Students who are passionate about working with young children and want to work in a preschool or early elementary classroom will find the University of Oklahoma’s nationally recognized Early Childhood Education program to be a good mixture of hands-on experience and solid theoretical education. Beginning with the first course taken in the Professional Education curriculum, students complete at least 100 hours tutoring and observing in local elementary schools and at the Institute of Child Development, located on the Oklahoma University Norman campus, before they begin student teaching.