GRADUATE PROGRAM OVERVIEW
Master of Arts in Teaching Program
Overview
The UMBC Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program is a graduate program for career changers and recent graduates with at least a bachelor’s degree seeking initial teaching certification approved by the Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation (AAQEP) and the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE). Students are introduced to pedagogy, including curriculum planning, instructional design, assessment and human development as well as a subject-specific methods course. The MAT incorporates competency-based course work and a year-long internship for every student in the program. The course work integrates content and pedagogy as recommended by multiple professional associations, for example, International Society for Technology in Education, National Association for the Education of Young Children, Association for Childhood Education International, Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium. The internship program consists of one part-time and one full-time semester for a minimum of 100 days. Interns complete a Student Learning Objective (SLO) project aligned to Maryland professional requirements. Interns also complete EdTPA, a nationally-scored teacher performance assessment required by Maryland for licensure. Graduates of this program will meet all requirements for a Maryland Approved Teacher Education program and will receive initial teacher licensure in their area of specialization upon receiving a passing score on Maryland’s required licensure exam (e.g., Praxis II, ACTFL).
Duration
The MAT program is a 37-credit hour program. Full time students typically complete the program in approximately four semesters.
Content Coursework Requirements
At UMBC, content knowledge is viewed as the bedrock of teaching: Teachers can only teach content that they know. Early Childhood (Grades PreK-3), Elementary (Grades 1-6), and Secondary (Grades 7-12; PreK-12) tracks within the MAT require content area coursework relevant to the licensure area. A transcript analysis is conducted during advising to ensure that all students meet the minimum requirements for content area course grades.
Courses
MSDE requires both early childhood and elementary school teachers to complete 12 credits of reading methods courses, and secondary teachers must complete 6 credits of reading. In the MAT, 24 credits of the content core, various content area foundations and methods, as well as the accompanying internship are also required. Secondary teachers will have six hours of content-related, discipline specific electives to complete their 37-hour program. All students are required to complete each required education course with a grade of “B” or better.
Early Field Experiences
A major goal of the program is to integrate theory and practice. Consequently, early field experiences are incorporated throughout the program in a variety of ways. The core coursework for each track within the MAT program includes field experiences. For example, Elementary MAT teacher candidates will have focused opportunities to work with children and teachers through their reading courses. Early Childhood MAT teacher candidates participate in a different semester-long field experience that is linked with a three-credit study group during each of the first 3 semesters. Secondary MAT teacher candidates also have early field experiences built into their reading courses.
Internship
The internship is intended to be a full-year experience lasting at least 100 days and spanning two semesters. During this period of time, it is expected that the candidate will gain as much experience in teaching as possible. Ideally, at the conclusion of the clinical experience, a candidate will be ready to successfully assume full responsibility for a classroom.
The candidate is expected to be devoted full-time to Phase II of the internship and participate in the seminar course. The candidate may take methods courses during Phase I of the internship.
For more information regarding the models for clinical experience and UMBC Professional Development Schools, Director of Office of Field Experiences and Clinical Practice (pds@umbc.edu)
EdTPA
EdTPA meets Maryland’s requirement for a teacher performance assessment scored by a national set of reviewers. EdTPA is modeled after the National Board Certification portfolio and consists of three tasks. Task 1 is Planning, Task 2 is Instruction, and Task 3 is Assessment.
Application and Admission
The MAT is a UMBC graduate program. Applicants must be accepted and admitted to the UMBC Graduate School and the UMBC Department of Education. Minimum admission requirements include an undergraduate GPA of 2.75 for admission and 3.0 for internship.
The first step in the application process is to schedule a personal interview with an advisor of the program and submit transcripts of all prior undergraduate and graduate study for analysis. For more information, contact education@umbc.edu.