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Deadline for spring semester is December 1st
Deadline for fall semester is July 1st
 The Master of
Arts in Teaching - Early Childhood Education Program (grades P-5)
at Oglethorpe University is based on a commitment to a broad
liberal arts background as the best content preparation for teaching
and to preparing teachers for the diverse schools of the 21st
century. The program offers both the Master of Arts in teaching
degree and initial certification for early childhood educators.
Successful completion of the program is necessary to obtain
recommendation for a teaching certificate.
Grounded in the liberal arts. The MAT
program in Early Childhood Education offers initial Georgia teaching
certification* and the Master of Arts in Teaching degree. The
program's design comes out of the "Conceptual Framework" for teacher
education at Oglethorpe, approved by the faculty of the Division of
Education in August of 2000. The framework expresses Oglethorpe's
commitments to a broad liberal arts background as the best content
preparation for teaching and to preparing teachers for the diverse
schools of the 21st century.
*approved by the Georgia Professional Standards Commission to
recommend students for initial certification in Early Childhood
Education (P-5)
Mission Statement
The liberal arts tradition is the heart of teacher education at
Oglethorpe University. Critical inquiry grounded in the liberal arts
is the foundation of learning. By integrating liberal arts content, best pedagogical practices,
and effective assessment strategies, the Oglethorpe teacher creates and
then reflects upon effective instruction for all learners.
A Step Above the Rest
The Master of Arts in Teaching Program offers:
- initial teaching certification at the T-5 level;
- the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) degree;
- an innovative curriculum featuring integration of liberal arts
content and best pedagogical practices;
- intensive and extensive field experiences;
- small classes;
- preparation for the diverse schools of the 21st century.
- Flexible scheduling of classes for working adults
The following courses are offered in the MAT Program:
| EDU 601. Exploring Constructivist Teaching and Learning |
4 hours |
The purposes of this course, the first in the
Master of Arts in Teaching program sequence, are to explore the
historical and philosophical foundations of constructivist
teaching and learning and to provide learners with pedagogical
skills to plan, implement, and assess inquiry-based instruction.
Students will engage in regular and systematic reflection on
their developing knowledge and then apply their knowledge in
field-based classroom experiences in diverse settings.
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| EDU 602. Cultural Psychology |
4 hours |
Cultural psychology is an interdisciplinary
field between psychology and anthropology. It focuses on the
ways in which culture and mind, and more specifically, culture
and self, mutually constitute each other. Therefore, cultural
psychology primarily addresses how the mutual constitution of
culture and self has implications for cross-culturally divergent
psychological patterns in cognition, emotion, motivation, moral
reasoning, and psychopathologies.
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| EDU 603. Assessing Teaching and Learning |
4 hours |
This course provides an introduction to the
concepts and skills needed to develop paper-and-pencil and
performance assessments for formative and summative classroom
evaluation. Planning student evaluations, coordinating
evaluations with objectives, item development, item analysis,
relating evaluation to instruction, grading, and reporting
achievement outcomes to students, parents, and school personnel
are discussed.
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| EDU 605. Literacies Workshop |
4 hours |
This course is an introduction to tools for developing literacy in the broadest
sense of the word with a focus on literacy in mathematics, language arts, and
technology. The course is workshop-based, involving students in developing their
own literacies as they learn ways to support children's literacy development.
Prerequisite: EDU 601
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| EDU 611. Arts of Diverse Peoples |
4 hours |
This course provides future teachers with an
appreciation and understanding of the arts disciplines of music,
visual art, dance, and theatre as a means to understand self,
others, and the human condition. It also offers students an
opportunity for personal inquiry experiences and skill
development in the arts so that they feel prepared to
incorporate study of the arts into their classrooms. Students
will engage in regular and systematic reflection on their
developing knowledge base. Students will also apply their
knowledge in field-based classroom experiences in diverse
settings.
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| EDU 612. Literacy and Literature |
4 hours |
This course prepares students to be literacy
teachers in diverse early childhood classrooms. The course
includes methods of literacy instruction and explorations in
literature from various cultural perspectives. Students will
engage in regular and systematic reflection on their developing
knowledge base and apply their knowledge in field-based
classroom experiences in diverse settings.
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| EDU 613. Studies of Diverse Cultures |
4 hours |
This course includes exploration of social
studies content and methods for teaching social studies in early
childhood education. From a variety of perspectives, students
will examine the types of questions social scientists ask about
human experience, institutions, and interactions. In the course,
prospective teachers will use appropriate methods of inquiry to
investigate some of those questions. They will engage in regular
and systematic reflection on their developing knowledge base and
then apply that knowledge in field-based classroom experiences
in diverse settings.
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| EDU 614. Mathematical Inquiry |
4 hours |
The foundation for this course is that knowing
mathematics is doing mathematics; thereby, students will be
prepared to teach mathematics well. The focus is mathematics
content: number systems, geometry, and an additional unit (from
probability/statistics, graph theory, or another appropriate
area). Methods, assessment, technology, and historical
perspective are integral to this course.
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| EDU 615. Inquiring Into Science |
4 hours |
In this course, students will explore nature,
content, and processes of science while examining current best
practices and issues in teaching science to children. Students
will understand the role that inquiry plays in the development
of scientific knowledge. Students will explore relationships
between science, technology, and other curriculum areas in a
community of diverse elementary learners.
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| EDU 619. Student Teaching and Capstone Seminar |
12 hours |
| Student teaching, a supervised internship
semester in a diverse elementary public school classroom, is
the capstone experience in teacher preparation, the point at
which theory and practice converge. The course includes 14
weeks of full-time participation and teaching in a public
school classroom with weekly seminar meetings for
professional development. |
| EDU 629. Advanced Special Topics in Education |
1-12 hours |
| Advanced courses are offered to respond to
topical needs of the curriculum. |
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