Masters Program Competencies
How You Earn Your UVEI MAT or MEd Degree
Below you will find descriptions of the ten Competencies that, along with the Competencies earned for certification, constitute our MAT & MEd curricula. As with our programs in certification for teachers and principals, these ten UVEI Competencies describe what you will know and be able to do in earning your degree. The most important aspect of our program is that you are in charge of the pace and purpose of your learning. Although your fellow MAT & MEd candidates will meet together in seminars and will often read the same texts, discuss the same issues, and share drafts written on similar topics, the depth and intensity of your graduate work is up to you. Seminar faculty will challenge you, guide you, and help you assess your work at different stages.
That said, ours is not a “go-it-alone” program. We encourage the habits of collegiality and collaboration because we think them essential to the transformation we seek. Similar to the tension between “schools-as-they-are” and “schools-as-they-should-be,” the tension between your work as an individual and your work in groups is, we believe, productive of your growth.
The Competencies that Define the UVEI Master of Arts in Teaching or Master of Education with a Concentration in School Leadership
1. Candidate is able to identify major terms, concepts, and movements of educational practice in the 20th and 21st century and to discuss them in relation to current challenges in student learning.
2. Candidate understands how the “educational system” functions in diverse communities, and under what conditions that system embraces or resists change.
3. Candidate is able to formulate, based on readings, discussions, and experience, a coherent personal and professional “Transformative Vision” of educational strategies that can serve as a guide to current practice and future professional development.
4. Candidate analyzes strengths and weaknesses in content-related knowledge [MAT] or in school leadership skills and knowledge [MEd] and develops a plan to enhance further knowledge in areas of intended teaching/leadership.
5. Candidate is able to construct and maintain an electronic record of work in schools that effectively synthesizes and shows evidence of achievement of the program competencies.
6. Candidate is able to design a research-based project or study that a) explores a major aspect of a classroom’s or a school’s educational purposes; b) can be carried out during one or more semesters; c) has the backing of colleagues and administrators.
7. Candidate is able to gather, select, read, and reflect upon a coherent and reasonably comprehensive list of resources (books, journal articles, video, interviews, etc.) that can provide context and background to the proposed project or study described in #6, above.
8. Candidate is able to conduct the project or study, with the involvement and support of appropriate stakeholders, including administrators, teachers, students, and parents.
9. Candidate is able to gather and synthesize appropriate data on the outcomes and validity of the project or study, and to present them in written form that can be understood by colleagues and that reflects the standards of quality and observes the stylistic conventions for graduate-level academic work.
10. Candidate is able to organize and present a coherent summary of the study or project to an audience of peers, including use of appropriate media, and to engage them in reflective discussion relative to the impact or utility of its results or conclusions.
