Course Curriculum

The online Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program in Elementary Education with a focus on STEM prepares candidates to embrace challenges in the classroom as thoughtful, competent, and reflective educators.

See below for curriculum details about the program:

• Elementary Education Courses
• On-Campus Immersion Experiences
• Field Placement
• Program Learning Outcomes

Elementary Education Courses

• EDO 230 – Human Development and Learning
• EDO 242 – Education of the Exceptional Child
• EDO 260 – Critical Foundations of Education
• EDO 290 – Foundations of Literacies
• EDO 203 – Introduction to Teaching in the Elementary School
• EDO 204 – Practice of Teaching in the Elementary School
• EDO 215 – Elementary Science and Mathematics Learning Environments
• EDO 225 – Practices of Teaching Elementary STEM
• EDO 216 – Interdisciplinary Elementary Curriculum I
• EDO 217 – Interdisciplinary Elementary Curriculum II
• EDO 295 – Arts and Expression in the Elementary Classroom

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On-Campus Immersion Experiences

Students will participate in two immersions, each lasting three days, during their practicum terms on Tufts University’s Medford/Boston campus. The immersions are an opportunity to work directly with peers and faculty. Students will also receive essential coaching and instruction for working with English Language Learners (ELL) and leading Structured English Immersion (SEI) as required for teaching licensure.

The immersions coincide with EDO 203/204 (Elementary Education).

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Field Placement

Candidates in the MAT in Elementary STEM program are placed at partner schools with a supervising practitioner for their practicum experiences. MAT students complete a pre-practicum in the fall, spending three days per week in their school. They complete a practicum in the spring, spending five days per week at their placement site.

Candidates currently working as a teacher may be eligible to complete their Pre-Practicum and/or Practicum at their current place of employment. This will require a formal request reviewed by the Tufts Department of Education prior to enrollment. Your placement must meet the requirements set by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary & Secondary Education (DESE). You can contact your admissions counselor for more details.

Students will meet regularly with the supervising practitioner, participate in school meetings and professional development, and assist the supervising practitioner in preparing the classroom for the school year. Placements typically run from late August through the following May.

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Program Learning Outcomes

After graduating from the online Master of Arts in Teaching program, candidates will be able to:

Plan, structure, and scaffold instruction and assessment:

• Emphasize students using their minds well through inquiry, understanding, developing skills, and authentic experience.
• Meet the needs of a diverse student population.
• Challenge students intellectually and facilitate students’ independence and mastery.
• Engage students’ prior knowledge, experience, culture, and stage of development.
• Give students the support they need to meet high expectations.

Create a safe learning environment to promote learning for all students:

• Give students ownership over the intellectual work.
• Maintain rituals, routines, and responses that support learning, trust, and respect.
• Empower students to act upon issues of equity and social justice.
• Integrate students’ identity and experience.

Engage in reflective practice:

• Approach their own and others’ teaching from an inquiry stance.
• Integrate theory and practice.
• Seek out, engage, and use feedback.
• Analyze observation and assessment data to inform teaching practice.

Enter a professional culture:

• Engage professionally with others in their school context.
• Locate themselves and their teaching in the broader cultures of schools and schooling and of children and families.