The demand for education professionals is likely to surpass the supply by over 100,000 by 2025, making it important for students to consider pursuing childcare and education careers. Pathway programs can help students get a head start in these careers. Classes covering fundamental knowledge for childcare and education professionals are key to a successful childcare career pathway program.
This vital foundational knowledge can be lost on our future education professionals when they lose interest in lessons and can’t retain the information presented. Hands-on learning offers a solution to this problem, making lessons more fun and meaningful for students. In fact, 90 percent of students feel they get more out of hands-on learning than traditional learning.
The following hands-on learning aids can help teach important foundational skills relevant to future education professionals, including teaching pedagogy, learning environment, and legal issues. We’re also offering an activity from our Child Care Center Design Kit curriculum for FREE. You can use this to help your students understand guidelines and best practices for classroom design.
Engaging Tools for Teaching Future Education Professionals
1. CDA Scenario Kit
Our CDA Scenario Kit uses interactive, real-world childcare situations to prepare students to earn their Child Development Associate (CDA) Certification. This robust kit includes a comprehensive teacher guide, student workbooks, and 78 scenarios. Half of the scenarios are focused on infants and toddlers, and the other half are focused on preschool-age children. Students can use these scenarios and activities to learn and practice skills they’ll need as future education professionals.
2. Child Care Center Design Kit
This interactive Child Care Center Design Kit includes curriculum and manipulatives to teach students best practices for laying out learning center rooms. The kit comes with gridded whiteboards and tiles representing furniture for students to draw child centers for ideal learning and student interaction at three age groups. Students can be divided into five small groups to work simultaneously on their learning centers.
3. Shaken Baby
Use the Shaken Baby simulator and curriculum to help students understand the effects of only a few seconds of shaking on an infant’s brain and how to safely soothe a crying infant. The simulator features a transparent head that illuminates to illustrate where brain damage has occurred. Students can use the included swaddling garment to practice soothing the simulator, which will stop crying when the garment is correctly applied.
4. Child Abuse and Neglect Training Kit
Introduce students to four types of child abuse and neglect with the Child Abuse and Neglect Training Kit. Apply the included wound models to human or manikin skin to create realistic scenarios. Use the included lessons and activities to address abuse risk factors, how to identity and report abuse, and how to prevent it. The wound models combined with the scenario cards, student workbooks, and curriculum make this an in-depth experience for teaching future education professionals.
Additional Resources
Looking for more resources and activities for teaching future education professionals and classes in your childcare career pathway program?
- Explore our childcare program implementation page to see how you can work these resources into your program
- Watch our recently recorded webinar on creating an ideal childcare pathway
- Make sure you get your free childcare center design activity
- Read our blog on teaching tools for human growth and development classes
