Degree Programs
One Year MAT
The Master of Arts in Teaching Program at Bard College takes place over a full calendar year, from June to June. It includes integrated course work, student teaching, and independent research. The course work and fieldwork are organized in a sequence of four 10-week quarters. A weeklong orientation session precedes the summer quarter. From September through May—that is, during the fall, winter, and spring academic quarters—MAT students spend 20 weeks in public school classrooms. The intersession, which takes place during the week between the winter and spring quarters, is devoted to courses that not only satisfy state certification requirements, but also immerse students in innovative approaches to teaching and learning in the disciplines. The concluding week of the program provides time for students to present their final projects. Upon satisfactory completion of the 12-month program, MAT graduates receive a master of arts in teaching degree and a New York State Initial Certificate in Adolescent Education (grades 7-12) within the elective discipline.
- Course Work
- Orientation and Summer Quarter
- Require Education Courses
- The Disciplines
- The Teaching/Lab Strand
- Partnerships with Public Schools
- Classroom Experience
- Intersession
- Research Projects
Course Work
Courses are structured to emphasize best practices in teaching and learning and to immerse students in classroom experiences that challenge them to reexamine the secondary school learning environment. Each course meets for 30 hours of classroom time; an additional 20 hours of laboratory time are devoted to experiences in research and teaching that build critical competencies. The two strands of each course create a critical dialectic: the laboratory component connects to a complementary component in a parallel course. For example, a MAT student who is taking Math 514 may be tutoring a student in a local high school and, simultaneously, taking ED 514, a course that requires him or her to consider current research related to issues in adolescent learning. All courses are paired in this way, connecting classroom time with laboratory time in order to model the best teaching practices. (See Course Offerings and Descriptions for a sample course sequence.)
top of pageOrientation Session and Summer Quarter
The MAT Program begins in June with a weeklong orientation session that is required of all incoming students. The orientation is designed to acquaint students with faculty, advisers, and each other, and to help them become familiar with the facilities and resources of Bard College. During orientation, all students participate in an intensive writing seminar (ED 502. Schooling in the 21st Century: A Learner Perspective) that introduces them to an alternative teaching model in which writing becomes the basis for collaborative learning.
The summer quarter comprises five required courses—two in education, two in the student's chosen discipline, and a "lab strand" that explores the shared territory of questions about education and learning in an academic discipline—and a teaching assignment in which each MAT student works with students in a local summer school program.
Required Education Courses
The four required graduate-level courses in education are meant to prepare teachers for the classroom. To that end, MAT students are expected to develop practical knowledge across a range of educational inquiry. This means that students read about cognitive psychology, for example, to help them understand the sociocultural contexts of classroom practices or the role of language in the construction of understanding. They read from the history of the field to help them recognize how different purposes and intentions in education offer alternative critiques of learning and teaching. As a result, MAT students learn to think about education from a new perspective. (See Course Offerings and Descriptions for details about individual courses.)
The Disciplines
Six required graduate-level courses in their chosen field build on a student's undergraduate learning. The fundamental ideas of the discipline and its evolution as a field are emphasized to deepen the student's understanding of the subject, with a particular concern for improving instruction at the secondary level. Each student completes a graduate-level research project to acquire and demonstrate expertise in his or her field. (For details about the curriculum in each of the disciplines, see Course Offerings and Descriptions.)
The Teaching/Lab Strand
During the summer and fall quarters, all MAT students meet for an additional weekly three-hour class called the "teaching strand" or "laboratory." The class is taught by two faculty members—one from the field of education, the other from the academic discipline. Each week students turn their own academic questions into questions about teaching and learning. For example, a student in Math 514 (Algebra) might consider how a particular understanding of algebra they have gained at the graduate level could become a mode of approach to teaching algebra at the 9th-grade level. The student's investigation would incorporate models of learning and developmental concerns they were studying in ED 514 (Issues in Teaching and Learning), applying them to answer this particular teaching question. This laboratory class turns the more theoretical work of the graduate courses into investigations of practice in teaching and learning. Looking at educational standards as well as current demands in public education, students engage in a synthesis of the studies and experiences that characterize the MAT Program.
Partnerships with Public Schools
In forming partnerships with clusters of public schools in the Hudson Valley and New York City, the MAT Program at Bard College has been inspired by the concept of a Professional Development School (PDS). The PDS concept, which has a long history in the field of education reform, was revitalized in the 1980s. It is based on the idea of forging alliances among a college, several public schools, and student teachers. Bard College and the MAT Program have modified the concept to support change in the public schools by improving teaching and learning relative to public secondary school students, student teachers, and educators at the public schools as well as at Bard College. The MAT Program is ideally situated to further three interdependent goals:
Preparing teachers
The apprenticeships that MAT students serve in the partner schools exceed what is demanded by more conventional programs. MAT students not only participate as active interns by teaching classes but also conduct original research in collaboration with public school faculty.
Improving secondary and postsecondary education
Public school teachers and MAT faculty alike gain valuable insights into central issues of teaching and learning. The challenges faced by public schools provoke particularly useful reconsiderations of how to teach at the college level across curricula and disciplines.
Supporting the revision of public school programs
The faculty of the MAT Program, Bard College, and the Institute for Writing and Thinking are committed to supporting the initiatives of participating public school teachers and their schools. The MAT Program encourages public school teachers to engage in the reflection that is necessary for them to become better educators and, therefore, leaders in the improvement of education and schools.
Bard College and the MAT Program have confirmed partnerships with several public school districts in the Hudson Valley, as well as a select group of small, alternative high schools and middle schools in New York City. Locally, teachers from public schools in Chatham, Kingston, Red Hook, and Onteora provide mentoring and educational leadership to the MAT Program.
In New York City, teachers from Banana Kelly Collaborative High School, Bronx Studio School for Writers and Artists, East Bronx Academy for the Future, Fannie Lou Hamer Middle and High Schools, and New Day Academy, as well as Bard High School Early Colleges I and II, offer similar opportunities for student seeking careers in urban education.
Classroom Experience
MAT students start their field experiences in the public schools as tutors in a local summer school program. In September they begin the initial phase of a 20-week training period in a public school, either in the Hudson Valley or in New York City, as participant observers. They become further engaged as they help with lesson planning and student assessment and, finally, take responsibility for a full teaching load during their apprenticeship. Throughout their student teaching experience, MAT participants investigate research questions and engage in the kinds of reflective practice that are essential to becoming effective teachers and succeeding in their future profession.
Mentor teachers and graduate school advisers conduct regular observations and evaluations of each MAT student's teaching practices. Throughout the program, mentors and advisers collaborate with MAT students on research initiatives and projects. MAT students also meet regularly to support each other's work through shared writing, reflection, and discussion.
Intersession
During intersession students take required, noncredit workshop sequences designed to develop teaching practices and communication skills, including public speaking. Other intersession workshops focus on preparing MAT students for the professional job market. Advisers work with students on rèsumè preparation, cover letter writing, interview skills, and strategies for locating openings in upstate and New York City schools. At the conclusion of the series of workshops, students are prepared to begin searching and applying for teaching positions as they become available.
Research Projects
The MAT Academic Research Project
Students in each field of study are required to complete a research project that engages them in inquiry and the development of knowledge in their discipline. These projects are initiated during the summer quarter; they are described in more detail for each academic area as course descriptions, below. They represent an opportunity for students to pursue questions of personal interest while engaging in original work as independent scholars under the guidance of a faculty adviser. The results of these projects are presented during symposia in the closing week of the program in early June 2009.
The MAT Classroom Research Project
Students work as teacher-researchers, collaborating with a mentor teacher to explore classroom issues in teaching and learning. Research work begins in the summer quarter as students begin developing a literature review that helps to frame theoretical perspectives and support research design through a summary examination of pertinent research articles. Initial explorations in the fall quarter help mentor teachers and their apprentice partners design investigations that they implement and complete in the winter and spring quarters. The results of these projects are shared at a gathering of the larger educational community during the closing week of the program.
