2024-2025 Academic Catalog and Student Handbook
Bachelor of Arts in Early Childhood Education
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Return to: Academic Programs Offered at Pacific Oaks College
Locations: Pasadena, Online, and off-campus locations (availability of off-campus locations depends on enrollment)
Total Credit Hours Required: 121 credit hours
Maximum Allowable Transfer Credits: 60
Program Admissions Requirements: Program-specific admissions requirements can be found here: Admissions Policies
Tuition and Fees: Tuition and fees for the College and individual programs can be found here: Financial Aid and Student Accounts Policies
Number of Admit Terms per Year:
Pasadena (6):
- Fall Sessions I & II
- Spring Sessions I & II
- Summer Sessions I & II
Online (6):
- Fall Sessions I & II
- Spring Sessions I & II
- Summer Sessions I & II
Program Overview
The Bachelor of Arts degree program in Early Childhood Education provides students with a fundamental knowledge base for educating and developing learning environments for young children from birth through age eight based on an understanding of the characteristics and needs of early childhood. The program’s curriculum is based on a constructivist framework that is responsive to multiple sources of diversity in early childhood education. As actively engaged participants, students in the Early Childhood Education program learn about essential principles and theories of pedagogy and child development and engage in supervised learning experiences to integrate and apply their knowledge. Learning experiences throughout the curriculum are characterized by inquiry, self-reflection, problem-solving, and collaboration with others. Acknowledging multiple influences on child development and learning, the program emphasizes the importance of developing respectful and reciprocal relationships to create supportive and challenging learning environments. Coursework focuses on strategies of inclusion, issues of equity, social justice, and cultural competence.
The core curriculum for the bachelor’s degree programs in Early Childhood Education is designed to prepare students to design, implement, and evaluate curriculum as competent professionals in early childhood education. The curriculum focuses on providing a framework for understanding how young children learn; introducing students to the use of observation, documentation, and other assessment strategies in early childhood education; and affirming the role of family, school, and community on child development and learning. Key issues in diversity and assessment are integrated throughout the core curriculum to promote the application of course content to a pluralistic society and to educational settings that are increasingly characterized by widely varying levels of language proficiency, socio-economic status, (dis)ability, and other important variables that impact learning among young children. Students have the opportunity to further explore topics such as children’s literature, play in childhood, and working with infant and toddlers by completing additional coursework from a list of restricted electives. Each course within the program is designed to provide a transformative learning environment in which students examine course content from multiple points of reference, including their own cultural worldviews.
Program Learning Outcomes
- Define early childhood national trends, theory, and research-based educational and administrative practices for education.
- Employ various assessment and inquiry tools and inquiry strategies to assess potential cultural bias and stereotypes.
- Generate, implement and evaluate educational curricula for cognitive, social, and emotional needs of students in an early childhood classroom.
- Design and implement outcome- based learning experiences using action research for the teaching and learning of students in an early childhood classroom.
- Demonstrate critical thinking and creative processes through ethical and professional decision-making working with children, families, communities and educational leadership in the early childhood field.
Program- Specific Requirements
Credit Requirements
General Education: 40 credits
Early Childhood Education: 48 credits
Concentration: 12 credits
General Electives: 21 credits
Total: 121 credits
This is a year-round program, including enrollment in summer. On-ground attendance includes fall and spring 16-week semesters and a 12-week summer semester. Online attendance includes two 8-week terms in fall and spring, and two 6-week terms in summer. A full-time student entering with no transfer credits and successfully completing 12 credits per semester would have a time- to- completion of ten semesters, which is equivalent to 3- 1/3 years, or 40 months.
Graduation Requirements
To successfully complete the ECE 410 portfolio requirement, students must earn a minimum grade of C and submit all required portfolio elements to the designated portfolio platform. Any student earning less than a C must repeat the course.
Students must submit the Petition for Degree Completion and fee to the Office of the Registrar during the semester before they anticipate completing their degree requirements. Students must also settle all outstanding fees with the Student Accounts Office, satisfy any deficiencies, and be in good standing in their program for the bachelor’s degree to be awarded. A minimum cumulative grade point average of 2.0 is required for graduation.
Fieldwork Requirements
Fieldwork consists of observation and supervised clinical experience/teaching. Students may not complete their fieldwork at their current place of employment. Placements will be determined by the School of Human Development and Education ECE core faculty in conjunction with the student.
In designated courses throughout this program, students complete Signature Assignments that are submitted and graded within a portfolio platform. At the end of the program, these Signature Assignments, along with other core assignments, are compiled to create the required final portfolio.
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