M.A.T. in Elementary Education

NCATE and NASDTEC Approved

You are invited to attend a one-hour MAT information meeting hosted by an MAT faculty member. The purpose of the meeting is to provide information and answer your questions about the MAT program, courses, faculty, admission requirements and procedures. Please call 456-8016 to find out the day and time of the next information meeting.

• Overview
• Admission Requirements & Procedures
• Admission Dates
• Course Requirements & Regulations
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Important Information Upon Acceptance Into the MAT Program
• MAT Program Sequencing Chart

Overview

Teaching is an intellectually, emotionally and physically demanding profession, one that needs individuals to embrace it with wholehearted enthusiasm, a commitment to excellence for themselves and for students, and an interest in being a lifelong learner. The classroom teacher meets, each morning, a room that is at once a community called "class" and a collection of individuals of differing personal, and academic achievements, talents, needs, and problems. The excellent teacher will make hundreds of decisions in orchestrating the teaching day to advance the skill and knowledge of each child in the classroom.

In preparation for the daily engagement with the complex phenomena of the classroom, teacher education recognizes the need for teachers to be knowledgeable of learners and their characteristics, of educational contexts including the character of communities and cultures, of subject matter, of themselves, of general pedagogy and subject-specific pedagogy, and of the purposes and values of education including its philosophical and historical roots. Rhode Island College has designed, for holders of baccalaureate degrees, the Master of Arts in Teaching program (elementary) to prepare teachers to meet successfully the challenges and joys of teaching.

The program graduate enters the profession as a reflective teacher, one who can plan and direct classroom instruction and one who will modify instructional practice and curriculum through systematic reflection and self-assessment. The reflective teacher:

• understands teaching as encouraging the development of active learners;
• provides a rationale for instruction from research and practice and develops conceptual frameworks for instruction;
• recognizes and identifies elements extrinsic to the classroom practice;
• establishes classroom relationships and classroom environments that support growth and learning;
• appreciates the importance of developing in learners an understanding of the nature of subject matter.

The Master of Arts in Teaching program begins with the selection of candidates who already possess a baccalaureate degree and who have potential for success in rigorous academic studies and in classroom teaching. The program moves to a carefully designed and coordinated sequence of courses and concludes with an intensive semester of student teaching. These studies and integrated clinical experiences are designed and sequenced to permit the candidate to increase knowledge and understanding of teaching in a systematic fashion, with each program phase based upon prior learning.

The completion of this program satisfies academic requirements for Grades 1-6 teacher certification in Rhode Island.

Admission Requirements & Procedures

In order to ensure that candidates for teaching are qualified to begin professional study, the Department of Elementary Education has established the following admission procedures:

1. Submission of Application to Department of Elementary Education
2. Review of Application by MAT Committee
3. Notification of admission by Associate Dean
4. Personal Interview and Program Planning with Program Advisor
5. Completion of Plan of Study
6. Notification - Permission to Enroll in Program Courses

Submission of Application to Department of Elementary Education

Application materials are obtained from the Feinstein School of Education and Human Development or call 456-8896. Candidates must submit all components of the application to the MAT Program Coordinator, Department of Elementary Education, Horace Mann Hall, Rhode Island College, Providence, RI 02908-1991. The application includes:

• MAT Application Form
• Statement of Philosophy
• Official score report for PRAXIS II Elementary Education Content Knowledge Test (Code 0014). Achieve minimum test score (145). Go to www.ets.org for dates for testing and reporting of score.
• Official transcripts of all prior collegiate-level courses. Achieve overall minimum Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.0. Submit transcripts with application.
• Two Disposition Reference Forms and Letters of Recommendation: one from academic faculty or supervisor of child/youth related experience and one from a work supervisor. Submit forms and letters with application.

Review of Application by MAT Admission Committee and Associate Dean

Applications will be reviewed ONLY when all components have been received. The review process takes up to six weeks after all components are received. No applications are reviewed by the MAT Admission Committee during semester breaks or during the summer.

It is expected that most candidates for the M.A.T. degree will hold a Bachelor of Arts in a liberal arts area and that all candidates will have completed a minimum of 60 semester hours of liberal arts courses with at least two courses in each of the following areas: two different areas of science (laboratory-based courses), mathematics, humanities, social sciences; at least one course in each of the following areas: health; fine or performing arts. Courses must have a grade C or better. If you are lacking undergraduate course work AND meet all other criteria for admission, you will be invited into the program but must complete additional non-program courses as recommended by the MAT Committee.

Notification by Letter of Acceptance by Associate Dean

Following the satisfactory review of application, the MAT Admissions Committee recommends acceptance or denial (with reasons) to the Associate Dean of Teacher Education. The Associate Dean will advise accepted applicants to contact their assigned MAT advisor to schedule a personal interview.

Personal Interview and Program Planning with Program Advisor

The interview process includes assessment of those personal characteristics essential for the professional educator, discussion of professional and program goals, and development of the Plan of Study.

Completion of Plan of Study

Upon satisfactory completion of the interview, the MAT program advisor forwards the Plan of Study to the Department of Elementary Education to sign.

Notification - Permission to Enroll in Program Courses

The Associate Dean's office sends a letter to the applicant with the signed Plan of Study notifying applicant of official admission and permission to enroll in program courses.

Admission Dates

This program is a sequentially designed set of academic and professional experiences. It is also intended, as much as possible, to be a cohort program where candidates move through the program in a group. Accordingly, it is important for candidates to have all application documents completed and ready for review in order that study may begin or continue (if first three courses have been taken) in the following semester. The official due dates for applications follow:

Complete applications that come in after the deadline will continue to be processed as much as possible, but this may mean processing is not finished until the beginning of the following semester.

Course Requirements & Regulations

Prerequisites

In order to be admitted to the program, students must have completed the following:

• Minimum of 60 semester hours of liberal arts courses
• Minimum of two courses in each of the following areas: science, mathematics, humanities, and social sciences. For more detail, see above 2. Review of Application by MAT Admission Committee and Associate Dean.
• Health education or physical education or health-related course; art education or music education or fine/performing arts course.
• Additional courses that may be required by the admissions committee and/or program advisor.

Program Requirements

All program courses are three semester units each except ELED 559 and FNED 546

• CEP 552: Psychological Perspectives on Learning and Teaching
• FNED 546: Contexts of Schooling
• ELED 500: Reflections: The Art and Science of Teaching
• Six methods courses, with a minimum of three taken as the ELED MAT Practicum option
  ELED 522: Developmental Reading MAT Practicum I
  Or ELED 534: Developmental Reading: Pre-K-8
  ELED 527: Language Arts MAT Practicum
  Or ELED 508: Language Arts in the Elementary School
  ELED 536: Social Studies MAT Practicum
  Or ELED 528 Social Studies in the Elementary School
  ELED 537: Science MAT Practicum
  Or ELED 518: Science in the Elementary School
  ELED 538: Mathematics MAT Practicum
  Or ELED 504: Mathematics in the Elementary School
  ELED 524: Developmental Reading MAT Practicum II
• SPED 531: Universal Design for Educating All Students
• ELED 559: Student Teaching and Seminar (9 semester units)

Program Regulations

1. Graduate students seeking initial certification may only take the first three program courses while in the process of applying to the program. These courses are: CEP 552, ELED 500 and FNED 546, and the application must be completed and processed while taking these courses. Only 9-credits taken at RIC are allowed to be brought into the program upon admission. Any other program courses taken without permission of the MAT Committee (not the course instructor) will need to be retaken. This provision supports College Graduate Policy and professional standards established by the Feinstein School of Education and Human Development to ensure that students enrolling in teacher preparation programs are academically qualified for the study of teaching.
2. Students may enroll as part-time or full-time students. Students who meet all prerequisites and enroll as full-time students may complete program and degree requirements in three semesters and one summer session. Note that three courses is considered full-time at the graduate level.

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Full-Time Students: Sample of Plan of Study

Spring YR 1	Summer YR 1		Fall YR 1	Spring YR 2
CEP 552 ELED 500 FNED 546	Three ELED		SPED 531 ELED 524 Two ELED Practicum Praxis II Content Area Ex.	ELED 559

 

Fall YR. 1	Spring YR 1		Summer YR 1	Fall YR 2	Spring YR 2
CEP 552 ELED 500 FNED 546	SPED 531 ELED 522 One ELED Practicum		Two ELED	ELED 524 One ELED Practicum Praxis II Content Area Ex.	ELED 559

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3. To assist in program planning, see the MAT Program Sequencing Chart
4. The following program enrollment regulations guide planning:

   - CEP 552 must be completed prior to or concurrent with FNED 546 and ELED 500.
   - FNED 546 and ELED 500 should be taken concurrently, if possible.
   - CEP 552, FNED 546 and ELED 500 are the only program courses that may be taken prior to admission. They must be taken prior to any other program course.
   - SPED 531 must be taken concurrently with at least one practicum course.
   - All program courses must be completed prior to student teaching.

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