College of Education and Behavioral Sciences (CEBS) was established as Institute of Education and Professional Development Studies (IEPDS) in the year 2010 G.C following the business process re-engineering in the university. The Institute was meant to run both regular teaching and the University’s continuous professional development programs for both the academic and administrative staffs. Under IEPDS, there were two departments namely: Department of Educational Planning and Management (EdPM) formed by dissolving the department of Pedagogy which was under the former Faculty of Education. Later on, the Department of Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies (TECS) was founded in 2003 E.C as a result of the business process re-engineering the university has undergone and the launching of the New Teacher Education Program (Add-On Model), known as Post Graduate Diploma in Teaching (PGDT). It was at these periods that few of the postgraduate programs of the college were opened: MA in Educational Leadership and MA in Curriculum and Instruction in addition to the postgraduate diploma and certificate programs. It was in the year 2014 G.C, that the current College of Education and Behavioral Sciences was formally founded by including Department of Psychology (which was formerly constituted under the College of Social Sciences and Humanities) and later on initiated the opening of the 4th department known as Department of Special Needs and Inclusive Education (SNIE).
Currently, the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences (CEBS) has four departments that include: Department of Educational Planning and Management (EdPM), Department of Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies (TECS), Department of Psychology and Department of Special Needs and Inclusive Education (SNIE). The college has three undergraduate programs, two post graduate diploma programs, two postgraduate certificate programs, Nine Masters or MA Programs, and Seven Doctoral (PhD/DEd) programs. Moreover, it runs other short term professional development programs to be offered to the university’s wider community (both academic and administrative staffs) through its three training centers: the Higher Diploma Program (HDP), the Academic Development and Resource Center (ADRC) and the English Language Improvement Center (ELIC).
The College of Education and Behavioral Science is dedicated to advance educational developments through training, knowledge generation and service delivery. The college trains graduates at undergraduate, post graduate diploma and post graduate certificate, masters and doctoral/terminal degree levels in varies areas of education and behavioral sciences mentioned above. It has over 4000 students population, 69 academic and 64 administrative staffs with full time and 9 admin staffs with contractual bases. It runs educational programs in regular, in-service and distance programs. The college advocates the values of educational quality, relevance, transparency, social accountability, gender sensitivity, equity, diversity-responsiveness, community participation and empowerment. Our educational philosophy is “we are in the community” where our staff and students are actively engaged in community services through our training programs, research activities and community services packages.
CEBS is intensively working to excel in the areas of Teacher Education, Educational Leadership, Psychology, and Special Needs and Inclusive Education by advancing in teaching, researches and community services that will bring positive impacts on the societal developments at large. CEBS is working to advance in research and community service wings as well in which the efforts are made to launch a research, innovation and development center at the college level with the ultimate goals of excelling in the areas of research and community services. As a college functioning in the research university, CEBS will make huge efforts to advance in the research areas by capitalizing on key research thematic areas and aligning all research endeavors made by the staff and the students. Moreover, emphasis will be given to intervention-based, problem-solving and demand-driven research agendas through which we can positively impact the quality of education and other services at all levels in the country. These research endeavors needs to come with publications to be made on reputable journals as per the MoE and JU research and promotion guidelines as well as international standards. To this effect, the college has a plant to solicit and effectively utilize the experiences of others to boost the exposures of the staff and students in this regards.
The college is also closely working with the schools, education offices at Woreda, Zonal, Regional and Federal levels to provide community services to the wider communities. Moreover, there are also fruitful efforts made by the staff and students of the college in providing various community service activities to the local community. Furthermore, staffs of CEBS are actively participating in national and regional community service activities through which they were able contribute a lot to the national interests. To mention few, many staff of CEBS were actively involved in the national educational reform endeavors that MoE led for the last few years and were able to contribute much on the developments of reform documents in the education area that include the education roadmap, curricular frameworks, teaching and learning materials, professional standards for teachers and educational leaders, etc.
The college is so eager to collaborate with other interested and potential stakeholders who are willing to participate in such critical agendas and keen to work with them for the betterment of our society. So far, the college started collaboratively working with other national and international higher learning institutions in the areas of joint academic program launching, research and community services. For instance, the department of Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies under CEBS has recently started a collaborative work with three universities abroad (the University of Agder from Norway, University of Rwanda and Makerere University) through its project abbreviated as “TELSS” under NORAD II Project Funding. The project is aimed at launching new and innovative technology-oriented joint academic programs at postgraduate level, conducting researches which will solve the societal problems and providing relevant and need-based community services. There is also staff and students exchange programs started at the college that must be strengthened further to enhance the college’s international visibility. Hence, CEBS is under process to transform all its academic programs, research endeavors and community service programs which will help the college to become “One of the community-based and top-ranked College of Education and Behavioral Sciences in Ethiopia; Competent in Africa and Known in the world.” To realize that, the college has developed its ten years strategic plan (2021-2030), a roadmap that will help in reaching the vision and aspirations set forth.