The M.A.T. curriculum focuses on strengthening your skills as a teacher of mathematics through theoretical learning and field opportunities, including a three-month student teaching experience in the spring. This 12-month program consists of 48 credit hours over three semesters (normally 16 hours per semester).
Summer Semester Session I
EDU 610: Understanding Learners (4)
Theories of cognitive development (Piaget, Vygotsky, information processing); learning theory (research in cognition and memory, behaviorism, constructivism, schema theory, conceptual change); motivation theory (attributions, intrinsic vs. extrinsic, affect).
MAT 600: Secondary Mathematics from an Advanced Perspective (4)
Examination of topics in secondary mathematics from advanced and interdisciplinary perspectives. Focus on problem solving and applications of mathematics in other fields. Readings from literature in mathematics education. History of mathematics, with focus on historical roots of geometry, number concepts and calculus.
Corequisite: EDU 610
Summer Semester Session II
EDU 611: Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education (4)
Using concepts and forms of analysis from the social sciences and philosophy, the course examines the challenges and possibilities of transformative education. Emphasis is placed on the purposes of education, the nature of knowledge as understood and practiced in schools, and the tensions between the role of schools in the transmission and transformation of values. Field experience required.
Prerequisite: 610
EDU 611L: The Opening of School Experience (0)
Students attend a middle or high school for one week during the opening of the school year. They will observe, assist the cooperating teacher in various ways and complete any tasks assigned in advance by the instructor of Education 611. Note: Separate credit for this experience is not awarded though it is noted on the student's transcript. A student's performance is evaluated as a concomitant of Education 611.
Elective (summer or fall) (4)
Summer session total: 12 or 16
Fall Semester
EDU 612: Curriculum Development in Secondary Schools (4)
Higher level thinking (problem solving, metacognition, critical thinking, questioning); classroom environment (community, physical arrangement, behavior and discipline); classroom assessment. Includes field experience.
EDU 680: Teaching Exceptional Children (4)
Introduction to special needs, including child development and intelligence, major areas of exceptionality, identification of learners with special needs. Introduction to other learner differences including race, class, gender, ethnicity and first language. Adapting curriculum and instruction for diverse needs. Includes field experience.
MAT 601: Teaching and Learning Mathematics (4) Study of national and state standards for secondary mathematics, text books and curriculum models, and how learning experiences can be structured to achieve these standards. Reading in mathematics education literature. Experience with teaching reading of mathematics texts, preparing and grading assignments that reflect teaching goals and lesson planning, and employing technology to enhance mathematics learning.
Prerequisite: MAT 600, EDU 610; Corequisite EDU 612
Electives (4 or 8) (usually undergraduate courses taken to fill disciplinary gaps)
Fall semester total: 16 or 20
Spring Semester
EDU 630: Student Teaching (10) (taken over a three-month period, starting in early January)
Full-time supervised experience in a public school.
Prerequisite: EDU 610, 612, 680.
EDU 631: Seminar in Teaching (2)
Provides individual and group problem-solving sessions to focus on issues and situations related to the student teaching experience.
Corequisite: Education 630.
MAT 602: Current Issues in the Study and Teaching of Mathematics (4) (taken during a one-month period after EDU 630)
Reflection on both human interactions and mathematics encountered during student teaching, filling disciplinary gaps, deepening understanding of the nature and history of mathematics and its importance to individuals as citizens. Focus on issues of current controversy in math education.
Prerequisite: MAT 601; Corequisites: EDU 630, EDU 631
Spring semester total: 16