Early Childhood Education

About the Early Childhood Education team

Established in 1998, Early Childhood Education (ECE) at UNE is committed to teaching that is engaging, meaningful and life long.

We offer a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses that specialise in Early Childhood Education.

Our staff are involved in a wide range of projects, and we are actively involved in local, national and international professional and research communities, including:

  • Summer Institute
  • Professionalisation of Early Childhood
  • ECE in Bhutan
  • ALA Project

The Early Childhood Education team's philosophy of teaching and learning

  • We subscribe to a social constructivist view of professional growth and believe that our students are members of wider learning circles ~ within UNE, early childhood contexts, local communities and beyond.
  • We believe in the importance and relevance of social interaction to an effective learning process; interaction among students plays a central role in learning.
  • We value your previous experiences, your values, your understandings, beliefs and insights. We acknowledge the unique contribution of the personal professional knowledge you bring to each unit.
  • We believe in your ability to take an active, responsible approach to your development, personally and as a professional.
  • We recognise your commitment and positive orientation to your work with children, families and communities, and we share in your passion about new ideas, possibilities and professional growth.
  • We honour multiple ways of demonstrating your knowledge, abilities and understandings.
  • We honour multiple ways of reflecting and communicating.
  • We are also guided by the intention that our BEd courses are preparing you for varying work/employment opportunities in communities, requiring contemporary knowledges, cultural sensitivity and understandings, and diverse leadership, problem solving and collaborative relational skills.

What does our philosophy look like in practice?

The following outlines what you are to expect from the Early Childhood team, and also what we will expect from you as participants in our units. You can expect the pedagogical perspective of Early Childhood units to include:

  • ongoing assessment which builds upon each other toward a more sophisticated representation of your knowledge, abilities, thoughts and feelings;
  • learning experiences focused on small group interaction and collaboration, requiring further involvement in the online environment; and an
  • appreciation of multiple forms of expression, thinking and communication.

The Early Childhood Team's role is not reflective of "instructing" or "lecturing". Each unit coordinator will be:

  • scaffolding your learning by building upon what you have already experienced and what you already know;
  • developing and sourcing multimedia materials to facilitate learning;
  • planning and providing opportunities to engage with peers in timely and important topics;
  • supporting the communication process;
  • guiding you as a learner to be aware of your own learning through reflection;
  • giving feedback to improve learning; and
  • using student input to improve the course.

The Early Childhood Team expects students to:

  • engage with the readings and other resources provided;
  • be responsible to your peers;
  • respond to feedback from peers and the Early Childhood team; and
  • source appropriate resources from outside the units' materials, using the online resources available from the UNE library.

Units of Study

Early Childhood Education units of study (EDEC prefix) are offered in undergraduate and postgraduate awards.

Courses of study

Early Childhood Education units are integrated into multiple undergraduate courses offered by the School of Education. See the range of Education courses with the Course Search.