Colleges and Schools

Senior High Program Requirements

MA in Teaching with Senior High Education Licensure

The North Park University School of Education prepares competent, respectful, and reflective professionals who are dedicated to serving diverse learning communities.

The master of arts in teaching with licensure (MAT) is designed for candidates who hold a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university and who wish to earn a master’s degree while completing the requirements for an Illinois teaching license. The senior high education license will allow you to teach a specific subject area in grades 9 through 12 in Illinois schools.

Most students will complete the program and obtain licensure within 22 months.

Master’s Degree Requirements

Course descriptions are available at the bottom of this page.

  • A minimum of 35 semester hours of graduate and licensure coursework
  • 36 semester hours in a content major which meets the specified Illinois Professional Teaching Standards

Licensure Courses

Please review the full academic catalog for the year you enroll at North Park for official requirements, including prerequisite and corequisite courses. The catalog and your School of Education advisor will assist you in planning your course sequence to complete your MAT degree.

  • EDUC 5000: Introduction to Teaching: Professional Responsibility
  • EDUC 5010: Educational Psychology
  • EDUC 5120: Multicultural Education
  • EDUC 5160: Instruction in the Senior High School
  • EDUC 5220: Instruction and Assessment
  • EDUC 5310: Curriculum Theory and Instructional Strategies
  • EDUC 5315: Methods of Teaching Content Reading
  • EDUC 5316: Content Reading and Writing Senior High Education
  • EDUC 5407: Methods of Teaching in the Middle and Senior High School*
  • EDUC 5430: Survey of Teaching Exceptional Learners
  • EDUC 5500: Introduction to Teaching
  • EDUC 5510: Practicum B: Teacher Aiding
  • EDUC 5520: Practicum C: Mini-Teaching and Seminar
  • EDUC 5820: Student Teaching
  • EDUC 5853: Practicum D: School Beginnings and Seminar II

*Please note that there is a content-area specific methods course for senior high candidates, in addition to EDUC 5407. Please contact the Admissions Office for more information.

Additional methods class depending on content area:

  • EDUC 3355: Grammar Writing and Pedagogy (for English 6-12 majors)
  • EDUC 3240: Methods and Techniques of Teaching Social Studies in Grades 5-9
  • EDUC 3380: Methods in Mathematics Grades 5-9
  • EDUC 3230: Methods and Techniques of Teaching Science in Grades 5-9

Course Descriptions

Click on the courses names below to read a description of the class.

Please review the full academic catalog for the year you enroll at North Park for official requirements, including prerequisite and corequisite courses. The catalog and your School of Education advisor will assist you in planning your course sequence to complete your MAT degree.

This course is an introduction to the teaching profession. Topics covered include historical, philosophical, contemporary, and ethical perspectives on education as well as social and cultural expectations in teaching. In this introductory course, students are informed on the appropriate role of technology; state and national standards; policies governing education at the national, state, and local level; and careers and organizations related to teaching and education. This course also introduces students to state licensure requirements.

An advanced study of the psychological aspects of human behavior and development applied to the teaching and learning process. Topics include an understanding and function of brain development as it affects behavior and learning, neuropsychological aspects of school-related problems, learning styles, attention span, information processing, short-term and long-term memory, encoding and retrieval mechanisms, categorization, and problem-solving. Candidates will develop a positive classroom discipline model as part of this course.

An examination of the issue of diversity with emphasis on the social, political, and cultural dimensions of school settings. Students will apply findings on this issue to their own classrooms and community contexts. Consideration will be given to the needs of ESL, bilingual, and bicultural students and the ways in which teachers respond to their needs. Legal requirements and funding issues will be addressed. Teacher certification candidates will develop a philosophy of diversity statement as a component of this course.

Basic principles of instruction for middle grades and senior high schools including analysis of teaching and learning experiences, organization for instruction, and assessment of students work.

This course introduces students to research-based instructional strategies along with basic principles and practices of classroom assessment. Special attention will be given to differentiated instruction, maximizing student engagement and learning, formative and summative assessment practices, and the use of data in classroom decision making.

This course introduces candidates to the basic principles of unit planning and lesson design with special emphasis on the School of Education lesson plan template. Planning principles are aligned with the Danielson Framework for Teaching, the edTPA, Illinois Learning Standards, and national content area standards. Strategies for supporting the needs of diverse learners are addressed.

As a literacy method course in the Middle Grades and Senior High education program, this course presents an analysis of instructional materials and methodologies used in reading and writing in content areas for middle grades. The course will explore evaluation of instructional materials, higher order comprehension instruction, learning specialized vocabulary, study skills and cognitive strategies, reading and writing across the curriculum, assessment of student progress, diversity in the classroom, and current approaches to content reading. Teacher candidates will learn how to plan content units with literacy strategies.

The purpose of this course is to extend your knowledge of reading/writing, instructional strategies, methodology, and assessment procedures used in middle grades and senior high. We will explore the following content areas: evaluation of instructional materials, comprehension instruction, learning vocabulary, reading and writing across the curriculum, assessment of student progress, diversity in the classroom, and current approaches to content reading and writing.

The purpose of this course is to extend your knowledge of reading/writing, instructional strategies, methodology, and assessment procedures used in middle grades and senior high. We will explore the following content areas: evaluation of instructional materials, comprehension instruction, learning vocabulary, reading and writing across the curriculum, assessment of student progress, diversity in the classroom, and current approaches to content reading and writing.

Specific methods and materials for teaching middle grades and senior high school subjects: topics and problems of general instructional media. Basic principles of instruction, preparing for teaching experiences and organizing for instruction. Regular and special populations are included. Music education majors must register for MUS 3408 and 3409 in place of this course.

Survey of the psychology of the identification of, and the methods of instruction for the exceptional child, including the learning disabled, with special emphasis on characteristics and methods of instruction for cross-categorical special education students.

As the first clinical experience course in the Teacher Education Program, this course requires teacher candidates to observe and teacher aide in a classroom for up to 50 hours in order to demonstrate an understanding of the classroom environment along with instructional and assessment practices. Teacher Aiding experiences include focused reflection on Danielson's Framework for Teaching and edTPA. Prerequisite: Full admission into the Teacher Education Program.

Mini-teachers meet regularly with School of Education faculty to share and reflect on the experience and prepare for the edTPA. There will be a minimum of 35 hours of mini-teaching in a local school in connection with methods courses. The student must meet the required grade point average and have a receipt by the School of Education of meeting the Illinois basic skills requirement.

Supervised observation and teaching in the secondary school. Secondary Education teacher candidates must complete this experience as follows: 6-12 majors must complete ten weeks (8 sh) in grades 6-12. K-12 majors must complete eights weeks in 5810, grades 1-8 (6 sh) and eight weeks in 5820, grades 6-12 (6 sh). Students must pass the State Content Area Exam, the Assessment of Professional Teaching (APT) test, and show proof of acceptance by the Committee on Educational Screening. (MATC only).