Do you believe students with an Associate's Degree in Early Child Education are more qualified?

Question

I'm evaluating Early Childhood Education programs as part of my Master's Degree courses. I'm wondering what the directors of daycare centers and preschools think about the qualifications of the graduates of the Early Childhood Education Technology AA two year degree programs. Do these students demonstrate more qualifications than the "experience only" preschool and daycare teachers? What do you require from your applicants in regards to education for them to work in your school or daycare?

Answer 1

Having my associates degree and also knowing teachers that are experience only, I feel I can give a good opinion.

In preschool, they don't teach you everything from a book. Experiences come up that all the literature about early childhood couldn't teach you.

However, education is always something great to have, so having more knowledge in your career is a great thing. But, having a lot of experience in early childhood with no education on it, you learn so much everyday anyway.

Being a teacher means that you are always a student- everyday is a learning experience in your classroom.

Answer 2

As a former director of 25 years I belive that there are good 'teacher's that come from course work as well as life experience.  It mostly depends on what their motives are for entering the field.  I've found that a lot of study only teachers are clueless as to what it really takes to be a good child care employee as well as there are a lot of experience only based teachers who enter the field because they don't want to do retail or fast food or they need cheap childcare or they think that all it takes to do a proper job is to just watch the kids play all day.  All in all I'd always examine why a person enters the field and go from there.

Answer 3

Regarding the "qualifications of the graduates of the Early Childhood Education Technology AA two year degree programs" I would have to say that observations of these graduates interacting with the children of their target age group will reveal the quality of the training they have received.  Did they obtain "book knowledge" but no hands-on experience?  If so, they are not likely to do well "in the trenches," so to speak.

"Experience only" teachers should have the same type of observations.  Obviously in-service training should be recorded in employee files and will provide a glimpse of the extent of the teacher's commitment to ongoing professional development.  

I have seen "experience only" teachers who have accumulated more training relevant to the early childhood education field than required for a Program Director position.  This type of "experience only" teacher seems content in a classroom position and has no desire to be in management - but serves as an excellent mentor to younger teachers who may be degreed, but just don't have as much experience.

Conversely, I have also seen "experience only" teachers who claim to be qualified for teaching as they have raised x number of children and x number of grandchildren or extended family members and such.  They may avoid training because they feel they already know what works and have no use for new techniques, and only complete the minimum required annual training hours.  This type of teacher has little regard for developmentally appropriate practice and may be overheard making comments such as: "See, I told you not to..." or "Well, that's what you get..."

Here is a link to an article I came across in some research about a year ago discussing the retirement of our best qualified teachers whose careers were at their peak in the 1980's.  http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/study_ece...

Clearly there is a gap that must be closed.  I live in Kansas and the state guidelines require no special training, but 10 clock hours of training annually.  Here is a link for the state by state standards:

http://www.nccic.org/pubs/cclicensingreq...

This is just for teachers.  Look also for the qualifications for Directors and for those of Family Child Care Providers.

Our Center signed up with the local Workforce Center to develop a pre-employment career assessment.  We require all applicants to complete the survey and take the results into consideration along with the applicant's qualifications.  It has been fascinating to see just how well the results of the survey line up with the applicants' work ethic and personality traits.  

Best wishes with your courses.

Answer 4

In my 18 years as a day care director I always chose teachers with a 2 year degree in Early Childhood or a CDA over certified teachers with elementary certification that happened to include Nursery School. The certified teachers usually thought of the preschool kids as miniature elementary kids, unless they happen to come from a program like Bank Street. There is a difference between many of the experience only staff members without any college courses and the ones with the 2 year degree in their ability to understand the theory that guides what they do so they were more likely  to develop a more appropriate curriculum. On the other hand, I inherited a couple of teachers who were grandfathered in under the old regulations and had no college but had about 15 years experience and they were superb at understanding the kids we worked with, all of whom came from low income families. About 60% at any given time had open CPS cases. My best teachers combined the community experience with the education.

Answer 5

As a Director of many centers thru the years I would often pick a Teacher that had more hands on experience than one with just schooling. Schooling means nothing without the experience. I would only hire on Teacher that had their BA in Elementary if they were working with the older children or afterschool programs.

Answer 6

Honestly I think there needs to be both.  Experience with out knowledge is like knowledge without experience.  I think there are some key classes that everyone should have more so than a degree.  A degree is just a piece of paper that says you went to class.  I think you can gain a lot more from working hands on in the field.  However like I said before I think there are some classes that are critical to be able to do the job; child development and a class in child discipline are critical in my opinion.

Answer 7

I am currently working on my ECE degree and I have to do practicums which cover experience. Plus I want to get a job in a preschool so I will have more than my practicum experience. So both are needed.

Answer 8

Ah, I'm working on my Master's as well.

In the Associates Degree program at our community college, and all the other ones I know of, include a certain number of hours in a Daycare Setting. So I think that a person with an associates degree has the education AND the experience, which is better for both parents and children.

JMHO. =]

Answer 9

I'm going into an ECE/Montessori training program in the fall. I personally would not feel qualified to teach a preschool class without it. If you need a degree to teach older kids, why wouldn't you need one to teach preschool? It's not just glorified daycare! You really do teach the class.

Also, at least where I live, you're required by law to have certified ECE/Montessori teachers for your preschool or daycare. I haven't seen a job posting yet that doesn't require it, and our provincial gov't website for Children and Families even says it's required. I would never hire someone without an ECE and I certainly wouldn't feel competent to lead a class without one.