To this end, the Secondary Education Program serves prospective educators seeking licensure and a Master's degree preparatory to teaching in schools that serve grades 6 through 12. The central goal of the Secondary Education program is to start teacher candidates on the journey to becoming reflective, professional, collaborative, constructivist, and research-based practitioners. As new information is encountered through concrete experience, collaborative discourse, and reflection, learners undergo a process of resolving inner cognitive conflicts. This process allows learners to rethink their understanding of the world and to form a new set of rules that result in new cognitive structures. Students begin their study as a cohort group each spring and proceed through licensure coursework as an intact group.
Students divide into endorsement fields to complete the methods and advanced methods.
Additional 15 sem. Additional 15 sem. Students will participate in a yearlong, daytime commitment in addition to taking a course each semester. It is likely, but not required, that most candidates participating in the Master's degree option will have begun their first year of teaching. Praxis I scores, goals statement, letters of recommendation, undergraduate major and institution, experience, interview, number of remaining endorsement requirements, and writing sample.