Boston University School of Education

Specializing in early childhood education begins with a solid foundation in the liberal arts, including the humanities, social sciences, mathematics, and science. In addition, your studies focus on psychology and sociology, as well as basic professional educational studies and, of course, intense study in early childhood education.

As a student in the Early Childhood Education program, you will participate in fieldwork at a local public school beginning freshman year, when you take ED100: Introduction to Education. During your junior year, you will teach for one semester in the preschool. For a kindergarten practicum, you are placed in a local public school. As a senior, you may complete the first or second grade practicum in a local public school, selected by our program faculty, or in one of the international schools in Australia, Ecuador, or England that provides overseas placements for Boston University students who are accepted into the international program.

Required Courses for Undergraduates
Undergraduates complete a total of 80 credits in the Liberal Arts in addition to the following Education course requirements:

SED ED 100		Introduction to Education*
SED ED 101		Education Lab
SED SE 250		Disability, Education, and Public Policy
SED EC 305		Child Development and Early Childhood Education
SED EC 350		Introduction to Early Childhood Education
SED ME 554		Teaching Mathematics: Early Childhood
SED EC 405		Preschool Curriculum and Fieldwork*
SED ED 410		Social Context of Education
SED ED 412		Civic Context of Education
SED EC 453		Curriculum and Practicum in ECE: Kindergarten*
SED LR 501		Teaching of Reading
SED PE 511		Movement Education: Early Childhood to Adolescence
SED EC 553		Early Childhood Practicum: 1st or 2nd grade*
SED EC 556		Children’s Literature for Early Childhood Teachers
SED EC 557		Classroom-Based Assessment of Young Children
* Field-based courses that include seminars and prepracticum or practicum placements.

The Early Childhood Learning Laboratory (ECLL)
The Preschool at Boston University
The Early Childhood Learning Laboratory (ECLL) is a preschool affiliated with and located at the School of Education. The ECLL is a laboratory and demonstration school that is available to Boston University students, parents of children in the program, and other early childhood professionals for observing children and teachers. Children whose families live in the local neighborhood primarily attend this open-enrollment school. There are 20 children, ages 2.9-5, in a mixed age group with two licensed early childhood teachers.

The preschool program employs an innovative, inquiry-based approach to curriculum design. Teachers determine a topic of study that relates to the children’s interest. The concepts or big ideas of this topic are decided upon, and activities are designed to teach those concepts.

Teachers continually monitor the children’s engagement in the activities, documenting their comments, questions, and interactions in order to make on-going adjustments to the plan and the environment. All students in the early childhood undergraduate and graduate programs complete one semester of fieldwork in the ECLL. Our students work closely with the teachers, meeting and planning with them, and implementing their plans with their guidance and support.

The ECLL classrooms are equipped with video recording equipment, which enables the staff to regularly record each student’s work in the classroom. Each student has the opportunity to view the recording to reflect on his or her teaching performance. In addition, each student meets with the faculty supervisor to review the information and discuss the student’s growth in her/his teaching skills. Our students also observe lead teachers and children from the adjacent Observation Room where they can listen through headphones and view the classroom through the one-way viewing windows.