EDUCATION COMPONENT OF GRADUATE COURSES TAKEN IN THE CONTENT AREA TO MEET REQUIREMENTS FOR MAT DEGREE IN SECONDARY EDUCATION

EDUCATION COMPONENT OF GRADUATE COURSES TAKEN IN THE CONTENT AREA TO MEET REQUIREMENTS FOR MAT DEGREE IN SECONDARY EDUCATION

New York State program requirements have changed. They now include a pedagogical component in graduate liberal arts courses in the following content areas: secondary English, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies.

MAT students preparing for certification in Secondary Education must take 12 graduate credits in their subject area. Courses taken toward those 12 credits must henceforth include a pedagogical component.

Some such courses already include a pedagogical component. The School of Education proposes that courses which do not already include such a component may choose to implement the option described below.

Graduate students will prepare a brief reflective paper in response to several or all of the following questions

Relating to the nature of the academic discipline or subject:

What new understandings have I developed about the nature of my discipline?

How may I relate what I learned in this course to the content of Secondary coursework in my area?

How can I use what I learned in this course to help my students make connections within this academic area and between this and other areas?

How can I use what I learned in this course to help my students make use of this subject area knowledge in their own lives?

Relating to pedagogy:

What have I learned about how students learn in this area and what obstacles to learning they face?

What are some thinking skills that are developed in a study of this discipline? How can I help my students develop and appreciate the thinking strategies that are appropriate to this discipline?

The course instructor will collect the papers before the 12^th week of class and will forward them to the School of Education. An appropriate education faculty member will read them, grade them Pass/Fail, and submit the grades to the course instructor before Final Exam week. Any student not passing this pedagogical component will not be permitted to pass the course itself. An incomplete grade may be submitted, if necessary, until the paper has been revised, resubmitted, and passed.

It should be noted that courses offered for both undergraduate and graduate credit must include special additional work for graduate students. The option described above is one way to satisfy that requirement.

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