Elementary Education
Mission
The institutional mission statement has served as a guiding principle in our development of the unit’s conceptual framework. The mission of the unit is to serve area residents and schools with an exceptional teacher education program. To fulfill the mission, we provide candidates in our program with strong pedagogy and optimal field experiences. Our courses have small teacher- student ratios to ensure that candidates receive ample individual attention and feedback. Furthermore, most of the courses are primarily taught by full-time, tenure-track faculty who are experts in their areas. As the University has a close relationship with local schools, members of the unit are able to work together to provide varied opportunities for candidates to learn to be effective educators, to discover the fulfillment of becoming a life-long learner, and to engage in the educational process as catalysts for school reform. The unit is committed to providing, assessing, and enhancing candidates’ knowledge as well as helping candidates develop the skills and dispositions that are necessary for becoming effective educators who are able to foster students’ positive development through learning, discovery, and engagement.
Vision
We envision that the Elementary Education program at Purdue University North Central will prepare candidates to complete our mission, and meet the challenges they will encounter as classroom teachers in educating students in our global, diverse and democratic society. Our candidates will have the knowledge that allows them to integrate theory with practice so that they will be viewed as effective and reflective educators. They will possess the necessary knowledge, skills, dispositions and will be committed to providing all children with developmentally appropriate instruction to foster students’ learning, discovery and engagement. As they gain classroom experience, our graduates will be seen as school leaders who are advocates for student growth and school reform. They will continually reflect and seek to grow professionally, and support professional organizations. The conceptual framework, the foundation of the program, is designed to bring this vision to fruition through the outcomes, dispositions and goals.
Theme
The unit’s conceptual framework is represented in the model found in Figure 1. The triangle was chosen as a symbol, to represent the candidate’s continuous growth. At the center of the model is the unit’s theme. Surrounding the theme are Purdue University North Central’s three institutional core beliefs of learning, discovery, and engagement, which we believe are the fundamental elements of the educational process.
Figure 1. Conceptual Framework Model