The Early Childhood Education program at Columbia College Chicago provides students with the opportunity to complete both their Bachelor of Arts and a professional credential. Students who successfully complete the licensure requirements of the program earn an IL teaching license with an endorsement in early childhood education. This license enables them to teach children, birth through the third grade, in multiple settings, including public schools.

The program is unique in its emphasis on the arts for early childhood educators. Students complete at least 18 credit hours of work in a focused course of study in the visual arts, performing arts, or a defined area of language and culture. The arts are also integrated into all Early Childhood courses by the instructors and by Columbia artists who serve as consultants and guest lecturers. The program honors multiple routes to understanding in its own students and employs teaching strategies that parallel those that its graduates are prepared to use in their own work with children. Significant emphasis is placed on the Reggio Emilia Approach.

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