Performance-Based Field Experiences
These experiences are part of your lecture courses and place you, the student in a learning environment ‘in the field’ where observing of education professionals at work and assisting with selected tasks provide you with an introduction to the profession. Your field experience may be called an observation, practicum and/or clinicals, and is exploratory rather than culminating. Observations, practicums, and clinicals are integral aspects of specific education courses and are supervised by the instructor of those courses.
Practicums and clinicals accompanying methods courses require you to plan and teach lessons as well as to work with individual or small groups of students. Specific requirements for each experience can be found in the Teacher Preparation Guidebook under Field Experiences.
Student Teaching: The Teacher Education Program trains teachers to be competent, reflective professional educators. Preparation of teachers at Anderson University is field based and places them in classrooms as observers, assistants, and teachers throughout their course preparation. Student teaching is the capstone of our teacher-training program.
Advising: Students interested in majoring in education are encouraged to declare an education major as soon as they arrive on campus their freshman year. Once declared as an education major, you will be assigned a faculty advisor for your program scheduling. Your education advisor helps you interpret requirements, assesses your qualifications, suggests course plans, signs forms, and discusses job prospects.
Praxis Information: The State of Indiana requires successful passing of the Praxis Series Examinations. Anderson University requires that Praxis I (PPST) be completed prior to admittance to the Teacher Education Program and Praxis II (Specialty Area(s) be completed prior to student teaching.
- Praxis I should be taken no later than the summer following your freshman year. You cannot take upper level courses until Praxis scores are on file in the Office of Data Management.
- Praxis II for elementary majors may be taken in 2 sections. The Reading Specialist should be taken after completing EDUC 3200-3300. The Curriculum and Instruction is to be taken after completing EDUC 4310. Secondary majors should take their subject area tests during the junior year. Information concerning these examinations is available online at www.ets.org/praxis. It is the responsibility of the student to file the application for test administration.
