Pre-Education

Affiliation: School of Health Sciences & Education

The Master of Arts in Education (MAE) provides students with the opportunity to earn a professional teaching degree built upon a solid liberal arts and sciences undergraduate degree.

Students interested in teaching will pursue a baccalaureate degree in a discipline of their choice before entering into the Master of Arts in Education program. Students are advised to consult their academic advisor and the Department of Education early in their undergraduate program for information and advice on meeting program and certification requirements.

Students interested in teaching secondary English, secondary social science, secondary mathematics, secondary biology/chemistry/physics, exercise science, visual arts, music, French, and Spanish will generally be required to have an undergraduate degree in that area.

Undergraduate students may declare their interest in teaching by choosing the appropriate pre-education code offered in the undergraduate major code listing. The pre-education code provides additional information that will alert education faculty of students’ interest in education and will ensure communication between students and the education program. With individualized advising, students can prepare themselves for entrance into the professional program at the graduate level, which leads to a Master of Arts in Education degree and professional certification.

Application deadlines for admission to the MAE are September 1, October 1, November 1, February 1, March 1, and April 1. Admission requirements for entry into the graduate program as well as other general and specific information are given in the Education (MAE) program under Academic Programs, Masters Degree Programs.

Students are encouraged to include four prerequisites for the professional studies sequence of the MAE in their baccalaureate program. The courses are:

For course descriptions and prerequisites, see the Courses section of this catalog. 

FIELD EXPERIENCES

The field experience component of the MAE program is designed to provide prospective teachers with an incremental set of field experiences. This set of sequential experiences allows the students to see themselves as potential teachers and to observe and participate in the teaching/learning process within school settings. Initial experiences are exploratory and descriptive in nature and become increasingly more grade and content specific as the student increases his/her knowledge of theory, pedagogy, and experience. 

EXPLORATORY FIELD EXPERIENCES (Prerequisite for ED 393)

It is important for students entering ED 393 Clinical Experiences in Teaching to have had a common core of baseline field experiences upon which to reflect and through which to begin to view the teaching/learning process in relationship to the complex nature, structure, variety, culture and organizational climate of schools. In addition, this baseline set of field experiences forms the foundation upon which additional sequential field experiences in the specialty areas (elementary education, special education, and secondary disciplines) can be implemented. In response to state and national accreditation guidelines, the following structure is required.  

Exploratory Field Experiences required for all students:

Prior to taking ED 393, students must observe a minimum of 55 clock hours in a public school setting. Minimum observations are to be divided as follows:

Within the 45 hours not designated for a special education setting: 5 clock hours must provide observations of a setting or program which includes at-risk students. Within the total 55 Exploratory Field Experience hours: 5 clock hours must be in a setting determined to be culturally diverse.

NOTE: Schools require some or all of the following screenings prior to placement in clinical experiences and/or internships: state and/or federal criminal conviction records, fingerprint record check, TB test results, Division of Family Service records and information from references, schools and employers. Failure to clear any of these screenings may result in not obtaining a recommendation for a teaching certificate, consequently preventing the completion of the internship and graduation from the MAE. For further information, contact the Director of Field Experiences.