Undergraduate Certificate - Early Childhood Teacher Training

The Early Childhood Teacher Training certificate is structured to prepare candidates to apply subject matter expertise, assessment knowledge, and differentiated instructional practices within early childhood learning environments.

This program is open to candidates from all states and countries, and does not lead to licensure. Candidates could include parents, Sunday school or classroom teachers, Education event planners, or other professionals in many settings: hospitals, childcare homes, international schools, ACSI schools both stateside and overseas, and private schools.

Candidates who have completed this program should be able to:

• Actively promote child development and developmentally appropriate learning experiences for all children in child care, classroom, home, and community settings.
• Exhibit knowledge and understanding of the dynamics of diverse family and community characteristics, honoring diverse cultural values, language, and norms by encouraging a child's learning connectedness to home.
• Facilitate positive, respectful, and reciprocal relationship-based interactions as a foundation to support, empower, and engage young children and families. 
• Exhibit professional dispositions, demonstrating moral decision-making, upholding ethical standards with all stakeholders, and reflecting biblical behavior as the foundation of work with families, young children, and communities. 
• Create safe, healthy, respectful, supportive, and challenging learning environments, where young children have access to quality learning opportunities that inspire and set the stage for growth across the developmental domains.
• Consider contextual factors, learning cycle choices, development, and environment to proactively determine appropriate setting and behavior management procedures and practices, initiating and thinking professionally in a timely manner to address management concerns.
• Practice servant leadership philosophy and principles in approach to clinical and service experiences, serve by putting the needs of others first, sharing power, aspiring to lead after trust and relations are earned and built, and helping young children, families, and communities develop and perform as highly as possible.
• Apply constructivist (Vygotsky) theoretical framework into practice throughout academic disciplines to design and support inquiry-based, play-based, open-ended, project-based, and problem-based learning experiences.
• Design developmentally appropriate content-rich purposeful curriculum emphasizing the integration of topics and disciplines, integrating academic standards, child development, impacting contextual factors, and individual/group interests, needs, learning styles.
• Evaluate and implement developmentally appropriate effective approaches when selecting a wide variety of tools, resources, and strategies to meet the unique needs of all learners including: technology, inquiry-based, project-based, problem-based, UDL, RI, and differentiation practices.
• Demonstrate skills in systematic and responsible observing, documenting, assessing, analyzing, and reporting data to support early learning.

Admission Requirements

• Proof of standard high school diploma, GED certification, or vetted international secondary equivalent.
• US based Candidates (requirements for international candidates will be evaluated on an individual basis):
  • Submit a signed FERPA Release Form. 
  • Proof of up-to-date TB test. 
  • Most current vaccination record. 
  • A signed Field Placement Requirement Notification form. 
  • Applicants who do not hold a valid license in the field of education will be required to submit a criminal history background check conducted at the applicant's expense. Admission to and/or progression in designated programs will be based upon criteria set in the Criminal History Background Check Admissions Policy. 
  • NOTE: Applicants should be aware that Indiana State Legislation has mandated that expanded background checks are required for those working with students in Indiana schools. Applicants will also be required to adhere to any additional State Mandates required for educators. Though candidates will be required to submit an initial background check and other documentation that is acceptable to the university as part of their application materials, those successful submissions, will only serve to gain admittance to that academic program. All accepted candidates should understand, that at the candidate’s expense, additional background checks, proof of mandated trainings, and/or health related documentation will most likely be required before participating in clinical experiences.

Completion Requirements

To complete the Early Childhood Teacher Training certificate, candidates must:

• Complete the 21 credit hours with a grade of at least a "C" in each course.
• Payment of all tuition and fees is required to receive a certificate.

Early Childhood Teacher Training Certificate - Program of Study

Core Courses

ECED-105I	Child Growth and Development	3
ECED-130I	Parents, Families, and Communities as Partners	3
ECED-301I	Infant/Toddler Care-on-Demand Environments	3
ECED-304I	Preschool Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment	3
ECED-401I	STEM Concepts in the Primary Grades	3
ECED-331I	Literacy in the Primary Grades	3
ECED-411I	Classroom Management in the Primary Grades	3
Total Credit Hours:		21