2025-2026 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 for 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 in Early Childhood Education provides students with foundational knowledge and practical skills to support the learning and development of children from birth through age eight. Grounded in a constructivist framework, the curriculum emphasizes responsiveness to the diverse needs, characteristics, and cultural backgrounds of young children.
Students actively engage with essential principles and theories of pedagogy and child development while participating in supervised learning experiences that promote the integration and application of knowledge. The program fosters inquiry, self-reflection, problem-solving, and collaboration, encouraging students to become thoughtful and competent early childhood professionals.
With a strong emphasis on respectful, reciprocal relationships, the program prepares students to create supportive and developmentally appropriate learning environments. Coursework focuses on strategies for inclusion, equity, social justice, and cultural competence, while addressing the multiple influences on child development, including family, school, and community contexts.
The core curriculum is designed to help students design, implement, and evaluate effective early childhood curricula. It provides a framework for understanding how young children learn and introduces assessment strategies such as observation, documentation, and reflective practice. Key issues of diversity and equity are integrated throughout the curriculum to ensure relevance to educational settings marked by wide variation in language proficiency, socio-economic status, ability, and other key factors that influence learning.
Students may deepen their knowledge by selecting from a range of restricted electives, exploring topics such as children’s literature, childhood play, and infant/toddler development. Each course in the program invites students into a transformative learning environment, encouraging them to examine content through multiple lenses, 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 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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