TCNJ’s Early Childhood Inclusive Education program prepares students to teach grades P–3 in diverse, inclusive classrooms. The major combines education coursework with a required dual major in a liberal arts or STEM field, ensuring both strong content knowledge and teaching skills. Students gain early and extensive field experience, culminating in a full semester of student teaching, with opportunities for global placements. Graduates are eligible for New Jersey P–3 teacher certification and can pursue additional endorsements in areas such as special education, ESL, or teaching the deaf and hard of hearing.
Early Childhood Inclusive Education Requirements (30 course units total)
College Core (7 course units)
- ELE 099: Education Seminar
- FYS 1XX: First Year Seminar
- MAT 105: Structures and Algorithms for Education
- BIO 104: Inquiries in the Life Sciences
- HIS 198: Teaching American History
- ECE 102: Multicultural Children’s Literature
- IDS 401: Music, Movement, and Creative Arts in Early Childhood
Professional Education (15 course units)
- ELE 203 Foundations of Inclusive Education
- SLP 102: Speech and Language Development
- ELE 201: Child and Adolescent Development
- SPE 214: Building and Sustaining Inclusive Classroom Communities
- SPE 322: Assessment, Planning, and Methods for Inclusive Practices
- ECE 202: Theories and Philosophies of Early Childhood Education
- RAL 220: Methods of Teaching Literacy I: Foundational Skills in Reading & Writing
- RAL 320: Methods of Teaching Literacy II: Comprehension and Composition
- ECE 302: Math and Science in Early Childhood
- ECE 301: Clinical I
- SOM 203: Teaching Social Studies from a Multicultural Perspective
- SPE 326: Models of Early Intervention
- ECE 490: Clinical II (2 course units)
- ECE 498: Inquiry into Learning
Content Major Requirements (8 course units*)
Select one of 13 approved content areas for the dual major: African American studies; art; biology; English; environmental studies; history; integrative STEM education; mathematics; music; psychology; sociology; Spanish; or women’s, gender, and sexuality studies.
*The psychology major requires 10 course units, and the Spanish major requires 9 course units.
Advising Resources
- Inclusive Education Advising Sheet (restricted to TCNJ)
This Google Sheet is an ADA-compliant version that you should be using for your records and in your advising sessions. When you click on the link above, you will be prompted to save a copy of the advising resources as a Google Sheet.
You should use the following naming convention before sharing the document with your education advisor. You may also share the advising resource document with your content advisor.
When saving your copy, please name it as such: Last Name_First Name_Semester_Year
For example, it should look like this: Beyers_James_Fall_2025
After saving your copy to your Google Drive, you can click on the share link and give editing access to your advisor. You will need to know their name or email address to share the document. Please make note of where you keep the file.