Program Description

The Master of Arts in Teaching and Preliminary Credential (MAT/PRELIMINARY
CREDENTIAL) program within the PLNU School of Education is field-based and designed around themes and practices that reflect current MAT/PRELIMINARY CREDENTIAL research and practice. It is the intent of the faculty to infuse these themes into the courses they teach. We believe conceptualizing, personalizing, and applying these themes through extensive fieldwork is critical for the educator candidate to be effective in a contemporary educational system. The following are the School of Education’s themes:

Program Learning Outcomes

1. Embracing all Learners: MAT/PRELIMINARY CREDENTIAL candidates will acquire knowledge about and demonstrate sensitivity toward students of diverse backgrounds and abilities. Learning about second language acquisition theory and demonstrating the ability to effectively teach limited English proficient students and those students with special learning needs is expected.

2. Morals, Ethics, and Values: MAT/PRELIMINARY CREDENTIAL candidates will address such topics as the integration of morals, ethics, and values in the classroom. They will receive instruction on the rights and responsibilities of citizenship in a democratic society and about teaching values in the schools.

3. Universal Design for Learning: All effective educators must possess a repertoire of strategies from which to refer when teaching students from a full range of academic abilities, skills, and backgrounds. Based on research in the learning sciences, including cognitive neuroscience, that guides the development of flexible learning environments and learning spaces that can accommodate individual learning differences and through the application of diverse teaching models, MAT/PRELIMINARY CREDENTIAL candidates will learn how different approaches can enhance their future students’ self-efficacy and academic achievement.

4. Classroom Management: To be effective in the classroom, educators need to have a strong background in classroom management. Various models will be explored. The MAT/PRELIMINARY CREDENTIAL courses are sequenced so that candidates are initially educated from a more global perspective of education. Then, the focus of the courses shifts toward methodologies and the application and practice of theory and research. The practice and application components of the methods courses are easily facilitated due to the field-based nature of the MAT/PRELIMINARY CREDENTIAL program.