Learning Goals In Education

The Education Department at Connecticut College prepares students to teach in public schools. In following the liberal arts tradition, they approach the study of teaching and education as an intellectual pursuit and not a practitioner model that stresses “techniques.” The aim is to prepare students to not only assume their roles as classroom teachers but also as active citizens and public intellectuals. The following goals and competencies are a sample of how student learning is assessed throughout the program.

Goals

• To educate teachers who understand that excellence in teaching begins with deep knowledge and a critical understanding of their subject matter as a means of developing high standards of achievement and excellence for their K-12 students.
  • Candidates demonstrate knowledge of their subject matter by not only meeting State requirements but also Connecticut College standards of excellence in their major area(s) of study.
  • Candidates demonstrate understanding of the national, state, and professional standards within their subject matter as well as critical knowledge of the major principles and constructs.
• To educate teachers who understand that education and schooling are shaped by larger socio-historical, political, economic, and geographic contexts.
  • Candidates demonstrate a critical understanding of the history of education and schooling in the United States as it relates to and has been connected with the process of nation building and globalization.
  • Candidates demonstrate a critical understanding of knowledge as both situated and historical.
• To educate teachers who construct critical pedagogies that are situated in and shaped by students’ prior knowledge, local contexts and community knowledge.
  • Candidates demonstrate knowledge of the current and historical issues relevant to the greater New London community.
  • Candidates understand and build upon the knowledge and assets students bring to the classroom.
• To educate teachers who understand the relationship between power and knowledge and who create classrooms as critical sites of action where essential questions related to educational access, opportunity, conditions and outcomes.
  • Candidates demonstrate an understanding of classrooms as sites of struggle, possibility and transformation where the relationship between knowledge and power is engaged.
  • Candidates understand differentiated instruction through a critical framework.
• To educate teachers who understand literacy as having multiple dimensions, forms and functions that develop both inside and outside of schools. Literacies are meaning making processes in which dynamics of power, voice, access, subjectivity, and representation are operating.
  • Candidates demonstrate critical knowledge about the processes of language acquisition and literacy. That is, they demonstrate understanding of the relationship between language and power through their ability to employ approaches that disrupt compensatory and deficit models, especially as they relate to English Language Learners and “struggling readers and writers.”
• To educate teachers who understand assessment and evaluation as contextual, as forms of inquiry and ongoing processes of reflection and praxis.
  • Candidates demonstrate knowledge of the differences among formative and summative assessments and evaluation and how to use them effectively as part of instruction.