All undergraduate students are required to complete certain courses in their first two years at the college or university. Foundations courses in Fine Arts and Humanities, Physical and Life Sciences, and Social and Behavioral Sciences often make up 20 to 25 hours of undergraduate study and are designed to prepare students for success in more specialized courses to be taken later in their academic careers. A foundations core usually consists of classes such as English Composition and Rhetoric, Biology, Quantitative Reasoning, Global Issues, and Lifetime Fitness. Education majors may supplement these courses with electives that add depth and breadth to their intended plans of study. A course in Spanish or Adolescent Psychology, for example, may enhance a program of study in Middle Grades Education and better prepare the teaching candidate to meet the needs of diverse learners.
Most colleges and universities require education majors to select an academic level (Early Childhood Education, Elementary Education, Middle Grades Education or Secondary Education), as well as a content area such as Math, Language, Arts, Science, Social Studies, Psychology, French or Technology Education. After choosing their concentrations, undergraduate education majors begin to take courses in arts and sciences that meet state licensure regulations and satisfy the requirements of their chosen content area, typically 40 hours' worth of coursework. Prospective language arts teachers may be required to take classes such as American Literature and Rhetoric and Composition for Teachers, while prospective math teachers will take Number Theory, Differential Equations, and Discrete Mathematics. Elementary Education majors, who will typically teach all subject areas, take a variety of courses, such as Reading Fundamentals and Child Development.
Undergraduate Education majors are also required to take classes that focus on the philosophy and practice of teaching. These pedagogy courses, which often make up about 40 hours of undergraduate study, are designed to help students understand best practices, become familiar with the learning process, locate about educational resources, recognize the needs of diverse populations, and create effective units and lessons. Courses such as Philosophy of Education, Instructional Technology, Emergent Literacy, Integrated Curriculum Methods, Foundations of Education, and Classroom and Behavior Management are often among those that satisfy the pedagogy requirement.
Education majors are usually required to complete an internship during the final two semesters of their programs. These involve placement in a school and at least one full semester of student teaching for 10 hours per week in the appropriate level and content area. During this time, undergraduates are observed by classroom teachers and college or university supervisors and given valuable feedback on their practice in the classroom. Additionally, many undergraduates are required to simultaneously participate in seminar courses with other education majors, which allows them to collaborate and to reflect on their internship experiences.