Teacher Licensure - Curriculum

Whether you are a para-professional currently working in the schools, are switching from a career in business or the trades, are entering college for the first time, or already have a degree and want to earn a license to teach, UI&U offers a unique way to help you achieve your dream through flexible, brief-residency options.

Here are five important ways our program is different from other teacher education programs:

• Students start with the knowledge and skills they possess and build from there. This means students who demonstrate hands-on experience and practical knowledge are not required to duplicate that learning.
• With the help of a faculty mentor, students design studies that are important to them and that reflect their interests and goals.
• Except for brief residencies (one weekend each month or one week every four months) students study from home, making it possible to balance college study with family work and commitments.
• Students earn 12 or 15 credits each term, enabling them to complete their college degree and earn a teaching license more quickly than is possible by taking one or two courses at a time.
• Throughout the program, faculty and students, in small discussion groups, engage in vigorous dialogue in the liberal arts, issues of mutual interest, and shared areas of study.

Teacher licensure students are required to attend a seminar called Dialogues on Practice during their education studies.  The seminar is collaborative—students share what they have learned during classroom observations and student teaching, plan future learning activities, and examine topics in education.

Student Teaching
Whether you select the Colloquium or Weekend option, you can do your classroom observations, pre-practicum, and twelve-week student teaching in or near your own community.  This is a real advantage when you begin to apply for teaching positions in the area where you live.

Student Teaching Scholarship
Qualified students who have completed all other program requirements are eligible for a full tuition scholarship during their student teaching term.  This unique opportunity makes the program even more accessible for those students who are working full-time during the rest of their studies, and who find the leave of absence for student teaching a difficult financial burden.

A typical sequence of independent studies will be designed as follows after completion of the junior year:

• Term 1 – (12 credits) Foundations of Education – Studies in the history and philosophy of education, human development, and diversity in schooling
• Term 2 –  (12 credits) Curriculum – Studies in teaching methods, theories of teaching and learning, assessment, working with students with special needs
• Term 3 – (6 credits) Portfolio completion seminar*
• Term 4 – (12 credits) Culminating study in liberal arts concentration**
• Term 5 – (15 credits) Student teaching

*Portfolios, developed in conjunction with faculty mentors, are submitted prior to, and following, student teaching.

**Undergraduate only. Post-baccalaureate students who already have earned a bachelor’s degrees will go straight into student teaching.