Entrance/Admission Requirements

Graduation Requirements

See Academic Regulations for college-wide Graduation Requirements .

Planning Tools: Sequence of Courses

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General Education Requirements: 34-37 credits

An approved list of general education courses can be found in the General Education Requirements and degree program required courses  section of the catalog. Choose general education courses from the following topics:

Program Requirements: 29 credits

• EDU 132 - Introduction to Early Childhood Development 3 credit hours
• EDU 133 - Growth and Development 3 credit hours
• EDU 214 - Introduction to Special Education 3 credit hours

• The Introduction to Special Education course required by Anne Arundel Community College is a necessary requirement of the college’s Early Childhood A.A.T. degree, but is not sufficient to meet all special education or inclusion course requirements for four-year teacher education programs.

• EDU 242 - Foundations of Reading and Language Arts 3 credit hours

• OR

• EDU 242H - Foundations of Reading and Language Arts - Honors 3 credit hours
• EDU 247 - Early Childhood: Methods and Materials 3 credit hours

•  

• HIS 211 - United States History through the Civil War 3 credit hours OR
• HIS 212 - United States History Since the Civil War 3 credit hours

•  

• MAT 223 - Fundamental Concepts of Mathematics 3 4 credit hours
• PHS 200 - Earth and Space Science 4 credit hours
• PLS 111 - American Government 3 credit hours

Computer Competency Requirement

Program requirements EDU 214  and EDU 247  meet this requirement.

Diversity Requirement

Program requirement EDU 214  meets this requirement. 

Program Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this program, students will be able to:

• Describe a developmentally appropriate educational program for children from birth to eight years of age.
• Explain the major research methods and assessment techniques used to study children from birth to eight years of age.
• Discuss the physical development of children from birth through 8 years of age.
• Describe the social-emotional development of children from birth through eight years of age.
• Describe the cognitive development of children from birth through 8 years of age.
• Demonstrate knowledge of key federal, state, and local legislation and court rulings affecting children and at-risk across a range of factors, and their families, and the implications of practice.
• Discuss the effects of bias (e.g., gender, race, culture, ability levels) on development.
• Describe how a developing teacher uses a portfolio to aid in becoming a reflective practitioner.
• Reflect on the experiences of being with children in a learning environment.
• Demonstrate an understanding of significant issues and current trends in Early Childhood Education
• Demonstrate knowledge of Early childhood Professional Code of Ethics by NAEYC.
• Compare and contrast the variety of curriculum models and programs in Early Childhood.
• Develop and write their own philosophy of Early childhood Education.
• Demonstrate an understanding of diverse populations in Early Childhood Education.
• Identify the principles of developmentally appropriate practice in Early Childhood Education.
• Begin to develop a Teacher Education portfolio.
• Discuss the major roles and responsibilities of an Early childhood educator.
• Demonstrate knowledge of current and emerging research on early brain development and the implications for practice in early childhood programs.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the impact of significant relationships on early brain development, subsequent development across domains, and linkages with later school readiness.
• Discuss current and emerging research on brain development, and the relationship to language development, emergent literacy, and reading acquisition.
• Explain the relationship and role of each component of language acquisition to reading development.
• Discuss the interactive nature of the reading process.
• Analyze the effects of phonemic awareness and phonics on developing readers.
• Analyze the essential connection of language development, reading acquisition, and writing.
• Articulate the historical, philosophical, and legal basis of services for young children with special needs.
• Explain the similarities and differences among typical and atypical human growth and development.
• Identify current trends that affect children, families, and programs for children.
• Apply knowledge of cultural and linguistic diversity and the significance of socio-cultural and political contexts for development and learning, and recognize that children are best understood in the contexts of family, culture, and society.
• Identify specific disabilities, including the etiology, characteristics, and classification of common disabilities in young children, and describe specific implications for development and learning from birth.
• Demonstrate a basic understanding of the concepts, inquiry tools, and structure of content areas to create meaningful, challenging learning experiences and environment for all children.
• Describe the major and current approaches to theories of child development and learning.
• Identify the approaches to learning.
• Describe how culture and diversity influence growth and development.
• Examine how culture and diversity impact learning and school readiness.
• Describe the important role of family and community in development and the variety of ways individuals can organize to fulfill these roles.
• Demonstrate the ability to communicate at a basic level in the four arts: dance, music, theater and the visual arts, to enhance self-expression and to better understand human experiences.
• Interpret and evaluate exemplary artworks from a variety of cultures and historical periods.
• Develop a knowledge and understanding of the English language.
• Develop the ability to speak and write as a professional educator.
• Develop an effective application of the reading process.
• Develop an effective application of the writing process, pre-service teachers will be able to perform the following indicators: Use a wide range of writing strategies to generate meaning and to clarify understanding. Produce different forms of written discourse. Demonstrate how written discourse can influence thought and action.
• Develop a knowledge and understanding of child development and language acquisition.
• Discuss numbers, ways of representing numbers, relationships among numbers, and number systems.
• Demonstrate the meaning of operations and how they relate to each other.
• Compute fluently and make reasonable estimations.
• Understand patterns, relations and functions.
• Represent and analyze mathematical situations and structures using algebraic symbols.
• Use mathematical models and analyze change in both real and abstract contexts.
• Analyze change in various contexts.
• Understand measurable attributes of objects and the units, systems and processes of measurement
• Apply appropriate techniques, tools, and formulas to determine measurement.
• Formulate questions that can be addressed with data and collect, organize, and display relevant data to answer them.
• Select and use appropriate statistical methods to analyze data.
• Develop and evaluate inferences and predictions that are based on data.
• Understand and apply basic concepts of probability.
• Build new mathematical knowledge through problem solving.
• Solve problems that arise in mathematics and in other contexts.
• Apply and adapt a wide variety of appropriate strategies to solve problems.
• Monitor and reflect on processes of mathematical problem solving.
• Recognize reasoning and proof as fundamental aspects of mathematics.
• Make and investigate mathematical conjectures.
• Develop and evaluate mathematical arguments and proofs.
• Select and use various types of reasoning and methods of proof.
• Organize and consolidate mathematical thinking through communication.
• Express mathematical ideas coherently and clearly to peers, teachers, and others.
• Analyze and evaluate the mathematical thinking and strategies of others.
• Use the language of mathematics to express mathematical ideas precisely.
• Recognize and use connections among different mathematical ideas.
• Demonstrate how mathematical ideas interconnect and build on one another to produce a coherent whole.
• Recognize and apply mathematics in contexts outside of mathematics.
• Create and use representations to organize, record, and communicate mathematical ideas.
• Select, apply and translate among mathematical representations to solve problems.
• Use representations to model and interpret physical, social and mathematical phenomena.
• Construct the meaning of the terms and concepts associated with the main content areas as outlined in the national science standards for physical science.
• Understand the concepts and relationships associated with the national science standards for physical science.
• Use concepts and relationships related to the content area designated in the national science standards for physical science.
• Construct the meaning of the terms & concepts associated with the main content areas as outlined in the national science standards for life science.
• Identify the concepts & relationships associated with the national science standards for life science.
• Use concepts & relationships related to the content area designated in the national science standards for life science.
• Construct the meaning of the terms & concepts associated with the main content areas as outlined in the national science standards for earth & space science.
• Understand the concepts & relationships associated with the national science standards for earth & space science
• Use concepts & relationships related to the content area designated in the national science standards for earth/space science.
• Construct the meaning of the terms and concepts associated with the main content areas as outlined in the national science standards for science and technology.
• Describe the concepts and relationships associated with the national science standards for science and technology.
• Use concepts and relationships related to the content area designated in the national science standards for science and technology.
• Construct the meaning of the terms and concepts associated with the main content areas as outlined in the national science standards for science for science in personal and social perspectives.
• Understand the concepts and relationships associated with the national science standards for science in personal and social perspectives.
• Use concepts and relationships related to the content area designated in the national science standards for personal and social perspectives.
• Construct the meaning of the terms and concepts associated with the main content areas as outlined in the national science standards for the history and nature of science.
• Understand the concepts and relationships associated with the national science standards for the history and nature of science.
• Use concepts and relationships related to the content area designated in the national science standards for the history and nature of science.
• Understand the common characteristics of different cultures.
• Understand how cultures change to accommodate different ideas and beliefs.
• Discuss the relationship between belief systems and culture.
• Develop and use chronological thinking.
• Understand historical thinking and how historians study history.
• Describe why things are located where they are.
• Determine how and why landforms change and how that impacts the people living there.
• Discuss how where we live determines how we live.
• Explain how one’s culture, groups and institutions shape personal identity.
• Explicate what influences how people learn, perceive and grow.
• Identify the developmental stages that people go through from birth through adulthood
• Assess the integral role that institutions play in peoples’ lives.
• Determine the role of institutions in their society and other societies.
• Describe how institutions change.
• Outline how and why institutions form, what controls and influences them and how they influence people and culture.
• Understand the historical development of structures of power, authority and governance and their evolving functions in the United States and other parts of the world
• Understand how and why governments are created, structured, maintained and changed.
• Discuss how society changes in response to technology development.
• Discuss how the meaning of citizenship has evolved.
• Understand the balance between rights and responsibilities.
• Discuss the role of the citizen in the community and the nation, and as a member of the world community.

This program aligns with all the college’s core competencies. 

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