Early Childhood Education Area of Study


Students interested in Early Childhood Education acquire knowledge and understanding of the dominant theories of human development and learning.  They also study research in social, emotional, cognitive, language, motor, and perceptual development and learning in children from birth through age 8.  They study theories and content of curriculum and instruction, and alternative teaching models and methodologies. Students are provided opportunities to learn alternative perspectives regarding central issues in the field (for example, child development, programs for young children and parents, research priorities, or implications for teacher education and staff development). Students are provided opportunities to become knowledgeable about procedures for the assessment of child development and learning, child care and early education environments, early childhood education curricula, types, purposes, and appropriateness of various assessment procedures and instruments. The curriculum provides candidates with experience in program planning for children from a variety of diverse cultural and language backgrounds, as well as children of different age and developmental levels. Graduates who have emphasized this area of study are employed in early childhood teacher preparation programs in numerous colleges and universities. Other graduates, particularly at the M.S. level, are involved in staff training and development activities through area education agencies and child care networks.

Career Paths in ECE

Career opportunities include: Area Education Agency early childhood specialists, childcare specialists, Head Start education coordinators. Staff development coordinators, child care resource and referral early childhood specialists, public and private school early childhood teachers, early childhood education research specialists, laboratory school directors, and university professors and researchers. With appropriate course experiences beyond the early childhood education emphasis, many graduates also teach child development and parent education.

Thesis Titles

  • Parents and kindergartners: Money and number, practices, concepts and skills
  • The peer group dynamics of six preschool boys
  • The classroom teacher, parenting practices, and preschoolers' responses to peers' distress
  • Individual play styles of four-year-old boys in an integrated setting
  • The relationship between parent involvement and stress for parents of preschoolers
  • The preparation and educational beliefs and practices of paraprofessionals in early childhood programs in Iowa
  • The meaning of early field experiences for preservice early childhood teachers
  • Play behaviors and peer interactions of preschoolers in classroom and playground settings
  • Quality of preschool playgrounds and preschool teachers behaviors and verbalizations during children’s outdoor play
  • Educators’ belief’s about kindergarten practices
  • Social pretend play of preschoolers with their parents
  • The teaching of an addition algorithm to improve early arithmetic performance
  • Maternal involvement in home-based and center-based Head Start
  • The effects of day care attendance on social interaction behaviors in young children