Bachelor of Education in Early Childhood Development

The Bachelor of Education in Early Childhood Development prepares students to become qualified instructors who are able to teach and lead children from infancy to the third grade. Students will learn how to help children develop social, personal, and academic skills, and how to prepare them to continue and advance their education.

This BEd Degree in Early Childhood Development was developed to provide background knowledge of early childhood developmental needs and adequately prepare future educators to become effective teachers. Through basic theory and application courses, the program will provide the education required to help students understand appropriate methods and techniques and how to create compliant and age-appropriate lessons.

The Bachelor of Education in Early Childhood Development degree is meant not only to equip its graduates with the ability to identify and stimulate the development of creativity among young children but also to produce graduates who are highly skilled and professionally qualified to handle children at the formative years to enable them to become useful members of the society. In addition, there is a high demand for those who have specialized training in Early Childhood Education to give professional input in handling children as well as manage Early Childhood Education programs.

Career Opportunities

At the end of the program, the graduates should be able to work in various settings such as Child Development centers, schools and colleges, Non-Governmental Organizations, community-based projects, and nutrition centers.

Objectives of Bachelor of Education in Early Childhood Development

The Bachelor of Education in Early Childhood Development program focuses on a holistic approach to child development and seeks to train early childhood teachers, educators, and administrators/leaders by providing them with relevant knowledge, skills, and attitudes capable of bringing about robust learning on the ever-emerging issues on children.

The main objective of this program is to produce graduates with the ability to identify and stimulate the development of creativity among young children.

Specific objectives of this program are;

• To equip students with skills that will enable trainees to nurture children successfully.
• To enable students to use diagnostic tools in the assessment of children with a view to making them become productive and useful members of society.
• To equip students with knowledge and skills that will make trainees successful managers of Early Childhood Education institutions and programs.

Graduates of the Bachelors of Science in Early Childhood Development are able to:

• Plan and implement developmentally appropriate lessons according to the state?s standards.
• Demonstrate professional and ethical behavior in the classroom and in the field.
• Use knowledge of child development to create healthy, respectful, supportive, and challenging learning environments for young children.
• Develop and implement strategies to support and engage families and communities through respectful, reciprocal relationships.
• Practice responsible assessment to promote positive outcomes for each child, including an awareness of assistive technology for children with ability differences.

What you will study

The Bachelor of Education in Early Childhood Development degree program shall normally take four academic years of 8 semesters. Courses shall be offered in Units. A course Unit is defined as that of a subject described by a coherent syllabus and taught normally over a period of a semester.

All courses will be taught for a total of 42 contact hours, including examinations except institutional attachment which will take 240 hours of practical work in a relevant institution.

Students shall be required to undergo a teaching practice for three (3) months at the end of the second semester of the third year of study 

Year 1, Semester 1 Units:

Scope and Concern of Early Childhood Education: Definition of Early Childhood Education, the historical development of ECE, the justification for ECE, comparison between ECE in Kenya and other countries, ECE and the mainstream school system, influence on the development of ECE, Government involvement in the Early Childhood Education programs.

Computer Organization and Application: Introduction to the computer and the notion of a programmable machine, the basic organization based on the Von Neumann Model, functional components (CPU, memory, I/Q) and their logical organization, number systems, and internal data representation, concept software and types of software, components of contemporary personal computer systems from end-users perspective, classical and contemporary application of computers, proficiency in basic computer usage and productivity/office automation application including word-processing, spreadsheets, e-mail, web, etc, basic first-level security and maintenance issues, ethical and societal issues.

Children?s Rights, Advocacy and Welfare: History of children?s Rights, Universal Declaration of human rights, United Nations Convention on the rights of the child, African Charter on the rights of the child, children?s Act 2001, categories of Rights, instruments providing for the rights of the child, principles of the rights of the child, the Government's role in enhancing children?s rights, intervention strategies by teachers and caregivers to safeguard rights of the children.

Communication Skills: Study skills, planning study time, making reference, filing notes, preparing for examinations, library skills, organization, classification, shelving, using reference books, listening in lecture, speeches, and instructions, understanding lectures, note-taking, speaking skills, asking and answering questions in lectures and seminars, making and defending arguments, agreeing and disagreeing, explaining points clearly, academic reading skills, skimming and scanning, understanding footnotes and bibliographical references.

HIV and AIDS: Historical background and magnitude of HIV/AIDS, the general organization of the human body, reproduction immune system (human physiology) and other factors, sex and sexuality, the biology of the human immune deficiency virus and viral transmission, stages of infection and the development of HIV and AIDS, opportunistic infections, HIV and AIDS prevention and infection control, peer education for HIV, treatment options and vaccine development, blood transfusion and HIV and AIDS, management of HIV and related infections, legal and ethical issues in HIV and AIDS, factors that influence the spread of HIV and AIDS in Africa, case studies in selected countries in Africa, HIV and AIDS as a national disaster impacts, myths and emerging issues on HIV and AIDS.

Introduction to Educational Psychology: Nature and scope of psychology, learning theories - Skinner, Pavlov, Bandura, Piaget, information processing, factors affecting learning in ECE, environment, heredity, memory, motivation concept formation, sensation and perception, intelligence, emotions, attitudes - how these factors influence learning.

Introduction to Early Childhood Education: Definition of terms in Early Childhood Education (ECE), a general view of the field of early childhood education, misconceptions, the scope of the field of early childhood, professional identity, the future of early childhood education as a field of study, various early childhood theories and theoretical frameworks, the relationship between early childhood education and other fields of study.

Introduction to Special Needs Education: Definition of education and Special Needs Education, historical development of special education, special and regular education, categorization of education, special education, and society, sociology of special education and characteristics of various exceptionalities, causes, and prevalence of handicapping conditions on each exceptional case.

Year 1, Semester 2 Units:

Language Development and Language Activities: Role of language in communication, forms of human communication, language acquisition, stages of language development in children, theories of language development - Piaget, Chomsky, Lennerberg, Vygotsky, Bruner, language acquisition skills, teaching speech, teaching reading and writing, language acquisition difficulties, language policy issues in Kenya, materials for teaching language, the role of children?s literature.

Development Studies: Development studies as an autonomous discipline, the concept of development, an overview of the theories and paradigms of development, the relationship between economic growth and development, science and technology in development, developed and developing countries, issues in development, social, economic and political, actors in development, the state, national and international NGO?s, bilateral, multilateral institutions, Multinational Corporations (MNC?s) and social movements.

Environmental Education: Environmental education perspectives, the earth - its environmental systems and resources, environmental management, demography, and the environment, human settlements, society, culture, and environmental awareness, technology and environment, development and environment, legal aspects of the environment, chemicals and environment, the teaching of environmental education in the education system.

History of Education: Development of education throughout history, education in classical times: education during the middle ages, the emergence of states in the 17th and 18th centuries and its influence upon the development of education, education in the 19th and 20th centuries with the historical study of the ideas of selected important educational thinkers, history of education in Kenya, patterns, problems and developments from the pre-colonial times to the present.

Social Ethics and Integrity: Definitions and concepts, categories of ethics, national cohesion, integrity, unity, structural injustices, ethnicity, positive ethnicity, negative ethnicity, peace, peacemaking, peacebuilding, peace transformation, stakeholders in national cohesion.

Child Guidance and Counseling: Definitions and history of guidance and counseling, the importance of guidance and counseling, theories of child guidance and counseling, care of children, psychopathology in developmental psychology, elements of counseling, guidance vs counseling, problems areas that children require counseling, traditional and modern counseling, philosophical principles of counseling, adaptations of counseling and psychotherapy processes to children, types, and causes of emotional disturbance in children.

Child Psychology: Introduction to child psychology, psychology of human behavior, methods of study in the psychology of human behavior, general principles of development of behavior, the age level approach to the development of human behavior, infancy, childhood, social learning and behavior, behavioral theories and principles of learning, motivation in human behavior, attention and learning, thinking, memory, concept formation, problem-solving, personality and behavior disorders.

Year 2, Semester 1 Units:

Methods of Research in Early Childhood Education: Importance of the research, categories of research, general research methods in psychology and human learning, qualitative and quantitative research, designing a research study, sample and sampling methods, data analysis and presentation, writing a research proposal, writing a report.

General Methods of Teaching Young Children: Teaching/learning approaches - child-centered, teacher-centered, thematic approach, play, exploration, discovery, peer teaching and group teaching, individual attention, learning teaching strategies, organizing the classroom, grouping, classroom control, sustaining learner?s interest, professional documents-syllabus, schemes of work, lesson plan, timetable.

Philosophy of Education: An introduction to philosophy as a discipline of knowledge, the origin, purpose, and development of educational philosophy as a distinct discipline of knowledge, the content of education, education, and knowledge, education and values, the method of education, the creative and social dimensions of education, the concept of teaching and learning, the teaching of social education and ethics.

Issues and Practices in Early Childhood Education: Traditional issues in early childhood, contemporary issues in early childhood, gender disparity in ECE, Parents? participation in early childhood education, educational opportunity and success for diverse children, developmentally appropriate practices, reconceptualizing early childhood education.

Child Development: Introduction to child development, theories of child development as well as heredity and environment (Nature vs Nurture), various developmental milestones, views of child development, theories of child growth-Piaget, Erikson, Freud - Aspects of child growth, characteristics of growth and development, stages of early childhood growth and development- prenatal, postnatal, factors which influence child growth, the role of playing in Early Childhood Education, ways in which children learn, the role of caregivers, socialization, the transition from home to pre-school to primary school, pre-adolescence and adolescence sexuality, the role of guidance and counseling, the importance of life skills.

Technology, Media and Community Based Education for Young Children: Various technologies in early childhood education, the role of technology in the teaching of young children, role of media in the learning of children, children?s toys, community-based educational opportunities to support the education of three-to-eight-year-old children.

Educational Environment: Various educational environments for young children, Interactions between young learners and the physical and social environments encountered in pre-school, primary school and its environs including transition/adjustments from home to school, classroom organization, and arrangements, discipline, classroom subject corners, environments presenting educational opportunities for young children.

Year 2, Semester 2 Units:

Mathematics Activities: Scope of mathematics for ECE, objectives of Mathematics in ECE, theories of learning and their application in the teaching of Mathematics, Mathematics concepts, skills and activities, strategies in teaching Mathematics in ECE, ECE Mathematics curriculum in Kenya, planning for the institution in Mathematics teaching in ECE, issues in teaching mathematics in ECE, evaluation in ECE Mathematics.

Curriculum Development for ECE: Curriculum development and implementation, stages of curriculum development, the role of other agents in curriculum development and implementation, factors influencing curriculum change, factors influencing ECE curriculum implementation in Kenya curriculum, development theories and models - Tyler, Taba, Oluoch - goals of education and curriculum development, education father and ECE curriculum - Pestalozzi, Froebel, Montessori, Dewey, Piaget, Bruner, ECE curriculum objectives in Kenya, curriculum activity areas for ECE.

Social Studies Activities: Nature and scope of social studies, objectives of social studies curriculum, methods of teaching social studies, teaching resources, living and life skills for young children, emerging issues, social studies, and other activity areas, ways of enhancing social studies activities with children.

Educational Media and Resources: Communication models and learning, barriers to effective communication and how to overcome them, visual communication in learning, verbal and non-verbal communication, introduction to the range of media in teaching and learning, using educational radio and television broadcasts in schools, producing teaching and learning materials in schools, selection and use of print media, management of school multi-teaching center, evaluation of educational media, future developments in educational media and resources.

Indoor and Outdoor Play: Definitions and terms, the rationale of play in children's learning, characteristics of play, theories of play, types of childhood play, play, and other content areas, indoor play activities, outdoor play activities, the role of the teacher during play, the playground, selection/maintenance of play equipment, games for children, common accidents during play.

Health Education and Safety Practices: Various health issues in Early Childhood Education, a safe learning environment, challenging learning environment, a child's physical health status, cognitive, emotional, and social health status. Community involvement in Child?s health, traditional versus modern health matters, cultural aspects on child?s health and safety practices.

Organization and Implementation of ECE Feeding Programs: Objectives of school/center feeding programs need and philosophy of school feeding programs, historical developments of feeding programs in pre-schools, areas of community involvement and strategies of involving communities in feeding programs, meals and food preparation, health issues in feeding programs, personnel and financial management of feeding programs, seasonal food production, and world food problems

Institutional Attachment: During classroom observation, students identify challenges of teaching young children and devising ways of overcoming them, students identify a policy issue, its risks factors, and developing an action plan of how to lessen the risk factors, students should evaluate how a center implements holistic child development an offer implications for further improvements, students should synthesize experiences in curriculum, instruction, classroom organization, class control techniques and devise an action plan of what they would do differently as a way of ensuring maximum learning.

Year 3, Semester 1 Units:

Science Activities in ECE: Types of records in science, the scope of ECE science, African indigenous science, objectives of teaching science in ECE, scientific process of solving problems, methods and approaches, characteristics of a science teacher, skills in science, scientific activities for young children, themes for science activities, Piaget, Dewey, and Bruner in learning and teaching science, methods of evaluating science.

Music and Movement Activities: Nature and scope of music in ECE, the role of music and movement in ECE, songs, relevant to ECE, integration of music in other learning areas, resources for teaching music, use of music in enhancing learning, ways of engaging children in music whole part and phrase by phrase, other forms of music activities such as poetry and narratives.

Social Interaction in Early Childhood Education: Various forms of interactions, mechanisms of influence for social interaction, developmental theories, theories of social interaction, attachments, peer relationships, gender and friendships, foundations of early social development and evidence-based practices for promoting social-emotional development, young children's understanding, interactions, and relationships to the social world.

Child Trauma and Crisis Intervention: Overview of trauma, types, and causes of trauma, signs, and symptoms of trauma, nature, incidences demographic distribution, sequence and appropriate treatment of trauma brought about by various events including death, illness, family alcoholism, emotional, physical and sexual abuse, divorce or parental abandonment, community violence and natural disaster skills, techniques and competencies of trauma counseling, ethical and legal issues in trauma counseling.

Language and Literacy Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment: Extend emerging language and literacy activities, language and literacy development in early childhood classrooms, language acquisition, methods of facilitating the oral language in relation to emergent reading and writing, methods of facilitating early literacy development, clinical experience, schemes of work and lesson planning for language and literacy.

Mathematics Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment: Content, instructional strategies, and assessment in early childhood mathematics, age-appropriate practices, active investigation of mathematics concepts and ideas, connections between mathematics and other subject areas, schemes of work, and lesson planning for mathematics.

Social Studies Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment: Social studies methods, curriculum, instructional and assessment strategies in integrated social studies for children birth through 8 years, methods of teaching young children social studies, lesson planning for social studies.

Year 3, Semester 2 Units:

Maternal, Child Health and Nutrition: Nutrition and the child, deficiency disorders, common childhood diseases, strategies of improving health and nutrition of the child, maternal and child health care services, primary health care, child-rearing practices, child safety and protection, HIV and AIDS impact and intervention measures.

Material Development for ECE: Criteria for selection of materials, relevance, cost, aesthetics, durability, storage-indoor materials, outdoor materials and equipment, development and display of materials, different types of displays.

Creative Activities: Scope of creative activities in ECE, objectives of teaching creative activities, stages of artistic development in children, methods of facilitating creative skills in ECE, types of creative activities, schemes of work and lesson plans for creative activities, assessment tools for creative activities.

Human Behaviour and Learning: Definition, determinants of human behavior, the origin of group membership, group pressure, power and influence, group performance, group norms and cohesiveness, attitudes and stereotypes, motivation, role and conflicts in groups, theories of learning, learning process, conditions of learning, factors affecting learning.

Science Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment: Content, instructional strategies, and assessment in early childhood science, age-appropriate practices, active investigation of science concepts, inquiry and collaborative learning, connections between science and other subject areas, schemes of work, and lesson planning for science.

Music and Movement Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment: Review of creative arts (music, movement, drama, and poetry) activities, methods of teaching music, movement, drama and poetry, curriculum for music and movement, schemes of work, and lesson planning for music and movement, instructional and assessment strategies in an integrated social creative expression curriculum for children from birth through 8 years.

Teacher Research: Studying Children in Contexts: Introduction of teacher research, research that involves children, stages of research with children, designing, conducting, interpreting, and reporting teacher research, methods of research and fieldwork with children to improve teaching practices and child outcomes, investigational issues with children, research ethics with children.

Year 3, Semester 3 Units:

Teaching Practice: This is a practical course for students of education, it provides an opportunity for the students to practice, teaching principles in a real classroom and school environment, each student is attached for a period of three months to a pre-school / child development center where they work under the guidance of the cooperating teacher and the university supervisor, during this period of attachment to the education institution each student is inducted in the teaching profession, guided and graded.

Year 4, Semester 1 Units:

Educational Administration and Management: Introduction to educational administration, theories of administration: scientific management including bureaucracy, human relations, behavioral approach, systems approach, the legal basis of education in Kenya, school organizations, registration, management, roles of boards and committees, instructional management: selection and acquisition of instructional materials and equipment, maintenance of school financial management, principles of book-keeping, sources of school funds, estimates and budgets, spending and accounting for school finances.

Early Childhood Education for Children with Special Needs: Identification of children with special needs, causes of different disabilities, characteristics of children with special needs, children living under difficult circumstances, assessment procedures of children with special needs, intervention strategies for children with special needs, effects of disability in a family and community, institutions offering services for children with special needs.

Sociology of Education and Comparative Education: Origins and evolution of sociology and sociology of education, sociological theories and their relevance to education, education and the socialization process, education and culture, social stratification and education, education opportunity and inequality, education and politics, education and gender development, education and development, sociological research in education settings, comparative study of systems of education in Britain, France, Israel, South Africa, Cameroon, and East African countries, contemporary issues in education.

Educational Tests and Measurements: Introduction, educational objectives, types of tests, test construction, test specification, item analysis, reliability and validity, scaling, test administration, scoring and interpretation, organization of data, graphs, measures of central tendency, measures of dispersion, standard scores, areas under the normal curve, correlation and regression.

Creative Activities Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment: Creative activities methods, curriculum, instructional and assessment strategies in an integrated art and craft for children birth through 8 years, methods of teaching social studies, schemes of work, and lesson plans for social studies.

Social and Educational policies affecting Children in Kenya: Social and educational policies at school, district and ministry levels, values and assumptions of policies, political factors shaping policy and implementation, links between policy, educational practice, schools, and family functioning, ECE policies and pre-school teachers in Kenya.

Program Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation in ECE: Administration and evaluation of early childhood programs, planning and evaluation, regulations, health, nutrition, and safety, operations, budgeting, and supervision of personnel, maintenance of records, management functions, administrative functions, challenges in ECE management, emerging issues and trends in ECE, administration, structure of Ministry of Education in relation to ECE, the role of KIE, NACECE, DICECE, ECE center establishment procedure, stakeholders in ECE, supervision of ECE programs.

Year 4, Semester 2 Units:

Community Education and Mobilization: Community capacity building, community organizational structure, community mobilization and empowerment, group dynamics in community development, socioeconomic changes and effects on child-rearing practices, managing community-based ECE, parents, and community in ECE, networking, and collaboration in ECE, effective communication in community mobilization, emerging issues in communities.

Physical and Psychomotor Activities: Importance of physical and psychomotor activities, identifying physical and psychomotor activities, stages of child development and relevant psychomotor activities, resources for teaching physical and psychomotor activities, relating psychomotor activities to other learning areas, an adaptation of physical and psychomotor activities for children with special needs, schemes of work and lesson plans for physical and psychomotor activities, teaching.

Comparative Early Childhood Education: Rationale for comparison, comparative framework, dimensions of comparison, curriculum dimensions, elements, program evaluation, early childhood education in Kenya, Tanzania, Sweden, U.S.A, Botswana, and Korea, fundamental issues affecting early childhood policy, contemporary issues in early childhood education.

Role of Family in a Changing Society: Definition and terms, descent, resident, marriage, perspectives of the family, other familistic patterns, family as a system, parenting styles and their relationship with child upbringing, family violence, child abuse, and incest, changes in the family system, role of the family in child upbringing. 

Literature in Early Childhood Education: Literature in early childhood and developmentally appropriate strategies to promote young children's speaking, listening, reading, and writing abilities, the significance of literature in early childhood education, forms of literature for children, and how effective early childhood teachers can use literature to facilitate learning, using literature as a form of learning in early childhood education.

Planning and Economics of Education: Educational planning, history and rationale of educational planning, social and psychological factors in educational planning, general problems of educational planning in and outside Kenya, methodologies of educational planning, planning for changes in the educational system, administrative factors, and educational planning, economics of education, leading economic issues of basic concern and their relevance to Kenya, principles of economics of education and planning: microeconomics of education, macro-economics, and socio-economic development.

Guidance and Counseling: Definition: origin and philosophy, theories, skills and techniques, processes, areas and challenges, characteristics, counseling models, ethical standards, counseling exceptional populations, current issues, guidance programs and services, functions of counseling, the role of guidance, and counseling.