Theories and Methods of Early Childhood Numeracy and Science Concepts (Grades K-3)

Catalog description

Prepares early childhood educators to enact core teaching practices supporting ambitious STEM instruction. Focuses on the importance of play and exploration and its connection to the development of early math and science thinking and skills. Topics include core teaching practices supporting ambitious STEM instruction: identifying a big idea; selecting worthwhile STEM tasks; using representations to model STEM concepts; eliciting and building on student thinking; facilitating whole class discussion. Emphasizes the role that counting and cardinality, operations and algebraic thinking, number and operations, geometry, and data and measurement play in predicting children’s later learning outcomes. Provides students multiple opportunities to integrate theory with practice through analysis and reflection on their own teaching in early childhood classrooms. Requires ten (10) hours of field experience in an early childhood classroom.