Educational Studies at College of the Atlantic

The interactive and interdisciplinary nature of learning at COA serves as a model for the kind of education our students hope to create as teachers. Educational Studies develops committed, reflective educational leaders who bring intellectual passion and ecological wisdom into their own teaching. Becoming a teacher requires students to reflect on their own learning, to assess their values, and to commit to a rewarding profession. Most graduates of our program are teachers in public and private schools. COA also prepares students who choose to teach outside the traditional classroom and have careers as outdoor educators, interpretive naturalists, or environmental educators. Nearly thirty-six percent of all COA graduates are working in the field of education.

Professional Teacher Certification

COA has been granted authority by the state of Maine to award teaching certification. Certification, which is reciprocal in forty-two other states, is available in Elementary Education (grades  K-8) and Secondary (grades 7-12) Life Science, Social Studies, and English Language Arts. COA has an excellent working partnership with local public and private schools which gives our students the opportunity to practice what they learn through "hands-on" experiences in classrooms, after school programs, museums, alternative education settings, and summer camps.

Four Key Reasons to Come to COA for Educational Studies

Hands-on Learning Virtually every education course offered at COA has a field component. Partnerships with on-campus programs and local resources provide a variety of hands-on experiences for future educators. In addition, COA has partnerships with the Jackson Laboratory, Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, Acadia National Park, the Abbe Museum, and Down East Educational Partnership. On campus, the Dorr Museum of Natural History affords students opportunities to teach, design exhibits, develop interpretive materials, and lead programs at the museum.

Human Ecology Teacher education based in the study of human ecology requires students to explore the relationships between separate disciplines and to bring interdisciplinary thinking into the classroom. COA produces professional educators well versed in the subject matter they teach, skilled in a variety of methods of classroom teaching, and able to meet the individual needs of students. Teachers trained in this way appreciate the rich, natural, technological, and social contexts of their culture and become active and responsible participants in society.

Individual Attention COA's small size assures that each student receives one-on-one attention. The average size of an Educational Studies class is twelve. Students are taught by a professor, not a teaching assistant. At COA, each student is known by name and students know all faculty on a first-name basis. Faculty take time to find out each student's educational needs and desires, and students are closely mentored.

Global Education You can learn to be a teacher just about anywhere, but at COA you can learn how to teach just about anywhere. COA's curriculum includes intercultural perspectives that more effectively prepare students for international and cross-cultural education than do standard teacher education programs. Proportionally, the COA student body is the most diverse of any college in Maine, so a wide variety of points of view will be represented in class discussions. Our education students have completed internships and senior projects all over the world: studying literacy reform in Cuba, addressing ethnic tensions in South African schools, and examining one-room island schools in Maine.