This program will begin in the 2012-2013 academic year. 


The Education Minor is a sequence of courses that allows students majoring in another discipline to develop familiarity with the teaching profession. While courses will serve as useful preparation for those who would like to enter a teaching career, this minor will not on its own satisfy the requirements for a state teaching credential. This program may help teachers seeking immediate employment in private schools who do not require state credentials or who give a three year grace period to earn a credential after initial employment.  This program may help teachers seeking immediate employment in private schools which do not require state credentials or in public or private schools which give a grace period to earn a credential via alternative certification while employed. The typical student will enroll in two education elective courses per term and may complete the minor in two years. 


The Ave Maria University student who completes the Minor in Education will also have an exceptional comprehensive liberal arts grounding and a major in a subject matter. This threefold combination will make the student a more effective educator. The University’s reputation for faithful Catholicism should also make our minor graduates more attractive to some parochial and independent primary and secondary schools.


Required Courses:
EDUC 210 Measurement and Evaluation in the Classroom (3 credits) This course will provide the new teacher with knowledge of assessment concepts and principles needed for effective evaluation of learning outcomes. It will focus on establishing credible performance standards, communicating those standards and providing feedback as well as matching assessments to these standards for positive consequences and practicality. Construction and measurement of various assessment techniques for formative and summative assessments such as selected response, constructed response, portfolio and feedback will be presented. Contemporary assessment strategies such as e-portfolio and electronic grading and assessing of students with special needs and ELL students will be reviewed as will principles of validity, reliability and bias for standardized based tests.  



EDUC 210 Measurement and Evaluation in the Classroom (3 credits)
This course will provide the student with statistical analysis skills as appropriate for teachers, and explore traditional norm and criterion-referenced assessment measures and test construction, performance assessment tasks and rubrics, reliability, validity, and bias. 


EDUC 220 Instructional Strategies (3 credits)
This course will provide the student with strategies for managing the classroom, instruction and evaluation as they relate to teaching the essential school competencies. Presents relationship between curriculum theories and instructional practices, interrelationship of various components of a curriculum design, and curriculum design as a basis for decision-making in constructing instructional programs. Demonstrates different applications of curriculum principles to the development of educational programs.


EDUC 230 Methods of Teaching Reading (3 credits)
This course will provide the student with current research and instructional approaches that focus on improving literacy skills. Students will learn about the reading process, identify reading demands in content areas, develop instructional activities to improve reading, and use reading/writing/thinking activities in daily instruction. 


EDUC 240 Classroom Management & Organization (3 credits)
This course will provide the student with classroom management skills, including understanding the major theories animating management of student behavior, discussion of effective classroom rules and procedures, school safety, parental involvement, legal issues related to the rights and responsibilities of teachers, and the strategies for creating a positive, safe environment to meet the needs of all students.


EDUC 301 Human Development and Learning (4 credits)
This course will introduce students to developmental theory and research and its application to education. The life stages covered during this semester are prenatal, infancy, early childhood, middle and late childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, middle adulthood, late adulthood, aging, and death and dying. The interaction of heredity and environment and their influences on development will be explored. The relationship of Catholic teaching will be routinely integrated into the course material, including Catholic literature on the topic of human growth and development. Also discussed will be the impact of sociocultural contexts (culture, gender, socioeconomic status, race, and ethnicity, etc.) on physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development.  Prerequisite: PSYC 201.  (This course is cross-listed with PSYC 301.)


Special Methods (based on their major) (3 credits)


ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages) Foundations (3) 
This course will provide the student with awareness of the five ESOL areas specified in the consent decree as it examines issues of language and culture relevant to school-age learners of English as a Second Language.


Questions and Answers


Will this minor lead to state certification or a state teaching license?
No.


How do I find out more about teacher certification in Florida?
Contact the Florida Department of Education at  http://www.teachinflorida.com.


Can I teach in a school without certification?
Many states, including Florida, have a system whereby a college graduate can receive a temporary teaching license, which allows you to teach in a public school while pursing certification. 


Can I teach in a private school without a credential? 
Some private schools do not require any teaching credential. Other private schools may ask for you to get a temporary license while they take you through their own on the job licensing program.


How does alternative certification work? 
Visit your target state’s education website for details. Many states have programs to provide a type of portfolio based on-the-job training program in conjunction with standardized tests which results in teacher certification without having to take formal college coursework. 


What is the value of the minor?
Knowledge of how to teach will benefit you as a student, parent, or teacher. Knowing how to effectively teach and assess what you have taught is a critical skill in a variety of disciplines, occupations, and life experiences even if you never formally teach in a K-12 classroom. If you are trying to get a job as a teacher, a comprehensive background in education may assist in getting hired and gaining access to alternative certification. The AMU minor is designed to provide you with training in the Florida Educator Accomplished Practices, or FEAPS. At the conclusion of our minor you will have a portfolio demonstrating your level of competence in each of the critical areas necessary to prove teaching competence. It will be up to your future employer, graduate program, or state credentialing department to determine if the courses you have taken at AMU will satisfy their internal requirements.  Regardless, you will be exposed to the critical knowledge and skills necessary to be an effective teacher and prepared to step into a position of classroom leadership.


Will the minor ever lead directly to state certification?
While the University is exploring the requirements to get the minor approved for the purposes of state certification, the student should not anticipate such approval in determining whether or not to pursue the minor.


Faculty: 
Dr. Daniel Guernsey, Program Coordinator

Dr. Marc Snyder