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Undergraduate Teacher Education Program (UTEP)

Overview

Working cooperatively with other departments at the university, the Education Department offers a teacher education program leading to certification in teaching at the secondary level (grades 7-12). Certification programs are offered in English, history/social studies, biology/science, and engineering. Rhode Island has Interstate Certification Compact (ICC) approval, allowing graduates reciprocal certification in 44 states.

The Undergraduate Teacher Education Program (UTEP) is not a concentration program. Whatever your concentration, you are eligible to be a UTEP as long as you can fulfill the course requirements for certification in your teaching field (e.g. English, history/social studies, biology, engineering/physics) and complete the required education courses (see list below). All required education courses must be taken at Brown University.

If you are interested in the Undergraduate Teacher Education Program, you should talk to a member of the program faculty as early as possible:

English Laura Snyder (Laura_A_Snyder@brown.edu/863-9583)
History/Social Studies Maureen Sigler (Maureen_Sigler@brown.edu/863-9326)
Biology Dan Bisaccio (Daniel_Bisaccio@brown.edu/863-3428)
Engineering/Physics Janet Blume (Janet_Blume@brown.edu/863-1498)

Application

The application for the program is due on November 15 of your junior year, but the advising process that precedes your application is important. You should plan on attending one of the open houses held each year in the fall by the Education Department.

[ Start the application ]

Requirements

Course requirements include:

Content Area Requirements:
English: 8 courses
History/SS: 6 courses History/3 courses Social Studies
Biology/Science: 8 courses
Engineering: 8 courses

Requirements for Certification

By the completion of the Undergraduate Teacher Education Program at Brown University, students are expected to have taken the following courses in their content area.

FOR ENGLISH:
Students must plan to complete a minimum of eight (8) courses in the study of literature and language, which should include work in the following:

  • Theories of writing or theories of teaching writing
  • Critical theory
  • Literature of the western canon, including Chaucer, Shakespeare, and the English Romantic poets
  • American literature
  • American ethnic literature
  • Modern and contemporary literature
  • Literature in translation or world literature
  • Poetry
  • Drama
  • Linguistics, focusing on the structure of language and social influences on language development and use
  • Media studies

FOR HISTORY/SOCIAL STUDIES:
Students must plan to complete a minimum of nine (9) courses in history and social studies.

Six (6) courses in history must be distributed among the following:

  • American history
  • Western civilization
  • Non-Western civilization
  • European history

Three (3) courses in the social sciences disciplines may include coursework in:

  • Anthropology
  • Economics
  • Geography
  • Political science
  • Sociology

 
FOR BIOLOGY/SCIENCE:
Students must plan to complete a minimum of eight (8) biology courses, which should include work in the following:

  • Botany
  • Zoology
  • Physiology
  • Genetics
  • Ecology

FOR ENGINEERING/PHYSICS:
Students must plan to complete a minimum of eight (8) courses in engineering, which should include work in the following:

  • Mechanics
  • Electricity and magnetism
  • Optics
  • Properties of matter
  • Thermodynamics

See specific details at: http://www.engin.brown.edu/undergrad/guide/teacher.htm

Praxis II test

For accreditation purposes for the state of Rhode Island, teacher education candidates must demonstrate competency in their field of certification.  Therefore, you need to take the appropriate Praxis II test before beginning the UTEP program in June between your junior and senior years. 

Register for the test and review sample test questions at: www.ets.org/praxis.  Make sure to send your scores to Brown (Code R3094).  This is very IMPORTANT.

English: English Language, Literature, and Composition: Content Knowledge (#10041)
Passing score = 172

History/Social Studies: Social Studies: Content Knowledge (#10081)
Passing score = 162

Biology: Biology: Content Knowledge (#20235)
Passing score = 152

Engineering/Physics: Physics: Content Knowledge (#10265)
Passing score = 141