BA Major in Elementary Education
B.A., Major in Elementary Education
The elementary education program prepares candidates to fulfill roles in contemporary schools, kindergarten through sixth grade. For additional information concerning the Southwestern College teacher education program, candidates should refer to the Teacher Education Handbook and four-year advising plans, available in the education department and from an education advisor.
Majors in elementary education devote the greater portion of their work during the first two years to broad general education. The work of the last two years consists of continued academic coursework at the upper level and professional courses and experiences. The student's professional education program culminates in the senior year with the professional semester.
Student Learning Outcomes
Graduates in Elementary Education (B.A.) will:
- Demonstrate an understanding of the individual differences of learner development; creates safe, inclusive environments that represent high learning expectations, supports individual and collaborative interactive learning, encourages positive social interaction; active engagement, and self-directedness; and participates in ongoing professional growth.
- Demonstrate an understanding and uses the tools of inquiry, structures of mathematics and content concepts of mathematics (counting and cardinality, operations and algebraic thinking, number and operation in base ten and fractions, measurement and data, geometry, ratios and proportional relationships, statistics and probability) to plan, implement, and assess mathematical learning experiences that engage all students in critical thinking, creativity, and collaborative problem solving.
- Understand and use scientific disciplinary core ideas, cross-cutting concepts, and science and engineering practices to plan, implement, and assess science learning experiences that engage all learners in curiosity, exploration, sense-making, conceptual development, and problem solving.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and disciplines of the social studies (civics and government, geography, economics, history), to plan, implement, and assess developmentally appropriate social studies learning experiences that enable all learners to develop the skills for problem solving, critical thinking, and decision making, so they may understand and make informed decisions about their world.
- Identify and apply the theoretical and foundational knowledge for reading, writing (including composition, letter formation, manuscript and cursive), listening, and speaking as set forth in the five pillars of literacy instruction supported by the science of reading (including, but not limited to, the Simple View of Reading, the Simple View of Writing, Scarborough’s Reading Rope, Ehri’s Four Phases of Word Reading, and the Four-Part Language Processing Model). The candidate demonstrates an understanding of the interrelated components of general literacy and disciplinary-specific literacy processes that serve as a foundation for all learning.
- Recognize and apply current evidence-based best practices aligned to the science of reading and utilizes the principles (i.e. explicit, systematic, cumulative, diagnostic, multisensory, and multimodal) and individual elements of structured literacy (i.e. phonology, alphabetic principle, syllable types and division, morphology, syntax, and semantics) when planning and implementing engaging literacy instruction for Pre-K and elementary students.
- Use a variety of appropriate literacy assessment strategies (phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, reading comprehension, listening comprehension, writing, and emergent literacy) to engage students in their own growth. The candidate demonstrates understanding of the impact of external factors (e.g. language, culture, and socioeconomic differences) on student learning. The candidate selects, implements and analyzes screening, diagnostic and progress monitoring data of students’ language acquisition and literacy development for instruction. They gather and use data for accountability purposes, to identify students at risk for specific difficulties and disabilities (such as but not limited to dyslexia and dysgraphia), and to create individualized interventions.
- Demonstrate an understanding of and implement elements of visual arts, music, dance, theater, movement, and physical activity to plan, implement, and assess learning experiences that engage all learners in critical thinking, creativity, collaborative problem solving, and communication.
Major requirements*
- EDUC150 Introduction to Education (2 hours)
- EDUC215 Foundations of Education (3 hours)
- EDUC216 Diversity Field Experience (1 hour)
- EDUC220 Educational Technology (3 hours)
- DUC223 Fine Arts in the Elementary School (3 hours)
- EDUC280 The Other Literacies (3 hours)
- EDUC318 Numbers, Computation, and Mathematical Processes (3 hours)
- EDUC322 Educational Psychology (4 hours)**
- EDUC323 Introduction to Exceptionalities (4 hours)**
- EDUC329 Children’s and Adolescents’ Literature (2 hours)
- EDUC336 Foundations of Literacy (3 hours)
- EDUC337 Science in the Elementary School (3 hours)
- EDUC338 Mathematics in the Elementary School (3 hours)
- EDUC343 Home, School, and Community (3 hours)
- EDUC344 Content Area Literacy (3 hours)
- EDUC345 Social Science in the Elementary School (3 hours)
- EDUC349 Literacy Assessment and Instruction in the Elementary School (4 hours)
- EDUC437 Elementary School Methods and Management (4 hours)**
- EDUC440 Student Teaching Seminar (1 hour)
- EDUC447 Observation and Supervised Teaching in the Elementary School (12 hours)**
- EDUC450 Introduction to Language, Linguistics, and Culture in the Context of Second Language Acquisition (3 hours)
- EDUC490 Teaching English as a Second Language and Assessing Language Competency (3 hours)
- PHED325 Teaching P.E. in the Elementary School
**Taken only after formal admittance to the Teacher Education Program.
Cognate requirements
- MATH110 College Algebra (3 hours)
- PSYC112 General Psychology (3 hours)
- PSYC218 Child Psychology (3 hours)
