Curriculum

The core of Bard's yearlong MAT Program is an integrated curriculum leading to a master of arts in teaching degree and a teaching certificate for grades 7–12 in one of four areas: biology, English, mathematics, or social studies. In future years the program will be expanded to include certification in other fields, including art, chemistry, foreign languages, and music.

The program is unique in its approach, requiring advanced study in the academic disciplines as well as complementary field-based study of issues in teaching and learning. Having completed an undergraduate degree in their chosen field, incoming students continue their studies in that field. Concurrently, MAT students take education courses that challenge them to apply the results of research and pedagogical analysis to the actual work of teaching. Linked to advanced study in the field, the education curriculum helps students consider how they learn, and how alternative approaches to teaching and learning provide broader access to academic competence.

Combined with student-teaching experiences in the Hudson Valley and New York City spread over the full academic year, and the active participation of mentor teachers and MAT faculty advisers, the program's instructionally innovative courses provide the basis for critical reflection about educational practice.