Best Practice Preparation

Outstanding preparation for educators has always included both a strong academic background and a challenging variety of field-based experiences. Today’s educators must also be able to incorporate new technology and resources into their classrooms and work in an ever-more diverse school environment.

Academic Preparation in Content Fields
A strong academic preparation in what they will teach is a trademark of UD’s professional education programs. Our candidates complete a general liberal arts core of courses, an academic major in the subject they plan to teach, and a professional education component of courses designed to prepare them for the teaching profession. Professional education candidates seeking to teach at the high school level complete degree programs in the college that offers the academic major (Arts and Sciences, Agriculture and Natural Resources, Marine and Earth Studies, or Health Sciences). The Elementary Teacher Education and Early Childhood Development and Education programs are offered in the College of Human Services, Education & Public Policy. These majors complete a comprehensive program of study in the core academic areas of the elementary school curriculum: language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, and the fine arts.

Graduated Component of Field-based Experiences
Learning through supervised, practical, real-world experiences is a hallmark of UD’s professional education programs. As early as their freshman year, our professional education candidates begin a sequential program of experiences characterized by increasing involvement with, and responsibility for, children and youth in classroom settings. An on-line reporting system monitors UD candidates’ completion of field-based experiences in a variety of classrooms with different age levels and with diverse populations. These experiences culminate in a 14- to 18-week full-time student teaching experience -- or 360 to 480 hours. University-based faculty and school-based teachers and administrators share the responsibility for the supervision and evaluation of the candidates. The candidate/faculty ratio during student teaching is approximately 7 to 1.

Integration of Technology and Education
UD has been recognized nationally as a leader in the use of technology on campus, winning the CAUSE Award for Excellence in Campus Networking and earning a top spot on Yahoo Internet Life’s list of "America’s 100 Most Wired Colleges." Students at the University expect to use technology routinely in their classes, going on-line for research and web-based homework assignments. UD’s professional education programs, in particular, take advantage of the technological resources on campus and emphasize the development and use of technology to better educate children and youth in the classroom and to learn about specialized tools in adaptive technology for persons with disabilities.

Emphasis on Diversity
Preparing candidates to work with diverse populations and to serve the needs of all learners is an important element of our professional education programs. Diversity -- whether related to gender, ethnicity, disability, economic status, developmental level, learning style, or any other characteristics -- is treated as a potential source of enrichment. Throughout the curricula and field experiences, our candidates acquire the knowledge and skills to help all students learn.

This commitment to diversity extends to active recruitment and retention programs for students and faculty on campus. A university-initiated program, ASPIRE, promotes the recruitment and retention of a diverse corps of undergraduate students preparing to become teachers.