Introduction

Coaching has been shown to have a major influence on early childhood professional practice that, in turn, improves program quality and child growth outcomes in early childhood settings. Quality relationship-based teaching and learning is instrumental to positive early childhood experiences. The coach and coaching partner relationship focuses specifically on maximizing the human potential of professionals in the field. 

This three-course certificate will provide you with foundational coaching skills and practices, peer connections, reflection, self-awareness, and systems thinking. Strong coaching relationships will help you achieve positive results with coworkers, networks and children in your care. The unique cohort model used in this coaching certificate program inspires equity and inclusion as the group creates collective accountability in co-learning. Students have come from all over the U.S., representing a variety of cultures and languages. They work in public, private, federally/state-funded, tribal and regional early education programs.

This is the only university certificate in the U.S. that pairs the early childhood field with universal coaching strategies. It is uniquely designed to work seamlessly and in coordination with most early childhood curricular approaches and teaching practices.

Discover research-based strategies that support deepening your understanding of collaborative coaching and advance your ECE career. Learn to promote engaging and culturally supportive actions to make a difference in the lives of those in the early childhood community.

Program Requirements

This certificate totals 9 credit hours, three credit hours per course, in the specialty area of early childhood coaching. All courses can be taken at either an undergraduate or graduate level. Credit hours may be applied directly toward a full master’s degree in Early Childhood Education. Additional courses and applications are required for the master’s degree. 

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
ECED 5410	Coaching for Early Childhood Professionals: Foundations	3
or ECED 4410	Coaching for Early Childhood Professionals: Foundations
ECED 5420	Coaching Early Childhood Professionals: Awareness	3
or ECED 4420	Coaching Early Childhood Professionals: Awareness
ECED 5430	Coaching for Early Childhood Professionals: Attuning	3
or ECED 4430	Coaching for Early Childhood Professionals: Attuning

This online coaching certificate program provides the best of both worlds: a combination of online and synchronous learning. In addition to individual work that you will complete throughout the semester, each course meets virtually. Courses require fieldwork that can also be completed virtually. We strongly recommend that these courses be taken in sequence and that students commit to all three courses and to the full completion of the program. This program is unlike most courses, in that it is based on the cohort members’ individual and collective thinking and learning. Collective accountability and the relationship-based coaching approach is what makes the program dynamic and successful.