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Faculty: Faculty of Education
Degree(s): Bachelor of Education in Early Childhood Education
Campus: Fredericton
The Bachelor of Education in Early Childhood Education aims to enhance the qualifications of early childhood educators addressing the regional trends of investing in early learning and care of young children.
The early learning sector is professionalizing at an escalating rate, with growing commitments to retention, pay equity, quality standards and credentialing. With professionalization of the sector comes an increasing number of service and employment opportunities, all of which will require higher levels of qualifications as time goes on.
UNB’s Bachelor of Education in Early Childhood Education online degree program addresses these regional, national, and international goals by affording early childhood educators’ access to post-secondary education.
The BEd in ECE degree program is designed to enhance early childhood educators’ understandings of current research, theories, policies, curricula, and pedagogical practices for children in kindergarten to grade three extending the knowledge and experience gained during the attainment of a two-year diploma in early childhood education and the experiences of in-service early childhood educators.
The degree program is an accessible and flexible program that with courses completed asynchronously. The online delivery model will support early childhood educators already in the workforce to enhance their existing qualifications with a degree while continuing to work in their local communities.
Course assignments are designed for work-integrated learning experiences where educators can apply their learning with children, documenting and reflecting upon their teaching experiences with peers, instructors, and colleagues at their job sites. Many students have designed workshops, book studies, and shared courses resources with colleagues facilitating professional learning communities as part of or an extension of an assignment.
Students of the BEd in ECE degree who aim to be provincially certified teachers are then required to complete an additional 9 credit hours (9 weeks) practicum in a K to 3 setting. Those students who opt out of teacher certification will substitute the 9 credit hours of UNB practicum with an additional 9 credit hours of UNB coursework approved by advisor and early childhood faculty.
The program will enable graduates to become knowledgeable, skilled, and reflective professionals working with children and families in the field of early childhood education.
Graduates will have the skills, knowledge, and experience to be employed in a broad range of early childhood education settings. As the early learning sector expands in scope and professionalizes, the rapidly expanding opportunities for leadership and employment in both the public and private sectors will require degree level qualifications.
Successful graduates will be eligible to pursue the following employment positions or career advancement in early intervention, family resource centres, parent support programs, early childhood services in hospitals, early learning and childcare centres, college instructors, and early childhood education administrators, program directors, coordinators or supervisors, and elementary school teachers.
For admission requirements, select "Education" in our admission requirements tool.