through 3rd grade. You’ll explore the basic tenets, theories, and standards relevant to the field, particularly developmentally appropriate practices and principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The important roles of parents, caregivers, and communities are also discussed. This course should be the first in the course sequence if you’re pursuing a specialization or post-master’s certificate in early childhood education.

ECE-7002 Topics in Early Childhood Growth, Development, and Educational Programs

In this doctoral level course, you’ll explore theory and research related to the education of young children. Societal changes and their influence on early childhood programs, growth and typical and atypical development of young children, and methods of studying child behavior will all be examined. Emphasis will be placed on the intellectual, social, emotional, and physical development of infants, toddlers, and young children, and the impact of these factors on early childhood education instructional programs.  

ECE-7030 Topics in Early Childhood Program Administration

Here, you’ll examine program models, relevant theories, state expectations, educator competencies, and the role of leadership in developing and implementing early childhood programs. You’ll pay particular attention to diversity, equity, and inclusion in program administration, and you’ll demonstrate your ability to formulate administrative plans that synthesize your learning.

ECE-7005 Early Childhood Curriculum and Assessment

In this course, you’ll explore the theory, research, and trends related to the curriculum and assessment of young children enrolled in early childhood education programs. Developmentally appropriate early childhood lesson plans and activities will be explored and analyzed, and standardized and classroom assessments will be researched and evaluated.

ECE-7007 Early Childhood Literacy and Literature

This course examines literacy development in early childhood education. Balanced literacy instruction and comprehensive strategies designed to meet individual needs will be discussed. Methods for creating developmentally appropriate reading and writing skills will also be investigated. Since knowledge of children’s literature is essential for any early childhood educator, you’ll determine ways to select appropriate and motivating materials to enhance early childhood literacy programs. Course emphasis will be placed on writing, spelling, and literacy development; motivating reading and writing; language and vocabulary development; the importance of family literacy partnerships; and analyzing, selecting, and responding to children’s literature.

ECE-7009 Families, Communities, and Schools as Partners in Early Childhood Education 

This course focuses on developing partnerships between early childhood educators and the other social environments children live in. Encouraging involvement and communicating with families and communities in early childhood education programs will be researched and analyzed. Topics include child abuse, child advocacy, formulating effective strategies for working with families of special needs children, and societal trends and issues specific to diversity.