UNI updates curriculum to better prepare future teachers
A newly-transformed curriculum awaits incoming University of Northern Iowa freshmen and transfer students aspiring to teach, effective fall 2025.
The outcome is the result of two years’ work of more than 100 faculty, staff and administrators to increase access to prepare future teachers while maintaining student success. Program leaders say the updated curriculum elevates the quality of Iowa’s largest teacher education program while putting students on a more effective and flexible path to succeed and graduate on time.
UNI Teacher Education spans four undergraduate colleges and 16 departments whose faculty lead coursework for more than 20 teaching majors and 20+ minors and certificates – leading to initial Iowa teacher licensure. Updates to various majors and minors have been ongoing, but the need for a broader, more systemic approach to change was recognized.
The revised curriculum:
- is more consistent across all teacher education majors.
- is more aligned with the needs of today’s incoming students.
- provides a level of flexibility and adaptability that benefits both students and faculty.
- positions Iowa’s largest, leading teacher education program for the future.
Taken together, these curricular changes have the potential to reduce the time for students to earn their degree and keep UNI Teacher Education at the forefront of preparing tomorrow’s teachers.
One key change is an intentional pairing of methods courses – the “how to teach” courses – with a more structured and consistent three-step approach to practical experience in the field – clinical internships 1 and 2 plus student teaching.
“Pairing methods courses with internships allows our students to learn while doing, with real-time feedback from experts,” says Benjamin Forsyth, College of Education associate dean for undergraduate studies and teacher education. “This was a purposeful choice which program leaders and faculty believe only strengthens the depth of clinical experience for which UNI is well known.”
Other critical updates include:
- A major overhaul of the foundational coursework taken by all teaching majors, now called Educator Essentials. With nearly quadruple the course options in six required categories of learning, students will find greater variety, choice and ability to adapt as they put together schedules for a timely completion of their degrees.
- Greater balance and consistency among majors in the requirements between the subject coursework – such as math, science, music – and the methods of teaching courses.
UNI is in the top 1% nationwide of public institutions conferring a bachelor’s degree in education. With curricular and process improvements and new online program pathways, 450 to 500 future teachers graduate each year. Forsyth expects UNI to have a large number of student teaching placements – nearing 700, accounting for two placements per student teacher in a semester – in spring 2025.
The updated curriculum further strengthens alignment of UNI Teacher Education with UNI’s Teacher Education Conceptual Framework, the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners rules, and the Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC) Standards.