General Education Requirements
A minimum of 48 credit hours of general education courses is required for the Elementary Education (Grades 1-6) B.A. with Bridge to M.A. in Gifted Education degree. Some of the courses listed below are required to fulfill the general education requirements and others may be used as electives. Other courses not listed below may also be considered to fulfill electives that comprise the General Education requirements. General Education courses must meet the following criteria::
Humanities - Fine Arts Elective (Music, Art, Performance - 3 hours), Literature Elective - 3 hours, Multi-Cultural Elective - (Study Abroad, Foreign Language, other - 3 hours) = Total 9 hours
Literacy - (ENG 101 Writing I and ENG 104 Writing II required) = Total 6 hours
Mathematics - MATH 207, 116 OR117, AND Math 208 = Total 6 hours
Science - SCI 131 OR 132, AND SCI Elective with Lab or Lab Experience = Minimum Total 6 hours
Social Science - EDUC 220, HIST 121 OR 122, and PSCI 101 = Total 9 hours
Electives - 12 hours: EDUC 100 - Introduction to Schooling or its equivalent is required of all freshman education majors and strongly recommended as an elective for all other education majors. All freshmen are also required to take INTD 101 - University Seminar. This credit will count toward the 24-hour elective requirement for Elementary Education majors. EDUC 668 Behavior Management and EDUC 616 Differentiating for All Learners are strongly recommended as electives for all education majors. These courses should ideally be taken in the senior year or in the 5th year for candidates in accelerated masters degree programs.
Please work with your life coach and faculty mentor to determine which of the listed general education courses are appropriate for you.
Practicum Experiences
Education majors spend a considerable amount of time in schools gaining firsthand classroom experience with students. Beginning in the sophomore year, all education students are required to complete a practicum experience each semester, with increasingly rigorous expectations regarding student interactions, lesson planning and delivery, and collaboration with professional educators in the field. These experiences build upon one another to provide teacher candidates with exposure to students from multiple grade levels in diverse schools and districts, as well as to a wide variety of teaching/learning opportunities in real-world settings. These practicum experiences culminate in student teaching experience in the final semester if he initial teacher preparation program. Candidates pursuing the Masters in Gifted Education also complete a practicum specifically focused on Gifted Education near the end of their program.
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