Mission and Goals
The Education Department aims: a) to provide for students professional preparation for teacher certification at the elementary and secondary levels within the setting of the liberal arts philosophy and approach to undergraduate education; b) to explore with students the social, psychological, philosophical, and historical foundations of education in our society; and c) to stimulate student inquiry concerning the nature of our educational institutions.
Goals of the Teacher Certification Program
In addition to the goals of the liberal arts and sciences, the goals of the Teacher Certification Program are:
- to enable each student to achieve competence in the Essential Dimensions of Teaching;
- to develop in its undergraduates an understanding of the social, emotional, intellectual, and physical needs of public school students, as well as the ability to assess student learning potential and to plan effective instruction for their development;
- to help its students acquire a facility for communicating intelligently and effectively with others in a variety of educational environments through the selection of appropriate teaching methods, instructional materials, and other resources;
- to prepare reflective practitioners capable of continually reappraising their own teaching philosophy, objectives, techniques, and materials;
- to establish a reflective and collegial environment in which the self-esteem, the performance ability, and the problem solving capacities of the potential teacher are shaped and reshaped at a formative level;
- to nurture the personal development of its students—growth in self-knowledge, security, identity, belonging, purpose, personal competence; and
- to model effective instructional procedures—cooperative-collaborative, experiential & performance oriented, problem solving.