Bachelor of Education (Honours) in Early Childhood Education

Programme Director: To be confirmed

The Bachelor of Education (Honours) in Early Childhood Education (BEd (Hons) in ECE) programme aims at developing the professional knowledge and skills of secondary leavers who are interested to develop their careers in early childhood education and childcare services as well as enhancing the professional growth and competence of those working in the early childhood settings.

To align with the government’s initiative in upgrading the academic qualification of early childhood educare practitioners, graduates of the programme will be trained to become self-reliant early childhood professionals equipped with in-depth knowledge, lifelong learning skills, and commitment to their profession, with the ability to facilitate learning in a constantly changing world and to promote high quality and innovative education and care for young children in the local early childhood education settings.

Mode of Study

Face-to-face mode will mainly be adopted to cater for the needs of the students and to encourage interaction between lecturers and students. The process of re-thinking teaching beliefs and behaviour will further be facilitated through peer interaction as well as the stimulus afforded by the classroom environment, including pedagogical materials and teaching strategies such as scaffording and guided questions that provoke critical thinking and intellectual discussions in various kindergarten classroom contexts.

In addition, practical sessions will be provided for students to apply the theoretical concepts acquired.

Assessment

Students are expected to complete all the requirements of the programme before being awarded the BEd (Hons) in ECE degree. The grading will be in accordance with the Hong Kong Baptist University’s Grade Point Average (GPA) ruling.   Assessment in each course will vary but will be continuous with a mixture of assignments, practical work, research and examinations.

Programme Structure

The programme consists of 128 units with 13 units under the university core domain, 18 units under the general education domain, 64 units under the major domain and 33 units under the elective domain. The programme consists of all the essential Certificate in Early Childhood Education (C(ECE)) components and graduates will thereby become qualified for registration as teachers serving in kindergartens and kindergarten-cum-child care centres. They will also meet one of the requirements for registration as kindergarten principals. Furthermore, the programme is recognised by the Social Welfare Department for registration as Child Care Workers (CCW) and Child Care Supervisors (CCS). Graduates who have successfully completed the stipulated specialised courses will be recognised by the Social Welfare Department as having covered the training areas of the One Year In-Service Course in Special Child Care Work (SCCW) for special child care workers.

The structure of the curriculum is as follows:

Requirements