Elementary Mathematics
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Comments on analysis
Students cannot excel in mathematics without skillful instruction in the earliest years of school. Teacher candidates generally require three semesters of coursework, complemented by adequate field practice, to progress from a procedural to a conceptual understanding of the essential mathematics topics taught in the elementary grades.
Courses reviewed: MAT 201
Through a review of the coursework noted above, the program was found to require too few SCHs of content-focused coursework for teacher candidates to develop a comprehensive understanding of elementary mathematics.
Next Steps
To improve under this standard, require teacher candidates to complete at least four SCH of coursework focused on developing their conceptual understanding of numbers & operations, algebra, geometry, and data analysis & probability.
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Coming Fall 2020
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Building Content Knowledge
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Comments on analysis
Because they teach all subjects, elementary teacher candidates need to have a solid grasp of literature and composition, American and world history, geography and science. Teacher candidates should also develop some expertise outside of their professional studies, not only to enrich their own academic experience, but also to serve as a fallback major in the event that the student teaching experience is unsuccessful.
Requirements established by the program and/or the institution in which it is located ensure that all elementary certification candidates must take relevant classes in the checked topics below.
| Literature & Composition |
| | ✗ World literature |
| | ✗ American literature |
| | ✗ Writing, grammar and composition |
| | ✔ Children's literature |
| History & Geography |
| | ✗ Early American history
Because of the range of course options permitted, all elementary teacher candidates are not required to take the equivalent of a three semester credit hour general education course that focuses on U.S. history from the age of discovery or colonial period or founding of the republic to the Civil War or Reconstruction.
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| | ✔ Modern American history or Government |
| | ✗ World history—ancient |
| | ✗ World history—modern |
| | ✔ Geography |
| Science |
| | ✗ Biology
Because of the range of course options permitted, all elementary teacher candidates are not required to take the equivalent of a three semester credit hour general education course that covers biology and matter related to biological processes, including topics such as cellular structures and dynamics, genetics, taxonomy, evolution, plant and animal physiology, developmental biology, and, ecology. Cellular and molecular biology should be more prominently featured than ecology and/or evolution.
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| | ✗ Chemistry
Because of the range of course options permitted, all elementary teacher candidates are not required to take the equivalent of a three semester credit hour general education course that covers topics such as measurement, matter and energy, atomic theory and structure, the periodic table, chemical reactions, stoichiometry, chemical bonding, states of matter, reaction rates and equilibria, acids and bases, nuclear chemistry, and biochemistry.
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| | ✗ Physics
Because of the range of course options permitted, all elementary teacher candidates are not required to take the equivalent of a three semester credit hour general education course that falls into one of these broad categories.
Physics: an introductory course covering motion, energy, conservation laws, gravity, phase changes, thermodynamics, electricity, magnetism, sound, light, and wave dynamics.
Physical Science: an introduction to physical science which features physics prominently.
Earth Science: an introductory course that covers one or more of geology, climatology, astronomy, and oceanography.
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| | ✔ Earth science |
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Coming Fall 2020
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