Student Teaching
Application
Candidates must meet the following requirements for student teaching:
- Admission to the Teacher Licensure Program for at least one semester prior to student teaching.
- Application filed at the beginning of the semester prior to student teaching.
- Evidence that the candidate is not on academic or social probation. (Behavior that relates to the moral, social, ethical and personal standards of the candidate's professional competency will be subject to periodic review.) Minimum, cumulative GPA of 2.50 (3.00 GPA for external placement)
- Completion of all professional education course work, as well as all courses in the student's major area of study. Grades below a "C" are not acceptable in any EDUC course, or in any concentration course (Integrated Studies major), or in any upper level course in the major.
- Acceptable scores on the tests required for Virginia licensure.
- Current TB test.
- Graduation checklist indicating that all coursework except student teaching will be completed prior to student teaching.
It is the student's responsibility to secure forms and materials necessary to apply for student teaching from the Blackboard site for teacher licensure. The application deadlines for placement in student teaching are: Sept. 15 for placement in the spring semester; Feb. 15 for placement in the fall semester.
Placement
Student teaching experiences are arranged to take place within Christian and public schools. A limited number of external placements in accredited Christian schools are available for students who meet the criteria for external placement. Liberty University seeks to locate student teachers in positive classroom settings with well-qualified cooperating teachers.
Student teaching experiences are performed in settings which are supervised by faculty members from Liberty University. For this reason, student teaching may not be completed at another institution and transferred to Liberty University. Also, student teaching credit will not be awarded for non-certified classroom employment.
The student teaching experience should be approached with a great deal of respect for the responsibilities involved and should be regarded as a very important experience for the aspiring teacher. During the student teaching semester, the candidate will assume an important role in terms of responsibilities and obligations to the school and the students where the student teaching is to take place. It is imperative that student teachers plan to arrange personal time schedules to allow proper attention to be given to student teaching and those activities associated with outside preparation and school responsibilities. For these reasons, the School of Education strongly recommends that candidates limit outside responsibilities during student teaching. Examples of activities which have previously caused problems for student teachers include working more than 10 hours per week, excessive social commitments, and extracurricular activities. In such circumstances the quality of performance inevitably suffers. For these reasons, planning and prior arrangements to avoid such problems is expected.
Course Information
The student teaching experience is required of all candidates seeking teacher licensure and takes place during the candidate's final semester of study. It will involve the commitment of the entire semester for the student teaching and student teaching-related course work, which includes:
- EDUC 475 - Student Teaching Seminar: Two Semester Hours
- EDUC 476 - Student Teaching I: Five Semester Hours
- EDUC 477 - Student Teaching II: Five Semester Hours
