Program Overview

The Coe College Education Department aims to foster an appreciation that teaching and learning are active, collaborative, effortful and recursive. As such, teachers must continually acquire knowledge, communicate their understanding, build connections between ideas and reflect on and modify their understanding. Further, we believe competent teachers are passionate about learning, appreciate diverse learners' needs and experiences and possess skills related to positively influencing the learning of all students.

Location, location, location
Coe is located in a metropolitan area with access to more than 65 elementary and secondary schools in five districts that provide learning opportunities for our teachers-in-training. You can complete field experiences in public and private schools that represent a wide range of socio-economic levels, ethnic diversity and academic curricula.

Early experiences in real schools
Your field work in local schools will begin early in your course of studies, and by the time you are ready to student teach, you will have more than 120 hours of real classroom experience under your belt.

Passionate, knowledgeable faculty
All education department faculty members have experience teaching in public schools, and the instructors who teach most of our methods courses are currently teaching in area schools, so you will be learning about real-life, real-time issues in education.

A financial safety net
Although most elementary and secondary graduates find it easy to complete all of the required coursework in four years, some choose to put off student teaching until their fifth year to allow them to study abroad for a semester or complete additional endorsements. Coe grants a 60% tuition reduction to qualified students who choose to student teach in their fifth year.

Expert advising
We take academic advising seriously. Your advisor will help you construct a four-year plan of study as soon as you decide to become an education major or minor. You will get to know your education professors well, and we will help you make decisions that will give you maximum flexibility in your teaching career.

Specialized instruction
Unlike many small colleges, Coe’s Education Department offers separate subject-specific methods courses at all levels. This means if you are preparing to teach high school language arts, for example, you will study secondary language arts methods along with only other English and theatre majors under the supervision of an experienced local teacher.

Meaningful supervision
During your student teaching semester, you will be supervised by either a full-time department faculty member or a member of our small, outstanding team of professionals. You will be visited weekly during your entire student-teaching assignment and individually guided in your development as a teacher. You will meet with other student-teachers in a biweekly seminar to lend each other support and learn about licensure requirements.

Experience Beyond the Classroom
You will have many opportunities to expand your perspective on what it means to be a teacher. Many of our Education courses include experiences beyond the classroom. Some opportunities include:  tutoring students at the Jane Boyd Community House; professional development at Grant Wood Area Education Association; and site visits to area museums and nonprofit groups to expand our students' knowledge of our local community.