Pass on your excitement for learning to the next generation. You’ll complete the Elementary Education program as an experienced educator and creative lesson planner.
The Elementary Education major leads to an Elementary Generalist License, equipping you to teach any subject in grades K-6.
Your in-classroom experience starts freshman year, assisting teachers at local elementary schools and building your confidence in teaching lessons. During your senior year, you’ll spend a full semester teaching domestically or abroad. With over 500 hours of clinical field placements, you’ll leave Taylor ready to walk into your own classroom as a qualified, capable teacher.
Build skills in:
Career opportunities:
As an Education major, you can find stretching experiences that will test your teaching abilities across borders by student teaching in locations like Ecuador, the Bahamas, the Philippines, Mexico, and Belize.
Taylor University’s Elementary Education program prepares students in areas of instruction, subject matter, and classroom management, but the best training comes from being in Elementary classrooms. You’ll start in the classroom your freshman year and get 500+ hours of experience before your senior year.
Students interested in course descriptions and academic policies can check out our Undergraduate Catalog.
Concentrations, minors, and licensures expand the depth of your degree. All Elementary Education students must complete a concentration through at least one of the following means:
A Taylor liberal arts education will prepare you to live and work in a fast-changing world. It also goes a step further: laying a strong spiritual foundation that cultivates wisdom. You’ll become a well-versed individual, equipped with critical thinking skills, a lifelong love of learning, and an appreciation for God’s creation.
Your experience at Taylor is unlike any other. With 500+ hours of clinical placement, dedicated faculty, and research-based teaching methods, you’ll be prepared to launch into your own classroom.
Mentored by Experienced Faculty
Our dedicated faculty do more than provide instruction—they model how to be engaging teachers and provide opportunities for students to gain interactive teaching experiences. Professors demonstrate a key teaching practice: building relationships with students.
They maintain an open-door policy to encourage students to stop by and chat about their lives, providing scripture and prayer to support them.
Faculty often host events and meals in their homes. They are committed to helping every student grow – professionally, mentally and spiritually.
Perspectives in Diversity
The J-term course Diversity in the Classroom is required for all Elementary Education majors. This practicum-based course involves teaching in a K-12 classroom in a “diverse” setting, as well as discussing how poverty and other elements of diversity can impact teaching and learning.
This course is typically in two locations: Marion, Indiana (which has one of the highest percentages of childhood poverty in the state), and an abroad setting with past locations including Belize, Rwanda, Dominican Republic, Philippines, and Native American reservations in New Mexico.
Student Teaching
Education majors spend a full semester of their senior year teaching real students locally or internationally.
You’ll teach at two different schools, preparing you to manage your own classroom after graduation. You may apply to complete 6 weeks of the experience in an abroad setting.
How We Teach Reading
Evidence-based reading instruction is an integral component of the Educator Preparation Program (EPP) at Taylor University. Current literacy research supports the implementation of a structured literacy framework, one that is designed to be sequential and cumulative and in which students have an increase in opportunities to respond.
Elementary Education majors take three required courses on reading (12 credit hours) and an additional course for those adding a special education concentration. Most of the courses include a clinical classroom field placement that provides the candidates with applicable, real-world experiences to practice the teaching of reading.
Becca Gerig
Class of 2018
Taylor University is a major reason I have felt so confident in my teaching career, and I’m so thankful for each and every part of it.
Scholarships are available for students studying Education, including the Alspaugh-Hodson Family Scholarship, Halbrook Freedom Scholarship, and Art Scholarship.
Taylor teaches Science of Reading principles of literacy in teacher preparation programs.
Contact
Melissa Jessup
Department Chair, Director of Special Education, Assistant Professor of Education
Contact
Shannon Shilts
Education Program Assistant