Elementary Education BSEd, TESOL Emphasis

Elementary Education

The Bachelor of Science in Education (B.S.Ed.) in Elementary Education prepares those who desire to teach grades 1 - 6. The core courses are combined with one of three emphasis areas: Special Education, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), or Middle School. It is also possible to select the Special Education emphasis area and take the TESOL courses for TESOL endorsement. Please see each of the Emphasis Area Requirements listed below.

Undergraduate educator preparation is both engaging and innovative.  Our high quality undergraduate educator preparation programs are designed around research-based scholarship and practical community-based contexts.  To prepare our undergraduate students as the highest quality educators for our region, we contribute to and harness the resources of our deep community partnerships.  The community-based experiences broaden candidates’ understanding of their own identity as educators as well as enhancing their ability to build relationships, extend their skills, and understand family/community dynamics and interactions.

For their final year-long practicum, teacher candidates are immersed in Studio Schools.  These partnering K-12 schools participate in our innovative, collaborative approach to educator preparation. Rather than being placed as individuals with one cooperating teacher, our candidates work with multiple teachers learning from each one, this process is supported and facilitated on-site by a specially trained UMSL clinical educator who leads a weekly seminar, conducts observations and provides candidates with regular feedback to guide their growth.  

The focus of candidates’ work is to explore challenges of student learning, envision solutions based on their research-based coursework, recent school initiatives, and carefully studied practices, and then enact innovative solutions to increase student learning.  Candidates inquire deeply into how their students are learning, and use data to inform their instruction. Teacher candidates participate in all appropriate school and district professional development and school-wide activities, thereby becoming professionals who are part of the fabric of a studio school, not a just a temporary teacher candidate. Graduating educators have experienced an innovative education which prepares them for their future career as educational leaders in our region and beyond.