Program Overview

Summary Of The Michigan State University Teacher Preparation Program
MSU’s five-year teacher preparation programs begin with two pre-professional courses taken before admission.  Many students are admitted in the fall 
of the junior year and take TE 301 in the spring semester.  After graduation, students serve a one-year unpaid internship which combines extensive 
practice teaching with supporting master’s-level seminars.  The intended sequence is summarized below. 

Year
Semester	
Number	
Cr	
Title	
Fieldwork	
What Students Do	
Course Description	
Jr., Fall latest	TE 150	3
(3-0)	Reflections on Learning	None	Study human learning, reflecting on one’s own learning in college classes as example.	Students’ experiences as learners in comparison to psychological, sociological, and anthropological theories and assumptions about learning and teaching in and out of school.	
Jr., Fall latest	TE 250 
or

CEP 240	3
(3-0)

3
(2-2)	Human Diversity, Power and Opportunity in Social Institutions

Diverse Learners in Multicultural Perspective	None	Study processes that distribute opportunity in society including the school; how human characteristics including culture affect those processes; issues of justice.	Comparative study of schools and other social institutions.  Social construction and maintenance of diversity and inequality.  Political, social, and economic consequences for individuals and groups.

Communicative, linguistic, physical, sensory, behavioral, affective, and cognitive differences in learning in multicultural classrooms.  Factors that mediate access to knowledge.	

Admission To The Teacher Certification Program

Jr., Fall or Spr.	TE 301	4
(3-4)	Learners and Learning in Context:  Thinking like a teacher	3 hrs./week	Consider relationship between teaching and learning, how teachers create learning opportunity, what it means to “know” students and build on their learning needs & interests.	Role of social context and sociocultural background in learning.  Natural and socially constructed differences among learners.  Relationship among subject-specific knowledge, teaching and learning that subject, and the institutional and communal context.  Multiple literacies.	
Sr., Fall	TE 401	5
(3-8)	Teaching Subject Matter to Diverse Learners	Average 4 hrs./ week; interviews w/teacher and students about curriculum; planning and teaching content-oriented lessons to individuals and small groups.	Study and practice what it means to understand subject matters, subject-specific strategies to promote student understanding, forms of classroom organization consistent with those strategies.	Examining teaching as enabling diverse learners to inquire into and construct subject-specific meanings.  Adapting subject matter to learner diversity.  
Exploring multiple ways diverse learners make sense of the curriculum.	

Year
Semester	
Number	
Cr	
Title	
Fieldwork	
What Students Do	
Course Description	
Sr., Spr.	TE 402	6
(4-8)	Designing and Studying Practice	Average 
4 hrs./week	Same as above.	Gathering data on learners to inform content and instructional decisions.  Deciding what should be taught for specific disciplines.  Teachers’ multiple 
roles and their professional, intellectual, sociopolitical, and communal responsibilities.	
5th, Fall	TE 501

TE 801

TE 802	6
(2-24)

3
(2-3)

3
(2-3)	Internship in Teaching Diverse Learners, I

Professional Roles & Teaching Practice, I

Reflection & Inquiry in Teaching Practice, I	Average 
25 hrs./week	Co-planning and co-teaching w/mentor teacher, with support from MSU field instructor; continued work in curriculum development; study of one’s own teaching; exploration of teacher’s roles and responsibilities in relation to the school and community.	Directed and evaluated internship in heterogeneous classrooms. Teaching worthwhile content to students with varied learning needs.  Theoretical & field-based explorations of common teaching dilemmas.

Teachers’ professional and ethical responsibilities.  Connections of schools to other social agencies.  Relations of teachers to colleagues, families, other 
service providers, and community leaders.  Roles in school governance.

Qualitative and quantitative research methods on teaching and learning.  Criteria for judging the validity & applicability of research-based knowledge.  Framing educational problems worthy of inquiry.  Designing and assessing studies of teaching practice.	
5th, Spr.	TE 502

TE 803

TE 804	6
(2-24)

3
(2-3)

3
(2-3)	Internship in Teaching Diverse Learners, II

Professional Roles & Teaching Practice, II

Reflection & Inquiry in Teaching Practice, II	Average 
25 hrs./week	Lead teaching and reflection w/coaching from mentor teacher and MSU field instructor; continued study of one’s own teaching; preparation of professional portfolio.	Continuing internship in heterogeneous classrooms at selected schools.  Increased emphasis on independent teaching.  Maintaining classroom communities that ensure equitable access to important knowledge and skills.  Assessing academic and social outcomes.

School-agency alliances for fostering student learning.  Strategies for working with families and community groups to improve responsiveness of the school curriculum to student needs.  Child advocacy in the school and community.

Collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data on teaching, learning, and educational policy. Dilemmas surrounding research on practice.  Appraising and reporting results of inquiry.