Elementary and Early Childhood Education, A.A.

This program is available 100% online.

Teachers change lives by opening new worlds for students and inspiring them to reach their goals. Early childhood education is an educational specialty designed to prepare students to work with children and their families in various settings from birth through third grade. An elementary education prepares individuals interested in a teaching career in a public or private school setting from kindergarten through the sixth grade. Western’s teaching preparation focuses on current and innovative teaching theories, including implementing a service-learning project, technology inclusion, and project-based learning. The education program also introduces many important skills and elements of the teaching profession. The development and understanding of which are essential for future success, such as classroom management, special education, literacy for children, lesson design, educational psychology, and elementary science and math preparation. The students experience hands-on what it means to be a preschool and/or elementary school teacher because the program provides them the opportunity to participate in preschool and/or public-school classroom activities as practicum students. These experiences have a four-pronged focus: they introduce theories and pedagogical skills that are learned during classes are applied and reinforced by the teachers, they give students real-world teaching practices, they help students decide about their future teaching careers, and they lay the academic foundation needed before entering a bachelor’s degree program. Students wanting to enter the teaching field must obtain at least a bachelor’s degree in education. Therefore, Western’s education program has specific pathways that will create a seamless transfer to any university in the country upon completing the associate degree requirements.