Mission Statement

It is the mission of the Early Childhood Demonstration Center to provide a high quality early childhood program to preschool age children, valued members of the Rowan University community. The Center addresses academic achievement, social and personal responsibility, and social justice through daily routines, transitions, and free choice opportunities. Children are taught the rules, roles, procedures, and norms of behavior through carefully planned learning experiences based on stages of development over the course of the school year.

The Center seeks to provide a developmentally appropriate learning experience for young children in order to promote a lifelong love of learning and to ensure later school success.
This mission is accomplished by:

• Addressing academic achievement, social responsibility, personal responsibility, and social justice; purposes of schooling
• Teaching children the rules, roles, procedures, and norms of behavior
• Planning learning experiences based on stages of group development over the course of the school year
• Integrating the College of Education’s Early Childhood Teacher Preparation Program in the Center’s regular operations

The ECDC offers preschool age children of students, faculty, staff, and alumni opportunities to learn through play in a mixed age group setting under the guidance of highly qualified preschool through grade three certified teachers.

The early childhood facility is located on the first floor of Education Hall. The Center is equipped with observation facilities that can be used by parents, college students and faculty for observation, study and research.

Philosophy and Goals

In a comfortable, stimulating child-centered environment, teachers, staff and Rowan students strive to create a community of diverse learners where children and their ideas are nurtured and celebrated throughout the school day.

The philosophy of the ECDC is based on research, knowledge, and educational practices that strongly indicate children develop physically, socially, emotionally, and cognitively through active exploration, discovery, process, and manipulation of the environment that surrounds them.

Our teaching methods are grounded in the National Association of the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) principles of child development including age and individual appropriateness. The program also supports the relationship between children, their families, and Center preschool staff.

Diversity

Classroom instruction is designed to meet the needs of linguistically and culturally diverse children.

• Teachers use instructional strategies to support English Language Learners.
• The curriculum provides numerous language enrichment opportunities.

Program Description

The Early Childhood Demonstration Center offers preschool age children of students, faculty, staff, alumni, and surround communities opportunities to learn through play in mixed-age group (Brown Owls) and prekindergarten (Gold Owls) settings.

The Center recognizes the value of developmentally appropriate practices in early childhood programs that focus on the growth of the individual child. The Center has committed its resources to providing a sound educational framework providing children with a strong foundation in language arts literacy, mathematical concepts, social studies, science and social skills.

All learning experiences are presented through carefully planned centers of learning. Centers of learning encourage children:

• to explore and experiment
• to develop inquiry and problem solving skills
• to develop socially, emotionally, physically, and cognitively
• to transition from home to preschool and from preschool to the elementary school setting