PROPOSAL COVER SHEET

1. Title of Paper

Institution/Address _Wright State University__ 376 Millett Hall

City/State/ZIP ______Dayton, Ohio 45435__________ E-mail______cafinegan@aol.com___________

PROPOSAL COVER SHEET

The challenge is to create a teacher preparation program for pre-service Early Childhood Educators which requires that they possess the knowledge, skills and dispositions for working with young children, (ages 3-8) who are typically developing as well as those with special learning and developmental needs and their families. The early childhood program must meet or surpass state guidelines, the professional standards of the National Association for the Education of Young Children as well as the Division of Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children. In addition, Institutes of Higher Education must also earn NACTE approval. This is a difficult task, especially when the program must be able to be completed in approximately 4 years, and must be competitive with other institutions in the area.

The Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children (DEC/CEC) and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) have developed comprehensive personnel standards related to the preparation of Early Childhood Educators that maintain that they must possess the knowledge, skills and dispositions for working with young children with special learning and developmental needs and their families. These personnel standards support the practice of inclusion, the provision of services for young children with special needs in general, and early childhood programs and other community-based settings in which typically developing young children are also served.

The Early Childhood License is issued to educators who wish to instruct young children from pre-kindergarten through grade three (ages 3-8) who are typically developing, at-risk, gifted, and who have mild/moderate educational needs. This session presents a collaborative comprehensive model of instruction in Early Childhood Education (ECE) at an Institute of Higher Education and local partnership schools designed to prepare early childhood educators to teach young children in inclusionary classrooms for the 21 st century..

The program in designed to facilitate the modeling of integration of subject matter between classes, collaboration, team teaching by professors and clinical faculty in the planning, delivery, application and evaluation of required courses. Professors teaching accompanying classes provide guidance in observation and participation in the field placement and will require the completion of specific assignments and projects to assist in the preparation of the pre-service teacher as a decision-maker, problem solver and developing professional.

Education students enter the program having completed about 90 quarter hours in general education and curriculum content courses. Each quarter, fifteen to eighteen hours of coursework are taught in a block format. This block includes three or four professional preparation courses and at least one field experience in which students are assigned to ECE sites serving young children (typically and atypically developing) birth - 8 yrs. old. Coursework is in early childhood, special education, multi-cultural diversity, educational psychology, technology, and the content areas of Math, Science, Language Arts, and Social Studies.

NAEYC and DEC/CEC mandate that early childhood programs provide candidates with guided opportunities to integrate theories of child development, family systems, theories of learning, content knowledge, and early childhood curriculum and pedagogy with application during field experiences. In the comprehensive model that is being presented, five field experiences are required before student teaching; one quarter is spent observing and interacting with infants and toddlers, one quarter is in an early intervention program (3-5 yr. old with special needs) or fully inclusionary program, and three are in a kindergarten through third grade placement.

With guidance and assistance from departments of education, professional organizations and associations, it is possible to provide a comprehensive program to prepare early childhood educators to effectively teach all children, typically or atypically developing, in inclusionary classroom settings.

At the end of the session, participants will be able to see how colleges of education can design teacher education programs which will prepare early childhood educators to teach and meet the needs of all children.

The presenters will encourage participation of audience in sharing common goals and solutions in providing coursework for developing early childhood professionals and especially opportunities to apply learned skills into classroom curriculum.

1. Subject Descriptors–Using the List of Descriptors found on page 8, please provide up to three descriptors of your proposal for the subject index of the Annual Meeting program.

2. Please indicate to which strand you are submitting your proposal and what type of session it is by checking one box only.

Provide a 30-word-or-less description of the proposed session, using complete sentences. Each description will be printed in the Annual Meeting program (AACTE reserves editorial rights).

PROPOSAL REVIEW FORM

Proposal ID __________ Session ID __________

(for AACTE use) (for AACTE use)

Title of Session/Paper/Presentation:

Please indicate to which strand you are submitting your proposal and what type of session it is by checking one box only (should be the same as marked in Section D of Proposal Cover Sheet).