M.Ed vs. Master of Arts in Teaching

[TonyB79]

Debating which of these two type of programs to pursue (or whether to look into some sort of "alternative" path to teaching licensure). I've heard the MAT is designed for people who didn't major in Education or teaching for their undergrad, but I was looking at Kent State's program, and evidently it requires a LOT of pre-program coursework for whatever you want your licensure to be. Just wondering if anyone has any insight on this, which is the better way to go, etc.

[misskira]

I have a MAT in special ed and it's never been an issue.  I have been hired with it by 2 different districts and accepted into a phd program.  I honestly didn't even realize there were different masters degrees when I did mine.  I was pretty much focused on licensure so the masters itself was just a means to an end and to satisfy state licensure requirements.  I majored in education studies and minored in special ed.

[TonyB79]

I'm getting my bachelor's in Communication. I had heard that, for instance, if you wanted to get an MAT and be certified to teach English or Social Studies, your English and Social Studies courses would be built into the requirements for the MAT degree. But, at Kent State at least, it appears to be an entirely separate (and quite substantial) core of courses that must be completed prior to entering the program.

 

In other words, I'd heard that the MAT was designed for folks who didn't necessarily major in Education, and/or the field they want to be certified in, for their undergrad, but that appears not to be the case, at least in terms of Kent's program.

[misskira]

I'm getting my bachelor's in Communication. I had heard that, for instance, if you wanted to get an MAT and be certified to teach English or Social Studies, your English and Social Studies courses would be built into the requirements for the MAT degree. But, at Kent State at least, it appears to be an entirely separate (and quite substantial) core of courses that must be completed prior to entering the program.

 

In other words, I'd heard that the MAT was designed for folks who didn't necessarily major in Education, and/or the field they want to be certified in, for their undergrad, but that appears not to be the case, at least in terms of Kent's program.

Ohhh I see.

From what I've seen around here, every Oregon licensure program (which is inside of a masters due to state requirements now) has a decent list of pre-reqs.  Especially when it comes to secondary programs.  They'll expect that you've majored in your content area and the masters portion will be pedagogy, instruction, education law, curriculum, assessments, etc.  They want you to know the content you'll be teaching already, and their focus is teaching you how to teach it.  Also, in Oregon programs aren't very research based, they're all about getting you into the classroom.  That's something to keep in mind.  Research (outside of student teaching work samples) happens if you decide to go phd.

[emilyrobot]

Yeah, my sense of this is that it's driven by state licensure requirements, not by degree type. If you want to be a certified high school English or History teacher, the state requires X number of credits in English or History, whether you get a MEd or a MAT. X is often equivalent to an undergraduate major. You might find a shorter list of required course work in a program that provides an elementary teaching license (looks like Kent State's MAT is grades 7-12).