If you see yourself nurturing young children’s curiosity, social skills, and understanding of the way the world works, UVM's Campus Children's Center will welcome your contributions as you work directly with infants, toddlers and preschoolers.
If you envision yourself in a room of eager kindergarteners, you will study with faculty recognized for their cutting-edge work in a child-centered curriculum. You will learn to help young children express their experiences in words, pictures, stories, sculpture, and other media as they build their foundation for academic skills.
If you dream of inspiring children in the early grades, you will learn how to help them understand the world as close as Burlington or as far away as Beijing as they learn to read and write and acquire basic mathematical and problem solving abilities. You will encourage them to better recognize and understand their world and to express this knowledge in words and images as you nurture their scientific inquiry and cooperative skills.
Students who major in PreK-3 education take a broad range of courses covering both professional practice in early education and the liberal arts and sciences. The professional practice courses provide extensive opportunities to observe and work with infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and primary grade children at the UVM Campus Children's Center and local elementary schools. Students learn to develop curriculum appropriate for typical children and those with special needs. PreK-3 majors also choose from more than 30 approved major concentrations in the arts and sciences to complement their professional courses.
As a PreK-3 major, you will have two semesters of formal student teaching experience, one with children under the age of five and a second with children in kindergarten through grade three.
PreK-3 students frequently have the opportunity to participate in a bi-lateral exchange program at the Stockholm Institute of Education in Stockholm, Sweden.
The program is approved by the Vermont State Department of Education, which has reciprocity with many states and the District of Columbia and is accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). Successful program completion leads to licensure and an endorsement to teach Early Childhood Education (Birth-Grade 3).