Degrees for Education

Excellence in teacher education is a tradition at the University. The School of Education enrolled the first students at Notre Dame’s Fremantle Campus in 1992 and since then hundreds of graduates have gone on to seek meaningful employment in Catholic, Independent and Government schools throughout Australia and internationally.

The focus of the School is to produce industry-ready graduates. Notre Dame’s unique undergraduate teaching courses allow students to develop their teaching skills over 32 weeks of in-school experience.

The School of Education covers a complete spectrum from the preparation and formation of beginning teachers to the continuing professional development and further education of experienced educators and school leaders. It aims to serve the needs of teachers working at, or preparing for, Early Childhood Education, Primary, Middle and Secondary schools. While Notre Dame’s courses are especially suited to the requirements of Catholic schools, they are designed also to meet the needs of other independent and government schools.

Admission to the program is during the fall semester only and both full-time and part-time tracks exist. Courses are scheduled in the evenings (4:30–7:20 p.m. or 5–7:50 p.m.) on campus.

Mission Statement

The mission of the Department of Education is to prepare educators who have the knowledge, skills and values to effectively teach all students. Meredith College students are transformed by a rigorous education that fosters leadership, promotes reflective practice, and cultivates passion for learning and the art of teaching. We develop teachers who appreciate their significant role in a diverse society.

Purpose of the Meredith College MAT Program

The Meredith College MAT program serves the woman or man who has a bachelor’s degree in a discipline other than education, who is committed to becoming a teacher, and who is seeking initial NC teaching licensure in elementary education for K–6 or special education (general curriculum) for K–12. The goal of the program is to prepare highly qualified beginning teachers who know how to teach all students, who have the skills to collaborate with professionals and families, who know the content areas, and who understand their roles in local, national and global contexts.

Program Goals of the Master of Arts in Teaching

The candidate will:
critically examine the purpose of education and articulate a personal philosophy of education;
demonstrate instructional expertise by applying the theoretical, philosophical and research bases for educational practice in K–12 settings to improve student learning;
incorporate knowledge of the nature of the learner, learning processes, variations in learning abilities and learning styles, and strategies for evaluating learning, the planning, delivery, reflection on, and evaluation of instruction;
conduct and use research to examine and improve instructional effectiveness and student achievement;
demonstrate advanced depth and breadth of knowledge and skills in the academic discipline and in education;
engage in continued professional development and provide leadership at the classroom, school, and community levels, and within the profession.

The program consists of professional studies courses and courses in a concentration (Elementary education or Special education). The area of concentration enables you to develop expertise in one of the instructional areas of the school curriculum. A concentration in a licensure area will result in a master’s level (M-level) license in that area.

What is Family and Consumer Sciences Education?
Family and Consumer Sciences educators seek to improve the decision making and practical and interpersonal skills of school-aged individuals. Educating students about family life, reasoning, relationships skills, interpersonal communication, personal nutrition, child development, human sexuality, and parenting, increases their competency in these areas and promotes their overall well-being.

Curriculum Overview
Students in this major will take courses in human development and family science, education, food and nutrition, and early childhood education. The curriculum includes at least four public school and Early Learning Center practicum / student teaching experiences through the four year program. Our major is crafted to meet the newly revised academic standards for family and consumer sciences education, assuring you the best possible preparation.

The National Association of Teacher Educators for Family and Consumer Sciences have adopted a “national standard” model of excellence for what beginning teachers in family and consumer sciences should know and be able to do. Click here to access the FCS Standards in PDF format.

Key Content Areas
Human Growth & Development
Personal Behaviors
Housing & Environment
Food & Nutrition
Apparel and Textiles
Resource Management

Specific Course Requirements
For more details on the curriculum requirements and the types of courses you would be taking as a Family and Consumer Sciences Education Major , visit our Online Course Catalog or take a look at the printable Human Development and Family Science Department Brochure.

Provisional Certified Family Life Educator Designation
Family & Consumer Sciences Education graduates are eligible to become provisionally certified as a Family Life Educator (CFLE) through the National Council on Family Relations without having to take the CFLE Exam. CFLE’s incorporate a preventative and educational approach to individual and family issues. They seek to strengthen family life through a family perspective. Learn more about the CFLE Designation.

The Urban Teacher Program (UTP) is designed to meet the needs of urban schools for teachers who can improve students’ educational achievement. The UTP prepares prospective teachers who can build on the talents and resiliency of diverse urban learners for success in school and life. Our approach to teacher education focuses on preparing diverse, reflective and resilient teachers who are outstanding in their commitment to teaching urban youth and providing equal educational opportunity. By attracting teachers of color and low-income or ‘first generation’ college students into teaching careers, the UTP provides urban schools with competent educators who can relate to the experiences of culturally and linguistically diverse youth and their communities.

The mission of the UTP is twofold: 1) To increase the number of well-prepared teachers of color in Minneapolis, St. Paul and inner-ring suburbs so that the teaching workforce reflects the ethnically diverse population of students and their communities; and 2) To empower urban teachers with the content knowledge, pedagogical skills, urban field experiences, and professional dispositions needed to improve the educational achievement of historically and currently underserved urban learners and to advocate for their right to receive a high quality education.

Visit the UTP website at archive.metrostate.edu/cps/ut or call 612-659-7180 for more information.

Standards-Based Program Integrating Field Experience with Coursework
Teacher candidates are required to complete a well-planned sequence of courses and experiences in general, content, and pedagogical studies that help them develop competence in meeting the Minnesota Board of Teaching’s Standards of Effective Practice for Beginning Teachers. All required coursework is aligned with various standards expected of beginning teachers, and teacher candidates complete their program by demonstrating standards competence during student teaching, as well as in a portfolio, and by passing standardized tests mandated by the state.

The Urban Teacher Program integrates theory and practice by requiring teacher candidates to spend time with youth in urban schools and communities at each stage of the program. These experiences in child care centers, urban schools and classrooms add to teacher candidates’ knowledge base and give them the opportunity to practice and demonstrate effective instruction. While some of these field experiences occur outside of the typical public school day, many of these opportunities are only offered between 8am-4pm.

In order to be admitted to the Urban Teacher Program, students must be able to document at least 40 hours working with youth in an urban context. After admission, various required coursework throughout the program involves some field experience ranging from 5-20 hours or more per course totaling at least 100 hours prior to student teaching in various age or grade levels of the license being sought. A unique feature of the Urban Teacher Program is that an Individual Student Teaching Plan is developed for each teacher candidate that addresses their goals and needs in demonstrating teaching competence to complete a minimum of 15 full-time of weeks student teaching in an urban setting.

Urban Secondary Teacher Preparation Graduate Certificate

The Urban Secondary Teacher Preparation Graduate Certificate is part of a standards-based alternative pathway for persons with a bachelor’s degree or higher who seek a Minnesota grades 5-12 teaching license to teach math, science, English, or social studies in urban middle schools and high schools. Completing the coursework for the certificate along with other program and state requirements qualifies urban teacher candidates to apply for initial state teaching licensure. Please note that the graduate certificate is NOT itself a license to teach, nor is it a master’s degree program.

Students completing the certificate program and post-baccalaureate process towards licensure will be able to:
demonstrate proficiency in meeting the Minnesota Standards of Effective Practice for Beginning Teachers required of all teacher candidates seeking a licensure recommendation to the state;
demonstrate competence in meeting the needs of diverse urban youth to a high-quality, rigorous, culturally-responsive education;
demonstrate respect for urban learners, their development, their families and their communities with “unconditional positive regard” and a focus on their assets and resiliency; and
integrate professional, social-cultural, instructional, and subject matter competence required by standards for teacher licensure and the needs of urban schools.

One glance at today’s classrooms quickly confirms to the observer that these “professional decisions” have become increasingly challenging and difficult. The student population is growing in diversity and the needs of those students are becoming more and more varied and demanding. Pressure from outside of school systems urges radical changes in instructional techniques and school structure, while students are distracted by an increasing range of enticing activities and diversions. The introduction of technology adds it own flavor to the mix. In short, today’s beginning teachers need very different “tools” than those needed even a few short years ago.

By its very nature, the Teacher Education Program at Hope College is developmental. This means that we recognize that students come to our program with varying degrees of readiness, experience and resolve, rather like an uncut gem – rough around the edges, but brimming with possibility. Students encounter courses that are keyed to three different levels, each building upon the previous. With each education course, students find themselves in related field experiences where they can apply learnings from the course.

Level One – Choosing Teaching – At this level, students explore what it means to teach and determine if education will be an appropriate choice of profession.

Level Two – Learning How to Teach – Here, students take course work that is designed to explore the “nuts and bolts” of teaching.

Level Three – Applying Teaching – Students finally enter their student teaching assignments and synthesize the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes gained throughout the teacher education sequence and college preparation.

It is our job to recognize the “gem within” and help our students, as they move through the teacher education sequence, by cutting away the rough edges and polishing the emerging facets. As each student identifies his unique qualities, talents, skills and beliefs, the gem shines with increasing intensity, clarity and beauty.

We need to not only prepare individuals with the technical skills and academic depth necessary for teaching, but also to lead them to a discovery of who they are and what they stand for within the profession. Thus, the Teacher Education Program is intertwined with the general education liberal arts program of the College and the pursuit of major and minor areas of study. It is especially important for our students to explore their own learning styles and personal belief systems in order to more fully verify their calling and role within the profession.

Special Education (contact Special Education Curriculum Specialist)
The special education program at Holy Family University prepares you for dual certification in Special Education and Elementary Education. You will be taught to work effectively with students of various functional and cognitive abilities and ages in various settings from nursery school through 12th grade. From instructional and classroom management techniques to inclusionary models of teaching, our special education curriculum provides a wide array of skills and field experiences for future teachers.

Program Highlights
Assessing and Evaluating Students
Classroom Management Strategies
Student Teaching and Field Practicum

Pennsylvania State Certification
The Instructional I Certificate obtained from the state at the recommendation of any accredited institution is a temporary certification. In order to obtain permanent certification, a graduate must have three years of satisfactory teaching experience and complete an additional 24 credit hours of study at a certifying University or university. If these credits are taken at the graduate level, they may be applied toward a master’s degree.

All candidates for teacher certification in the state of Pennsylvania are required to pass the PRAXIS Series of Professional Assessments for beginning teachers. These include: PPST tests in reading, writing, mathematics, listening skills, and Principles of Learning and Teaching. All K-12 and K-6 certifications also require the Fundamental Subjects: Content Knowledge Test. Additional subject specific tests are also required.

Special education is about students – their present educational needs and their future lives. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) says special education is “a free and appropriate education, which emphasizes special education and related services, designed to meet the unique needs of students with disabilities.”

Special education provides a wide variety of services to families and children with disabilities. The field is individualized and maintains high expectations that students with disabilities will achieve reasonable outcomes. Special education provides the support and services that allow children to progress in the curriculum and deliver on the promise that all children will learn.

Special Educators
Graduates of the Columbia College Special Education program demonstrate mastery of national standards for beginning teachers. In addition, they meet the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) standards for Special Educators and qualify as CEC Professionally Recognized Special Educators.

Meeting these competencies ensures their quality and effectiveness as caring, committed professionals. Detailed information on job availability in South Carolina and nationwide is available through the National Clearinghouse for Professions in Special Education. Also, through the National Clearinghouse, prospective special educators may contact practicing professionals and explore their commitments to making a difference in children’s lives through individualized instruction.

Special Education Program
We, the education faculty, are committed to preparing teachers as Collaborative Professionals (see the Teacher Education Handbook, pg. 3) who are knowledgeable in the content and practice of their respective discipline. The collaborative professional believes the student’s capacity for learning is most fully developed through the participation of a group of individuals sharing their collective knowledge.

Graduates of the program will be educators who embody the attitudes and skills of dedicated professionals and are committed to working with others to provide a quality education for all students. As collaborative professionals they will be prepared to teach in classrooms where students and teachers acquire knowledge collaboratively and together positively influence student outcomes.

The Special Education program prepares special educators, who are collaborative professionals, to teach in elementary, middle and secondary resource programs for exceptional students with mild disabilities in the areas of learning disabilities, mental disabilities, and emotional /behavioral disabilities and in self contained settings for student with learning disabilities mental disabilities.

NIE offers a postgraduate teacher preparation programme leading to the award of the Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE). This programme aims to prepare university graduates to become primary or secondary school teachers. It is a 1-year programme except for those specialising in the 2-year PGDE (Physical Education).

The PGDE prepares graduates for a challenging and satisfying teaching career. The postgraduate diploma equips beginning teachers with the essential knowledge and skills needed to be effective members of the school community.

The NIE degree programmes provide the academic and professional development for undergraduates to become effective beginning teachers in schools.Our degree programmes are:
Bachelor of Arts (Education) (BA[Ed]) (full-time)
Bachelor of Science (Education) (BSc[Ed]) (full-time)
Bachelor of Education (B Ed) (part-time)

Student teachers may be awarded an honours degree for excellent overall academic performance.

The degree programmes are positioned to integrate the best of an academic degree with a good foundation in the field of education to produce graduates with the knowledge and skills to excel in careers both in education and education-related fields and beyond.

The degree programmes offer the following teaching tracks:
BA(Ed) (General) (Primary)
BA(Ed) (Chinese/Malay Language Specialisation) (Primary)
BA(Ed) (General) (Secondary)
BA(Ed) (Chinese/Malay Language Specialisation) (Secondary)
BSc(Ed) (General) (Primary)
BSc(Ed) (Physical Education & Sports Science) (Primary)
BSc(Ed) (General) (Secondary)
BSc(Ed) (Physical Education & Sports Science) (Secondary)
B Ed (Primary)

The Associate Dean for Programme Planning and Development (AD/PPD) and Sub Dean for Degree programmes (SD/Degree) oversee the curriculum review, development and implementation of the degree programmes. The team strives to continually ensure the relevance, rigour and overall academic excellence of these programmes.