Social Science Teaching BS
Program Purpose
The Teaching Social Science Program is designed to prepare competent and caring teachers who serve secondary students and their families by preparing young people for active participation in our social and political democracy. This program prepares entry-level teachers who (1) understand and apply the moral dimensions of teaching (stewardship for schools, access to knowledge, nurturing pedagogy, enculturation for democracy), (2) demonstrate academic excellence, (3) act with social competence, and (4) engage in meaningful collaboration.
Connections between University and Educator Preparation Program (EPP) Aims.
- Spiritually strengthening. We understand that to serve others and to collaborate well with others requires spiritual strength, which can be gained through faith, prayer, personal sacrifice, service, and worship. We seek to create an environment that encourages candidates to explore and strengthen their spirituality. Our hope is that our candidates will be able to use their spiritual strength to engage in nurturing pedagogy and to create supportive learning environments that take into consideration the unique and varied needs of all learners.
- Intellectually enlarging. We understand that teachers must first seek knowledge, understanding, and wisdom in preparation for helping others to learn and grow. Thus we seek to create environments that are intellectually enlarging and support the academic excellence of our candidates. Indeed, we endeavor to support teacher candidates' development as inquiring and knowledgeable problem solvers who strive for personal and professional distinction. Furthermore, we expect our candidates to create opportunities for all students to access knowledgethrough high quality teaching.
- Character building. We understand that in order for our candidates to teach and collaborate well they must develop moral character that underpins social competence. Furthermore, we seek to help our candidates understand that teaching is a "moral endeavor" (Goodlad, 1990). We embrace and strive to help our candidates understand and embrace the moral dimensions of teaching as outlined by John I. Goodlad and others. Finally, we hope that our candidates will prepare youth for participation in a social and political democracy.
- Lifelong learning and service. We understand that teaching is a profession that requires lifelong learning and service; indeed, every teacher is continually in the service of children, schools, and communities. Furthermore, any teacher is capable of becoming a better teacher. Therefore, we seek to foster in candidates habits of reflective practitioners and to help them understand their responsibility to support, improve, and defend the principles of public education and to advocate for children. As our candidates embrace the notions of lifelong learning and service, they will be in a better position to serve as stewards of public education.
Career Opportunities
This program is designed to prepare undergraduate students (teacher candidates) for licensure to teach Social Studies in Grades 6-12 from the Utah State Office of Education. Many states have reciprocal agreements with Utah, where few or no additional courses, tests, or other requirements are necessary for the license to be recognized.
Curricular Structure
Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of the Teaching Social Science Program, teacher candidates meet the needs of secondary students through competencies related to the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC). The primary learning outcomes of this program include:
Subject MatterCandidates can identify the core concepts and standards associated with the social science curricula taught in secondary classrooms (subject areas: history, political science, geography, psychology) and can create learning experiences that make these concepts meaningful for students.
Candidates treat young people as children of God and can describe how young people learn and develop, acknowledging individual and cultural differences, in order to create environments that motivate collaborative learning.
Candidates seek inspiration to create and use a variety of instructional strategies to encourage students' development of critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills, and use assessments to inform instruction.
Candidates continually reflect on and evaluate their teaching practices, actively seek opportunities to grow professionally, engage in ethical and compassionate behavior, and collaborate with stakeholders (students, parents, and other professionals in the learning community).
Demonstrate basic competency in the Utah Effective Teaching Standards as established by Utah Teacher Education Assessment and Accreditation Council and the Utah State Board of Education
Evidence of Learning
Assessment Tools
The assessment system that is used to evaluate students' mastery of learning outcomes is a common system used across programs that are associated with the Educator Preparation Program at Brigham Young University. It includes three common assessment instruments, with two administered multiple times in order to identify students' development throughout their years in the program.
Praxis Subject Exam: Before students can graduate with a Teaching Social Science degree or History Teaching degree and meet the state of Utah's requirements for certification, they must pass the Praxis subject exam. This exam, which is administered through Educational Testing Services at students' expense, measures students' social studies and/or historical content knowledge. It provides evidence of students' mastery of the first learning outcome, Subject Matter.
Professional Teacher Candidate Assessment (TCA): The TCA is administered as a formative assessment during the practicum experience, and summatively at the end of student teaching or internship experiences. The TCA is used uniersity-wide and reflects the required competencies identified by the Utah State Board of Education, in addition to the Aims of BYU, our public school partnership, and the Utah Effective Teaching Standards.
Educator Disposition Assessment (EDA): The EDA is administered at least four times during a studnets progression in the major. Students complete a self-assessment at the end of the introductory HIST 276 course, HIST 276 course instructors also compelte an EDA for each student, at the end of the HIST 478 practicum course, and at the end of student teaching or internship. The EDA is designed to evaluate educator dispositions such as effective commuication, professionalism, and attitude (among many others).
Students are observed by university faculty and or university supervisors in their field placements during practicum and student teaching or internship. Students receive formative and summative feedback during these classroom observations.
Direct Measures
- Praxis Subject Exam
- TCA (Professional Teacher Candidate Assessment)
- EDA (Educational Dispositional Assessment)
- Formative and summatives classroom observations and student teaching evaluations.
Indirect Measures
At this time, the program does not use any indirect measures, as the direct measures seem to be sufficient.
Learning and Teaching Assessment and Improvement
The data from the assessments is collected by the Teacher Education faculty and shared with the History Department's curriculum committee. The Teacher Education faculty also coordinate with the other EPP programs on campus to evaluate the data and make recommendations for pedagogical adjustments.