PGDip in Early Childhood Education

University of Oxford

The PGDip in Early Childhood Education (ECE) is designed for education professionals working with young children in the national and international sectors. This part-time course, taken over three terms, grounds participants in research evidence on child development and early childhood education to help inform policy and practice.Delivery of this course is mostly online, with a one-week residential component.You will receive a grounding in core knowledge and skills across three key domains of child development and pedagogy, and be supported in using this knowledge to implement evidence-based classroom practice:play-based, child-centred approaches and environments;supporting social-emotional development and wellbeing; andsupporting language, literacy and executive function.The core aims of the course are to promote: understanding of theory and research relating to child development and effective early childhood pedagogy across the cognitive, social and emotional domains, including analysis of their robustness and the information they provide for informing practicea practical understanding of how to engage in research-informed practice, including seeking and critically engaging with available evidence and designing and conducting ones’ own classroom-based researchan understanding of cross-cutting themes relevant to research-informed ECE practice and of current issues/debates in the ECE fieldthe application of research and theory to practice through reflection on ones’ own teaching, in order to enhance professional performancethe skills of independent critical thought, rational inquiry, and self-directed learningcritical engagement with, and reflection on, current issues and debates in the field of ECE research and practice through the lens of research and theory. On completing your studies, you should feel confident to implement evidence-based practice in the domains covered, and to extend your learning about the process of becoming research-informed to other domains.Threaded throughout the course are central concepts such as: cultural sensitivity; individual differences; inclusion and diversity; working with families; pedagogical leadership; and developing communities of practice.