What kind of courses are prepared for students to attain a teaching credential?
What school districts (or equivalent) are located around the teaching program and what kind of partnerships do they have with the districts?
As mentioned earlier, teacher education courses usually focus on hands-on or practical knowledge and skills more than academic knowledge and skills. Yet, while some education programs encourage students to study education as an academic field alongside teaching training courses, other programs solely focus on education as an object of research.
Ask questions to understand how a program is balanced (or not) between hands-on and practical knowledge as compared to a program intended for students to study education as an academic discipline and field of research.
What should I look for in a university for studying education?
Fundamentally, students should always look for what they think a good university should have in general. However, there might be some features of a good university for studying education to look for.
With all the teaching and education programs out there, the reputation of the program might be worth looking into. Find reviews and ratings written by current and previous students, and message students about their experiences. If you cannot find program alumni by yourself, email the program administrator to ask for an alumni or current student emails to contact.
Look for professors with the right profiles to achieve your goals. In the field of education, sometimes school teachers or former teachers work as professors. They are, of course, teaching professionals, but they may not really be professional researchers. This can be either good or bad depending on your goals and what you want to learn.
To get the most out of your program, look for a program that keeps the classrooms small. Engaging in discussions and exploring learning theory in a more personal way will enhance your experience.
Finding the finding for your program is ideal for an education degree. Depending on where you study, it could get quite expensive. If that’s the case, ask about scholarship opportunities within the program and the school or find external scholarship funding. There may be some opportunities to work for the school, for example as a graduate assistant, that would significantly lessen the financial burden.
A great way to level up your education skills is to put them to practice. Universities who invest in partnerships with education institutions where you can do your teaching practicum will be extremely helpful if you choose to study in a teaching program.
For those interested in jobs in education that are not teaching, look for universities with significant connections to educational organizations or that offer student involvement in educational activities. This could look like a mentoring program where you would advise younger students, career panels with alumni who are working in relevant educational institutions, or perhaps a yearly seminar where you could share educational research and network in your field.
An ideal teaching degree program will help you find a teaching job after you graduate. Take a look at where program alumni are working, and prioritize high job placement rates for an easier transition to working life after the program.
Career counseling services are also important resources that will help you later on. However, be prepared to not get a job where you student teach. Although it does happen and it is an absolute dream if it works out like that, not everyone can be so lucky.
How many of the program alumni actually got jobs in the field of education? How many of them became educational professionals in their desired field? Do their profiles fit your future career goals? Find program alumni on LinkedIn to understand how a program might translate into reality.
The first day of class is your opportunity to present your vision of the class to prospective students. It is helpful if you can introduce yourself as a scholar and educator and provide insight into how you will teach the class and what you will expect them to contribute to the learning process.
Consider that several of your students may be “shopping” for a schedule the first week of classes. They may be looking for a class that will fill a particular time slot, include a particular learning environment (i.e. lab-based or lecture style), or a class with a certain workload to balance the demands of their other courses and extra-curricular responsibilities. Thus, students will appreciate a clear roadmap of what you will require of them over the course of the semester. You may also want to model, as specifically as possible, the classroom environment you intend to foster during the class. For example, if they will spend a good deal of time doing group work over the course of the semester, you may want to break them into groups the first day.
“Professors who established a special trust with their students often displayed the kind of openness in which they might, from time to time, talk about their intellectual journey, its ambitions, triumphs, frustrations, and failures, and encourage students to be similarly reflective and candid.”
–From the chapter “How Do They Treat Their Students” in Ken Bain’s What the Best College Teachers Do (Harvard Press, 2004), available in the CFT Library
Nigeria's best law programThe point of an introduction is to establish yourself as a unique individual sharing the classroom with other unique individuals. Other than providing your name and the name of the course you’re teaching, here is some information you may consider sharing:
Personal biography: your place of birth, family history, educational history, hobbies, sport and recreational interests, how long you have been at the university, and what your plans are for the future.
Educational biography: how you came to specialize in your chosen field, a description of your specific area of expertise, your current projects, and your future plans.
Teaching biography: how long have you taught, how many subjects/classes have you taught, what level of class you normally teach, what you enjoy about being in the classroom, what do you learn from your students, and what you expect to teach in the future.
In making your decision about what information to share, consider how much you want them to know and how much you want to reveal about yourself.
This is your opportunity to focus on students as unique and diverse individuals. Consider how introductions can lead into a productive and welcoming classroom environment. Instead of just asking general questions concerning their name, major, and years at Vanderbilt, ask them questions that are pertinent to the subject and the atmosphere you want to build through the semester. Here are some examples:
In a geography or history class, you may want to ask students to introduce themselves and explain where they are from. You could mark these places on a map of the world as they talk.
In a geography or history class, you may want to ask students to introduce themselves and explain where they are from. You could mark these places on a map of the world as they talk.
In a math class, you may want to ask the students to introduce themselves and state one way mathematics enriches their lives every day.
You may also want to have the students break into pairs, exchange information, and introduce one another to the class.
This may also be a good time to give your students an exercise that enables teachers to assess the state of their students’ previous or current learning. Examples of these Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) can be found on our Web site, but include the following.
The Background Knowledge Probe is a short, simple questionnaire given to students at the start of a course, or before the introduction of a new unit, lesson or topic. It is designed to uncover students’ pre-conceptions about the area of study.
Discuss and Evaluate the Room Environment Together
As your students are introducing themselves and you are talking to them, ask your students to comment on the acoustics and remain conscious of how well you can hear and see each of them. Consider, with their input or alone, how you would change and optimize the seating arrangement. At the end of the introductions, ask them to move to optimize communication and make note of unexpected needs for a microphone, lighting changes, seating arrangements or other environmental controls.
“What happens between you and your students in your classroom or lecture hall depends largely on what you want to happen. How you treat each other and how you and your students feel about being in that place with each other is modeled and influenced by you.”
–From the chapter “Classroom Contracts–Roles, Rules, and Expectations” in David W. Champagne’s The Intelligent Professor’s Guide to Teaching (Roc Edtech, 1995), available in the CFT Library
Course overview: Provide a map of where the class will start and end, and what you expect them to understand at the end of the semester. See the Course Design page for resources on creating and summarizing course goals.
