THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT ASHEVILLE

 

                                                                                                                                                                        FACULTY SENATE

 

Senate Document Number     8309S

 

Date of Senate Approval      04/30/09

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Statement of Faculty Senate Action:

 

APC Document 65:       Remove Psychology and History courses from K-6 licensure requirements

 

 

Effective Date: Fall 2009

1.  Delete:         On page 126, under the heading Elementary School Licensure:

           

II.          Required courses outside Education—19–25 hours, including: HIST 101 or 102, HIST 151, 152, 315; MATH 211, 215; PSYC 101 or 102, and PSYC 318. The requirements of HIST 151 and 152 can be met through the Humanities sequence.

 

      Add:          

           

II.          Required courses outside Education—6 hours, including: MATH 211, 215

 

Impact:  

Students

The proposed changes reduce the number of hours for candidates enrolled in the K-6 program. The average  K-6 teacher certification candidate who enters UNCA as a freshman takes 138 credit hours to completion, and the average transfer candidate takes 161 hours to completion. Reducing the number of hours in the program will benefit candidates by allowing them to finish their degree and the licensure program in less time.

 

The changes will, in part, be offset by departmental changes, including the development of four new courses and the deletion/reconfiguration of other courses with EDUC prefixes. In the revised program, licensure requirements will be reduced from 21 courses (totaling 63 hours) to 14 courses (totaling 51 hours). The tentative revised program (APC documents to be completed during the 2009-2010 school year) is as follows:

 

Old Requirements

New Requirements

EDUC 310 (3 hours) Intro to Education, K-12

EDUC 210 (4 hours) Teaching and Learning in the Twenty-First Century, K-12

EDUC 311 (1 hour) Instructional Technology Lab

EDUC 211 (1 hour) Instructional Applications of Information and Communications Technology, K-12

EDUC 315 (3 hours) Creative Arts, K-6

Content Integrated into EDUC 317

EDUC 317 (3 hours) Teaching Language K-9

EDUC 317 (4 hours) Integrating the Language Arts and Creative Expression in the Contemporary Classroom, K-9

EDUC 319 (3 hours) Teaching Health and P.E. in the Elementary School, K-6

Content Integrated into EDUC 322

EDUC 322 (3 hours) Teaching Science, K-6

EDUC 322 (4 hours) Facilitating Inquiry-Based Learning: Science and Healthful Living, K-6

EDUC 325 (3 hours) The Resourceful Teacher

EDUC 326  (4 hours) The Learner: Development, Assessment, and Responsive Teaching, K-6

EDUC 340 (3 hours) Methods of Teaching Mathematics, K-6

EDUC 340 (3 hours) Content and Process in the Teaching of Mathematics, K-6

EDUC 344 (3 hours) Teaching Social Studies in the Elementary School, K-6

EDUC 344 (3 hours) Producing Knowledgeable Global Citizens: Promoting Critical Thinking in the Social Studies, K-6

EDUC 388 (4 hours) Reading and Literacy Methods, K-12

EDUC 388 (4 hours) Literacy Processes and Practices Across the Curriculum: Integration and Differentiation, K-6

EDUC 455 (6 hours) Student Teaching and Seminar

EDUC 455 (8 hours)

EDUC 396 (1 hour) Research Methods in Education, BK-12

EDUC 456 (4 hours) The Teacher as a Twenty-First Century Professional, K-12

EDUC 496 (2 hours) Directed Research in Education, BK-12

PSYC 101 or 102 (3 hours) General Psychology

Content Integrated into EDUC 210, 326

PSYC 318 (4 hours) Psychology Applied to Teaching

MATH 211 (3 hours) Structure of Mathematics I

MATH 211 (3 hours) Structure of Mathematics I

MATH 215 (3 hours) Structure of Mathematics II

MATH 215 (3 hours) Structure of Mathematics II

HIST 101 or 102 (3 hours) U.S. History

EDUC 220  (3 hours) Foundations of Global, Civic, and Economic Literacy, K-6

HIST 151 (3 hours)World Civilization I

HIST 152 (3 hours) World Civilization II

HIST 315 (3 hours) N.C. History

 

EDUC 225 (3 hours) Foundations of Physical, Life, and Earth Sciences, K-6

Total Hours: 63

Total Courses: 21

Total Hours: 51

Total Courses: 14

 

 

Faculty Within Education

There will be no significant increase in faculty load in the department of Education as a result of either these changes or the forthcoming departmental changes.  The expected impact on faculty participation in university programs is minimal; it is possible that one faculty member might need to teach one EDUC course instead of a Humanities course, but the new configuration also frees up a different faculty member to teach Arts 310. The department is committed to continuing its participation in university programs and ILS offerings.


Faculty Outside of Education

Courses in the History and Psychology departments will see some decrease in enrollment.

 

Rationale: These changes are the first in a series of extensive modifications to the K-6 licensure programs. In 2008, the State Board of Education set forth the requirement that all licensure programs in the state be “re-envisioned” to reflect the state’s newly adopted “21st Century Standards.” The NC Professional Teaching Standards Commission developed what they term “A New Vision of Teaching.” The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) has mandated that programs be streamlined and updated to allow us to produce more teachers faster, while still ensuring that our candidates meet the new standards. NCDPI has directed us to eliminate redundancy among courses and emphasize core content, learning and thinking skills, information and communications technology, life skills, and 21st Century Assessments. All licensure programs at UNCA are being revised in keeping with this mandate; the extensive changes to each program must, according to NCDPI’s timeline, be fully implemented no later than Fall 2010. This document represents the first step in the process of program revision; we will pursue APC approval for the EDUC-related changes once the state has given us approval of our program blueprint in the early Fall 2009 semester.

 

These changes represent the efforts of a collaboration of Education Department faculty, public school personnel, current students, and program alumni. We have met multiple times over the last year to develop the proposed program. Our intention is, in keeping with NCDPI requirements, to implement the full program in the 2010-2011 school year, and to carefully evaluate it for two-three years to determine its effectiveness. The K-6 program is evaluated every year by surveying alumni and their employers along with student teachers. Further, NCDPI will review our programs beginning in 2012 and we have an NCATE accreditation visit schedule for Fall 2013. These forthcoming visits will ensure that we monitor candidates’ progress and seek candidate input regularly. We will assess the impact of these changes and revise the program, if necessary, based on the data.

 

Analysis of course content between PSYC 318 and EDUC-prefix courses uncovered extensive redundancy among course topics, such that with a few modifications to EDUC courses, PSYC 318 can be eliminated from the program with no adverse effect on candidates. (Psyc 101/102 were part of the program only because they are pre-requisite for PSYC 318.)

 

With regard to the history courses, the K-6 social studies curriculum requires that candidates be knowledgeable of general topics in history, but also in geography, economics, political science, sociology, etc. Elementary social studies focuses on self and community, regions of the world, citizenship, North Carolina and U.S. History, Canada, Mexico, and Central America; the Standard Course of Study spells out exactly what aspects of these topics candidates must know and be able to teach. In the current program, coverage of these areas is uneven. Candidates will benefit from a content course designed specifically for them, which is part of the plan for the revised program.