About the Major
In addition to completing the requirements for a broad, integrated liberal arts education at Ohio Wesleyan, candidates in the teacher preparation programs leading to licensure at the adolescence to young adult (AYA) level complete both a major in their specific content area, and a major in AYA Education that consists of education courses, carefully planned and supervised field-based experiences, and student teaching in classrooms with certified, experienced teachers. (Students interested in the Integrated Science license major in Education.) Education faculty members coach preservice teachers during their microteaching and plan and supervise their field experiences. Student teaching is supervised by both members of the education faculty and faculty in content area disciplines.
The teacher preparation program is based on current theories and research about teaching and learning. The Education Department adheres to standards that address issues related to the value and recognition of student diversity, to the depth of teachers' knowledge of content and pedagogy, and to the need for teachers to use a wide repertoire of instructional skills and approaches to plan, implement, and assess learning with multiple sources of data, including a variety of formal and informal strategies used to support and evaluate the processes and products of learning. In addition, the program provides varied educational and professional opportunities for teacher preparation students to learn through experiences with a wide range of verbal, visual, technological, and creative media, to participate in classrooms that function as communities of learners, and to reflect on their own and others' processes of learning and teaching practices.
The AYA major and licensure program consist of a secondary methods course with related field experience, a content-specific methods course, a content area reading course, a student teaching seminar, and 15 weeks of student teaching. All candidates in the adolescence to young adult licensure fields of Integrated Language Arts, Integrated Mathematics, Integrated Social Studies, and Integrated Science take secondary methods and content methods course work in the Education Department. Candidates in the AYA licensure program complete their teacher preparation by participating in the student teaching seminar and student teaching as directed by faculty in the Education Department.
The following courses in education are required: 110, 251, 255, 350, 359, 377, 471, 472, 473, 474, plus additional course(s) in content methods (365, 366, 367, or 368), and in the teaching area. A college-level math course is required.
Diversity
Students seeking a teaching license must complete two unit courses with substantial focus on non-Euro-American topics (beginning Freshmen 2006).
