TWO BARD COLLEGE GRADUATE PROGRAMS TO HOLD OPEN HOUSE FOR PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS ON SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21
Bard Center for Environmental Policy and Bard College Master of Arts in Teaching Program Sponsor an Open House and Campus Tours
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—The Bard Center for Environmental Policy and Bard College Master of Arts in Teaching Program will hold an open house for prospective students on Saturday, February 21. Interested students and their families will have an opportunity to speak with faculty, admissions representatives, and alumni and current students of both programs and to find out more about the benefits of a graduate education at Bard College. The event will take place in the multipurpose room of the Bertelsmann Campus Center from 12–4 p.m. Light refreshments will be served and a campus tour will be given at 3 p.m. The open house and tours are free and open to the public. For more information on the open house, please e-mail [email protected] or call 845-758-7151.
The Bard College Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) Program builds on Bard’s longstanding commitment to change the ways we approach education, providing a different model of teacher education and working closely with partner public schools in a continuing effort to support innovations in classroom learning that raise expectations for all students.
The MAT Program was established in 2003 to address critical issues in the training of teachers of grades 7–12. The program emphasizes subject-matter mastery for teachers, integrated clinical training, and the ability of new teachers to advance and implement innovative teaching methods in the classroom. Many secondary school teachers in the United States do not hold an undergraduate degree in the subject they teach, and rarely in the course of their training are prospective teachers asked to integrate subject matter and pedagogy courses in a clinically meaningful way, or to research and practice new approaches to teaching.
The core of Bard’s MAT Program is an integrated curriculum leading to a master of arts in teaching degree and a teaching certificate in adolescent education in one of four subject areas: English, mathematics, biology, or history. Applicants must have completed an undergraduate degree with a major in the elective discipline. Bard MAT students are required to complete four graduate-level courses in their elective discipline, while taking education courses that challenge them to apply the results of research and pedagogical analysis to classroom teaching. In each phase of their MAT experience, students must pursue a research question that engages them in the kind of reflective practice that is essential to teaching effectively and growing professionally. Linked to advanced study in their field, the education curriculum helps MAT students to consider how they learn, and how alternative approaches to teaching and learning provide broader access to academic competence.
Change will only come through critically directed efforts of teachers, and educating the best kinds of teachers must be accompanied by a corresponding effort to develop the capacity of high-needs schools to recruit and retain high-quality teachers. The Bard MAT Program has responded to this challenge, building exemplary models of college/public school partnerships that emphasize professional collaboration and increased school capacity for the education of teacher leaders and the advancement of student achievement. For more information about Bard’s MAT Program, please call 845-758-7145,
e-mail [email protected], or visit www.bard.edu/mat.
The Bard Center for Environmental Policy (BCEP) was created in 1999 to promote education, research, and public service on critical issues pertaining to the natural and built environments. Its primary goal is to improve environmental policies by facilitating the use of the best available scientific knowledge in the policy-making process at the local, regional, national, and international levels. The Center’s premise is that to address environmental problems and pursue sustainable use of natural resources, scientists, economists, lawyers, ethicists, and policy makers must understand one another’s perspectives and values, and communicate effectively with the general public.
At the core of the BCEP is an innovative graduate program leading to either the master of science degree in environmental policy or a professional certificate in environmental policy. The emphasis on science-based policy enables students to progress from knowledge of the issues to the formulation of feasible, effective policy responses. The program’s unique combination of interdisciplinary modular study, a full-time internship, and intense thesis research allows students to delve deeply into individual areas of interest.
One cohort of approximately 20 students matriculates each year, leading to a close rapport between students and faculty members. The intensive, campus-based first-year curriculum requires students to synthesize information from a range of disciplines and sources. The value of this approach has been recognized through established partnerships with Pace Law School, the Bard Master of Arts in Teaching Program, and the Peace Corps.
Eban S. Goodstein was recently appointed the director of BCEP and will begin in fall 2009. Goodstein is a professor of economics at Lewis and Clark College and codirector of the National Teach-In on Global Warming Solutions, a grassroots initiative that aims to engage more than a million Americans in a solutions-driven dialogue on climate change during the first 100 days of the Obama administration. “BCEP is a unique graduate program that is training leaders for the heroic tasks we face, and I am excited and honored to be a part of that effort,” said Goodstein. “I believe BCEP offers the highest quality education and training needed to prepare environmental policymakers for the work ahead.”
For more information about the Bard Center for Environmental Policy, please call 845-758-7073, e-mail [email protected], or visit www.bard.edu/cep.
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(1/30/09)
This event was last updated on 02-20-2009
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