Early Childhood Education (ECE)
About ECE
The Early Childhood Education program at Columbia College Chicago provides students with the opportunity to obtain both their Bachelor of Arts and a professional teaching license. Students who successfully complete the program earn an IL Early Childhood Teaching License, which enables them to teach children, birth through the second grade. The program is unique in its emphasis on exploring and implementing the Reggio Emilia approach through the arts,inquiry, collaboration and reflection. The arts are valued for their own merit and are used as tools for instruction in other forms of learning. Students complete 15-18 credit hours of work in a focused course of study in the fine, performing, media, or language arts; language and culture; or an academic discipline.
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ECE Website
Recommended First-Semester Classes
We recommend you take the following classes in your first semester as an Early Childhood Education major:
52-1111 Writing and Rhetoric I* (3 credit hours)
This course is a co-requisite for Foundations I: History and Introduction to ECE and Lifespan Development. A COMPASS test score with a 97 or higher in Writing or an ACT score of 30 or higher in English could be substituted for Writing and Rhetoric I. Students must achieve a B- or better to enroll in further Early Childhood Education classes.
Students who have successfully completed or passed out of Writing & Rhetoric I should try to register for some or all of the following:
- 38-1100 Foundations I: History and Introduction to ECE (2 credit hours) see co-requisite above
- 38-1101 Children’s Literature (1 CH) these two classes run concurrently
- AND/OR
- 38-1125 Lifespan Development (3 CH)
Upper level classes in the major will require faculty permission.
