Teacher Education: Areas of Study

• Elementary Education
• Secondary Science

The Teacher Education Department offers a baccalaureate degree in elementary education and secondary science education. The secondary degree allows graduates to apply for a composite degree teaching license in Biology, chemistry, Earth Science and Physics.

Both degree programs are designed around a cohort model learning community, reflecting the importance of collaboration, support, and teamwork as necessary precursors to becoming effective change agents in the education systems across Indian country.

Elementary Education

The elementary teacher education program is committed to helping all students learn. The teacher candidates will get the opportunity to apply and adapt a multitude of teaching principles to meet the needs of diverse student populations. Multicultural education is taken to heart wherein inclusiveness is seen as an essential component of this program. Consequently, there is a strong commitment to fully implementing best teaching practices that encompass the latest models of inquiry-based instruction and brain-based instructional strategies that differentiate instruction to meet the needs of all the students.

Integral to these best teaching practices is the exploratory and hands-on methodologies which emphasize engagement, learning as a process, the need to begin with students’ own ideas and concrete experiences in creating new and deepened understandings of the world around them. In addition, technology is explored in its many formats in order to provide the teacher candidate with as many tools as possible in the pursuit of teaching excellence.

The elementary teacher education program prepares the candidates for licensure to teach grades one to eight. Admittance to this program of study requires completion of all general education requirements with a GPA of 2.5.

Secondary Science

The main objective of the teacher education program is to define and implement a significant change in how science is understood and how science is taught in high schools on the Turtle Mountain Reservation and beyond. Consequently, there is dedication to pursue this vision by adopting and fully implementing best teaching practices that encompass the latest models of inquiry-based instruction and brain-based instructional strategies.

The Secondary Science teacher education program prepares the candidates for licensure to teach grades 7-12 in biology, chemistry, physics and earth science. Admittance to this program of study requires completion of all general education requirements with a GPA of 2.5. After successful admittance to the program, the candidates begin their course of study as juniors in college.

Students are required to take and pass Praxis I in the first semester, and later Praxis II in order to receive their BS degree in education and become licensed teachers in the state of North Dakota.