Graduate Students
The Early Learning Center within the Department of Child and Family Studies exists for three purposes:
- to promote observation, participation, and research activities of the Department of Child and Family Studies and other university faculty and students
- to prepare undergraduate and graduate child development and early childhood education professionals for learning about and teaching young children
- to provide a model early childhood education program for children, families, and early childhood professionals.
Parents who enroll their children in our programs do so with the understanding that their children will be observed, videotaped, and photographed for purposes of education and study, and that from time to time, they will be asked to consent to their child's and/or family's participation in specific research projects.
Graduate Programs in Child & Family Studies
The Department of Child and Family Studies (CFS) provides both masters and doctoral degrees. The graduate programs are based on the model of the “empirically-based professional” or social scientist. Graduate students learn to conduct research on child development, family studies, and educational environments in accordance with established standards of scientific inquiry and evaluation. CFS graduate programs seek to produce researchers, scholars, and educators who are capable of independent investigation of family and developmental processes. Students also receive training on how to conduct scientifically based assessments of prevention, intervention and educational strategies. Many opportunities exist in CFS for graduate students to become involved in research on children, youth, and families. A central foundation of graduate programs in CFS is the idea that scientific inquiry provides the most effective means to improve the welfare of children, youth and families.
For more information about graduate programs in Child & Family Studies at UT, please visit http://cfs.utk.edu/grad/default.html.
What about students from other majors?
We invite non-majors. Participation in our Early Learning Center classrooms is a designed component for some CFS majors. However, we also encourage students and faculty from other degree programs to feel free to contact us with ideas concerning ELC-based learning experiences for non-CFS majors. To date, we have been fortunate to have nursing students, advertising students, design students, and nutrition students conduct project experiences ranging from outdoor playhouse design to early education in dental hygiene.