The BTEP provides students with field experiences in the elementary classroom and contact with faculty from the education department from the freshman through senior year. This program will be offered for the first time at Cal State Fullerton in the fall of 1999. Early Entry in the Elementary Education Credential Program Students who want to teach elementary school may begin the Multiple Subject Credential Programs as early as the senior year. To be eligible for early entry into the program,a student must have completed all of the general education requirements and have no more than six units remaining in the major. When students know from the freshman year that they want to teach elementary school, it is possible to plan the general education and major programs so efficiently as to be able to enter the credential program by the first semester of the senior year.
Students can then complete the bachelor's degree and the preliminary credential at the same time.
When students decide in their elementary or sophomore year to become elementary teachers, the usual route is to complete the bachelor's degree first and then enter the Multiple Subject Credential Program in the fifth year. There are a variety of options. The two most popular majors for students planning to be elementary school teachers are Child Development and Liberal Studies. Students majoring in Child Development study human development from conception through adolescence with emphasis on the interrelationships between the development of the person, the family and the community. The Liberal Studies major focuses on the broad range of human knowledge, tracing the historical development of knowledge in the arts and humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences.