Date of Award
2002
Document Type
Practicum
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Programs for Higher Education
Keywords
audience, career options, classroom teachers, college students, course content, course design, criteria validation, Dean of Social Science, Discover Teaching: Career Options in Education, education, education professionals, educational opportunities, elementary education, elementary students, enrollment growth, evaluation methods, formative committee, goals, introductory teaching syllabi, liberal arts and science teacher preparation program, literature review, Lowell campus, MCC, Massachusetts, Middlesex Community College, objectives, preschool education, research questions, scanning of colleges and universities, secondary education, secondary students, seminar, social science, student recruitment, student preparation, study development, summative committee, syllabus, teacher preparation, teacher preparation course, teacher retirement, teacher shortage, teaching careers, teaching profession, teaching seminar, validation, workforce development
Abstract
The State of Massachusetts is experiencing a severe teacher shortage that will worsen in the next few years as large numbers of teachers retire and school enrollments dramatically increase. A recent event inviting the public to Middlesex Community College (MCC) to explore teaching as a career option drew a substantial audience of current and potential students to the Lowell campus. These people were primarily interested in finding out how to prepare themselves for a career in teaching or discover other related opportunities in the field of education.
Presently, Middlesex Community College only offers courses in Early Childhood Education specifically geared to potential preschool to grade two teachers. The problem is that there are no courses that would target and prepare students who are interested in teaching older elementary and secondary students. The purpose of this study was to develop a teacher preparation course designed to address this need for elementary and secondary classroom teachers.
The two research questions in the study were: "What are the appropriate and valid contents for a seminar entitled "Discover Teaching: Career Options in Education? and "How should the course be designed in order to attract and encourage students into the field of education?"
The procedures used to develop the course included a literature review, a scanning of several colleges and universities in the area to review introductory teaching 3 syllabi, and input from a formative committee comprised of education professionals. These sources assisted in the development of criteria and provided suggestions for improvement and feedback throughout the study. After criteria was developed, a summative committee, also comprised of educational professionals, validated this criteria.
The results included pertinent information and input from multiple sources that were used in the development of the course content and design. The information collected was current, inline with present day practices, and applicable to real world situations.
It was concluded that an appropriate and valid exploration of teaching course must include goals, objectives, design elements, content, and relevant evaluation methods. A syllabus for the course was developed and accepted by the Dean of Social Science and has become a component of a Liberal Arts and Science Teacher Preparation Program.
It was recommended that the course content be implemented as stated. After the course has been taught, it was recommended that identification of improvement areas be analyzed.