CIEC 5025 Seminar in Professionalism for Early Childhood Educators

This graduate seminar is for P-3 alternate route certification teacher candidates and is designed to apply learnings about professional knowledge, developmentally appropriate and constructivist practices, and reflective thinking to their P-3 classroom at their place of employment. A key aspect of this seminar is coverage of components necessary to become a professional in the field of early childhood education, and an introduction to NJDOE’s mandatory high stakes assessment (edTPA) and edTPA tasks, academic language and rubrics. In addition to mentoring and evaluations completed by their schools/district as part of NJ Provisional certification, teacher candidates are observed a minimum of 3 times by a University coach to support their growth and development as a provisional teacher. This seminar meets for a minimum of 15 hours over the course of the semester. The seminar provides a basis for discussion and reflection upon teaching experiences, coursework, dispositions and professionalism. Students brainstorm solutions to classroom situations and apply the theoretical knowledge and practice from alternate route coursework. Each student begins development of an edTPA portfolio demonstrating his/her teaching ability. Department permission is required to register for this course.

Prerequisite(s): Acceptance into the P-3 specialized alternate route certificate program and permission by the department.

Credits: 1.5