About the Course
Children are the common basis for all dimensions of sustainable development. No advances in sustainable development will occur in coming decades without multiple generations contributing to societal improvement. Moreover, beyond sheer survival, children have a right to thrive, develop to their full potential, and live in a sustainable world.
Around the world, governments, organizations, and communities are working to improve the life chances of young children, from universal prekindergarten programs in the United States, to the Integrated Child Development Services in India, to the Madrasa Early Childhood Program in East Africa. In spite of these efforts, it is currently estimated that 250 million children under the age of 5 worldwide are failing to meet their development potential.
A range of powerful risk factors lead to this incredible loss of human potential. Malnutrition, lack of access to clean water and sanitation, lack of stimulation and learning opportunities, and many other challenges result in high odds of early mortality, school failure, early pregnancy, joblessness, and costly disease. The levers for change rest in local and community strengths that promote resilience, as well as national and global action. Recognizing the interconnectedness of poverty reduction, health, education, agriculture, energy, gender equality, social inclusion, and development within planetary boundaries should place children and an inter-generational vision of development at the heart of the work of the 2015-2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
This course draws from research in neuroscience, psychology, economics, anthropology and program implementation and evaluation in order to discuss Early Childhood Development and explore its role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Completing the course will lead to understanding:
- The way in which children grow during this most rapid phase of development (physical, social, cognitive, emotional).
- How the environment interacts with the body to build brain architecture and influence children's growth and development.
- Milestones of child development, what is it that children know and can do at birth, by the second year, by preschool age.
- How child development and its contexts vary across cultures and societies.
- How can programs and policies support children's development?
- How can they best be implemented to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals related to children and youth?
- How can innovation push forward the field of ECD program development and how can you participate?
Join Professor Hirokazu Yoshikawa (New York University, Global TIES for Children), along with Professors Jack Shonkoff (Harvard Center on the Developing Child), Catherine Tamis-LeMonda (New York University), Aisha Yousafzai (Harvard Chan School of Public Health) and UNICEF Senior Advisor and Chief of Early Childhood Development Pia Rebello Britto for the newest course offering of the SDG Academy!
Course Structure and Requirements
The course is structured around a series of pre-recorded chapter videos, readings, comprehension questions, discussion forums, and other activities. Each of these course components can be completed at a time that is convenient for the student, prior to the last date of the course. There are no written assignments for this course.
In addition to the asynchronous components of the course, the instructors will hold real-time Q & A sessions to encourage students to ask questions and engage directly with the instructors. These sessions will be announced 1-2 weeks in advance. The estimated time commitment to complete all course components is 4-6 hours per week, though this depends heavily on the student and his/her objectives in taking the course.
This course can be taken as either audit-track and verified-track. Students can choose to take the audit-track course for free, or pursue a verified certificate for a fee. Verified students must score 70% or higher on the final exam. While this course is not credit granting, we encourage students to work with their own institutions to explore the option of granting credit for online coursework.
This course was made possible by a generous gift from the Jeffrey Cheah Foundation. Funding from the NYU Abu Dhabi Research Institute to the Global TIES for Children Center at New York University supported Prof. Yoshikawa’s work on this course.
Student-Organized Study Groups
Past students in this course have self-organized smaller study groups to supplement the course-wide discussion opportunities on the forums. These groups typically consist of members of a shared organization or school who start the course together and meet once a week to discuss each module and the relevance of the material to their local context (often using the posted discussion questions as prompts). Similarly, students who independently enroll in the course have the option of self-organizing study groups with other independent students. The Course team encourages this additional engagement, although we cannot organize these groups ourselves. We are happy to provide suggestions on discussion topics, etc. for study groups that have formed.
Course Accessibility
We are committed to supporting students with diverse needs and following accessibility best practices (find information on edX accessibility best practices here). Please reach out to the Course team if you have any accessibility barriers to learning. We will do our best to help you navigate functionality available within the course (for example, downloading course video and transcripts in a variety of languages for offline use) and to suggest assistive technologies and alternative resources for your needs.
Contact Information
Please be sure to direct any technical questions about the course to edX using the "Help" button at the top of your page!
If you have any additional questions on the course structure or requirements, please email the Course team at courses@sdgacademy.org. For questions on course content, please email the teaching assistant at ecd@sdgacademy.org.