Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood) Honours (BEEH) - BEd(EarlyChildhood)(Hons)

CRICOS code (International applicants): 056708A

This program is offered only to continuing students. No new admissions will be accepted. Students who are interested in this study area should contact us.

Contact us

Current students

Telephone 1800 007 252 (within Australia freecall), +61 7 4631 2285 (from outside Australia), email usqassist@usq.edu.au or submit a question via USQAssist.

Program focus

The Faculty of Education regards the honours program as an alternative track for students who intend entering the teaching profession and who have the interest and ability to engage in high level, in-depth, independent research. The research activity involved in completing the BEd (Hons) serves to build on and enhance a range of inquiry and critical thinking capabilities fostered in the Bachelor of Education. Honours graduates are well placed to make a leadership contribution to the education profession.

Professional accreditation

The program will be approved through the Queensland Board of Teacher Registration and Queensland State Department of Families.

Program aims

This program aims to develop engaged professionals who will be competent educators of children aged birth to eight years, and who will also have the capacity to teach other primary years if required and will also allow a pathway to further career development. The program also provides an introduction to the principles and practices of educational research

This program seeks to prepare graduates who:

• are reflective and ethical practitioners

• are innovators and navigators of change

• have a strong sense of self and place in the world

• are flexible and creative problem solvers

• are transformative intellectuals

• are socially just and empowering

• value diversity and inclusiveness

• are passionate learners and inspire learning in others

• are keen to accept responsibility, able to identify and optimise opportunities

• demonstrate a current pedagogical content knowledge base

• identify, enable and create opportunities for others to construct meaning and develop capacities to manage their own learning

• are engaged and collaborative members of a learning community

• are compassionate advocates for education.

Note: This level of award is required for teacher registration in Queensland. Applicants from other States or countries should check local requirements before enrolling.

Program objectives

The Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood) Honours seeks to:

• develop an awareness of the ecology of childhood, whole-child philosophies and child-centred practices that impact on early childhood education

• promote acceptance of diversity amongst individual children within their families and community contexts

• develop knowledge and beliefs about the integrated nature of creativity and problem-centred learning in early childhood education

• develop critical reflection on emerging trends that impact on early childhood education and the rights of children and families to access quality education

• provide an introduction to small-scale educational research.

Admission requirements

Pre-service educators identified after 2 semesters of study as potentially becoming eligible for the Honours program will be advised regarding a modified enrolment pattern while awaiting consideration for Honours selection. Following the completion of the first three semesters of study in the Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood) program, selected pre-service educators gaining a minimum GPA of 6.0 will be offered the opportunity of enrolling in an Honours program. Each year pre-service educators will be invited to apply for the program, offers being determined on the basis of academic merit and the annual quota set for the Honours program.

Program fees

Commonwealth supported place

A Commonwealth supported place is where the Australian Government makes a contribution towards the cost of your higher education and you as a student pay a student contribution amount, which varies depending on the courses undertaken. You are able to calculate the fees for a particular course via the Course Fee Finder.

Commonwealth Supported students may be eligible to defer their fees through a Government loan called HECS-HELP.

International full fee paying place

International students pay full fees. Full fees vary depending on the courses that are taken and whether they are studied on-campus, via distance education/online. You are able to calculate the fees for a particular course via the Course Fee Finder.

Program structure

To be awarded a four-year Bachelor's program in the Faculty of Education, a student must have normally completed 32 units at undergraduate levels 1 - 4. At the discretion of the Program Coordinator, up to 4 units may be completed at postgraduate level.

Pre-service educators in the Honours program will be required to undertake the following developmental sequence of courses

EDO4675 Research Approaches for Contemporary Educators; EDU4351 Supervised Project 1 (1 unit) ; EDU5351 Supervised Project 2 (2 units).

EDU4351 and EDU5351 together constitute the Honours dissertation with a total word length of between 10,000 and 15,000 words. The level of Honours awarded will be determined by a weighting formula that accounts for performance across the four-year program as follows:

Note: Honours students who fail to meet the requirements of the above levels of award will be eligible for the award of the Pass Degree where they have passed all Honours courses and have satisfied the requirements for the award of Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood) .

Subsequent entry into the Doctor of Philosophy and Doctor of Education at USQ requires First Class or Second Class Div A Honours.

Pre-service educators who accept an invitation to enrol in the Honours program will need to complete a Direct Entry Form to change from their current enrolment in the Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood) .

It should be noted that enrolment in the program will preclude pre-service educators from completing a minor. However, it is strongly recommended that students complete an in-depth study of one area to support their Honours research.

Required time limits

Students have a maximum of 9 years to complete this program.

Practical experience

There will be 125 days of embedded professional experience in a range of relevant settings spread over the four years, including an internship. Professional experiences sometimes occur outside usual University teaching weeks. Travel to settings outside Toowoomba and Fraser Coast area may be necessary to complete the professional experience component of the program.

Eligibility to undertake professional experience in Queensland educational settings

Under the terms of the Commission for Children and Young People Act (Qld. 2000), pre-service educators undertaking professional experience are considered to be volunteers engaged in regulated employment. As such, all pre-service educators must apply to the Commission to be issued with a notice that they are suitable to work in child-related employment. As part of this application, the pre-service educators must consent to the Commission conducting a criminal history check as the key element of the process of determining suitability. All applications for a suitability notice must be made at the local campus of the university at the commencement of the program. Pre-service educators who do not make application, or who do apply but are subsequently deemed unsuitable, will not be able to undertake the professional experience components of the program.

Further information, including a list of serious offences which could lead to a pre-service educator being deemed unsuitable, are available from the Commission's website at http://www.ccypcg.qld.gov.au/index.html

IT requirements

Pre-service educators will be expected to have access to a computer with common productivity software (e.g. word processing, spreadsheet, presentation software), email and the Internet.

Recommended enrolment pattern

Subject to approval

Students should not deviate from this pattern without first discussing it with the Program Administration Office or the Program Coordinator.