The Bachelor of Education program builds on the Faculty’s belief that where there is education, there is also powerful transformation. We strive to provide passionate, creative people with an inspiring environment in which they can cultivate their interests, gain the tools they need to motivate students and engage communities, actively contribute to the evolution of education, and become powerful catalysts for change. The program is infused with strong principles including equity, diversity, collaboration, interdisciplinary, sustainability and social justice as articulated in the Faculty of Education Undergraduate Degree-Level Expectations that ask "students to engage with global realities and issues with an awareness of how their work as teachers is connected to the project of living well together".
Overview of the program
The program is structured around four broad themes:
- Orientation to the profession in community
- Learners
- Classroom and Curriculum
- Schooling, Society and Research
The B.Ed. is designed to be a place where theory and practice are deeply linked. Foundations and methods courses, school and community speak to one another through practicum experiences that value critical analysis, engagement, collaborative conversations, focused participant observation, advancement of skills and knowledge, and immersion in an environment that respects a shared process of growth and development. The practicum experiences will create spaces where teacher candidates enact education in pursuit of a more humane and equitable world.
The practicum experience in EDPR2000 will facilitate a broadening of teacher candidates’ understandings of the role of the community, the profession, teachers, learners and schools in creating and sustaining engaging, inclusive, safe and equitable learning environments.
EDPR2000 will deepen teacher candidates’ understanding of the complex dimensions of learning, and the interrelationship between learner, teacher and curriculum.
What does this mean in practice?
The first year of the 2-year program will focus on the development of professional understandings and relationships within the school and the community. During EDPR2000, they will have responsibility for participating actively for 100% of the day, and undertaking a range of experiences such as working with small groups and/or individual students, deconstructing their understandings of teaching and learning with a focus on links between theory and practice, school and community, facilitating classroom transitions, co-planning and co-teaching with the mentor teacher, and engaging in lesson study. Community organizations and schools are encouraged to welcome a cohort of teacher candidates who will have the opportunity to experience different learning environments (activities, programmes, divisions, non-classroom settings, rotary, ELL, special education, etc.) throughout the year.
At the end of EDPR2000, TCs will have the opportunity to experience consecutive "culminating" teaching days. Although this is not a formal "teaching block", TCs will continue to engage with co-planning and co-teaching to understand how lesson planning and implementation respond to the daily needs of learners. This is NOT an observation block. TCs should be actively engaged with the teaching and learning in their host classroom, and encouraged to expand their experience and learning in preparation for a fall teaching block in their second year.
Having immersed themselves in the work of the school and community each week, and having developed strong professional relationships and understandings, teacher candidates will be well prepared to take on independent planning and teaching throughout the fall term and a fall teaching block.
