EDUC 100 - Exploring Education: Teaching as a Profession

3 Credit: (3 lecture, 0 lab, 0 clinical) 3 Contact Hours: [Reading Level 3  and Writing Level 3 ]

 Course Goals/ Objectives/ Competencies:
Goal 1:  Analyze their motivation, personal and professional characteristics, ethics, and dispositions as they relate to becoming a professional educator.

1. Reflect on their own educational history and how it can affect the type of teacher they become.
2. Examine teachers’ rights and responsibilities as they perform their professional duties.

Goal 2:  Identify the components of the teacher education preparation program at the university level.

1. Identify examples of the academic language associated with teacher education.
2. Examine the requirements of the State of Michigan for earning a teaching certificate.

Goal 3:  Explore PK-12 educational settings.

1. Observe in PK-12 educational settings.
2. Discuss the educational setting with PK-12 teachers and preservice teacher peers.

Goal 4:  Evaluate the PK-12 environment for the impact of physical space, teaching, and learning.

1. Examine the relationship between curriculum, instruction, and assessment.
2. Examine factors that might influence a student’s success in school.
3. Examine the impact of available resources on learning.

Goal 5:  Explore professional development opportunities available as a preservice teacher.

1. Explore the support systems that are in place for new and preservice teachers.
2. Discuss the lifelong learning needs of teachers.

Goal 6:  Justify an informed decision about becoming a professional educator.

1. Describe the demands of teaching.
2. Examine how well their personal qualitites fit the demands of teaching.

Goal 7:  Apply the skills of collaboration in the educational context.

1. Describe the roles of communication and collaboration for professionals in an educational setting.
2. Practice professional communication and collaboration with peers and mentor teachers.

Goal 8:  Apply the awareness of diversity in the educational context.

1. Explain why teachers must have an understanding of their students’ lives through a lens of their ethnic, cultural, and daily life experiences.
2. Assess the importance of knowing who students are, what their lives are like, and how they learn best.
3. Examine factors that may hinder a student’s success in school.
4. Discuss how classrooms with diverse students can share a common set of beliefs, values, and goals.

Goal 9:  Articulate an awareness of issues facing prospective teachers in American education.

1. Examine how history informs issues facing teachers today.
2. Identity issues that impact a teacher’s job.
3. Explore how technology impacts the classroom.
4. Explore how legislation impacts the classroom.