Getting a Degree in Elementary Education

Teaching Elementary Education

Often times, elementary school teachers give children their first impressions of education and help set the tone for the rest of their schooling and career ambitions. Teachers who can tend to the needs of young audiences and help foster in them a love for learning and discovering give their pupils an invaluable advantage as they begin to read, write, and study.

Earning Degree and Certification in Elementary Education

Prospective elementary educators should obtain a 4-year bachelor’s degree as well as a state certification, licensing them to teach. However, a 4-year degree is not actually required to work at many elementary institutions, and applicants with only associates degrees of high school diplomas can find themselves in positions assisting instructors, nurses, administrators, and even directing physical education and activities programs. Some elementary schools encourage such employees to pursue teacher training and try to create incentives for these degree programs.

State or National Requirements

In order to teach at a public elementary school in the United States, applicants must have both a bachelor’s degree as well as state certification. Some states require a certain number of credits in the undergraduate work to be education-focused, but even in these cases, many schools allow applicants to teach while earning these required credits. Though a bachelor’s in elementary education might be helpful in job placement, basically any undergraduate major will be accepted by any state.

Licensing programs often include some kind of recognized basic skills test which demonstrates that the student has at least the minimum required aptitude in the core subjects of reading, writing, and math in order to teach K-6 subjects.

Private schools don’t often require licensing, but usually will require a bachelor’s degree.

Tutoring positions and other elementary education positions apart from only teaching have no such restrictions.

Academic Requirements

The education path towards elementary school teaching ranges greatly depending on the undergraduate degree pursued and the length of the certification program. Some are very concentrated in-class intensives, finishing in a few weeks, whereas others take several months. Many of these certification programs can be found online or through community colleges and focused career colleges as opposed to large universities.

If a student majors in elementary education at an accredited university, some of the courses he/she might expect to take include:

• Fundamentals of Early Childhood Education
• Literacy for Early Childhood Education
• Creativity and Play in Early Childhood Education
• Social Studies for Early Childhood Education
• Early Childhood Growth and Development

Often these programs will include internship and other hands-on experience opportunities, in which prospective educators will spend time working at an elementary institution. In working with children as student-instructors, teacher’s aides, or tutors, elementary education students can expect such internships to be an effective test in concluding whether elementary education is a career path that is right for them.

Further Education and Other Prospects

Students pursuing master’s or higher degrees in elementary education usually go on to study pedagogy rather than teach in an elementary school classroom