Education
Field Experiences
Candidates participate in a variety of field experiences which allow them to apply and reflect on their content, professional and pedagogical knowledge, skills and dispositions. The experiences are designed to facilitate the candidates’ development as Teacher as Progressive Leader by giving them the opportunity to observe public school classrooms, tutor students, assist teachers, attend meetings, take part with fellow students and classroom teachers in conversations about the profession of teaching, and participate in community events connected to education.
Dr. Susan Stigall, Field Experience Coordinator, plans, coordinates, and evaluates quality field experiences. In order to ensure systematic field experiences that enable our candidates to gradually move from observation to instruction the following set of field experiences guidelines have been established.
Levels 1 and 2: Introductory Field Experiences
FE-1: Any experience working with children/adolescents in an educational setting that has been documented prior to entering FE-2.
FE-2: 200 Level Education Courses (ED 205 Introduction to Education and ED 251 Introduction to Special Education — observations (no student/candidate interaction). Students will reflect on their experiences and post reflections in Task Stream.
Levels 3 and 4: Coursework Field Experiences
FE – 3: 300 Level Education Courses — Candidates will spend three to seven hours in designated schools assessing and developing lesson plans under close supervision of the classroom teachers and/or professors. In some courses, candidates may teach students using the foresaid lessons and/or cooperating teachers’ lesson plans. Candidates will reflect on their experiences and post reflections in Task Stream.
FE – 4: 400 Level Education Courses — Candidates will spend seven to ten hours in designated schools assessing students, developing plans of study/lessons based on the assessment outcomes, and development of formative assessment to determine rates of student improvement. Candidates will reflect on their experiences and post reflections in Task Stream.
Level 5: Clinical Experience
FE – 5: All candidates are required to participate in a semester-long student teaching experience that involves assuming full teaching responsibility for a period of at least ten weeks. All candidates are required to take ED 470 Diversity in American Schools in order to insure that they are familiar with the challenges and opportunities presented by a diverse school setting. The goal of the clinical experience is to provide advanced candidates guided practice and constructive feedback as they prepare themselves to become a Teacher as Progressive Leader. Candidates will reflect on their experiences and post reflections in Task Stream.
Level 6: Master’s Degree Program: Field Experiences
FE – 6: Field experiences will be developed for the Master of Education in Elementary Education