Education Majors

Do you want to make a positive impact in your community through education? Are you committed to social justice and equal opportunity for all? A degree in Child and Youth Studies (CYS) will provide you with the knowledge and skills you need to shape the future through community-based teaching and learning.

In this major, you will explore child and youth development, community connections to education, and non-formal education methods. You will choose a specialization that connects with your interests and goals, enabling you to develop and implement education programming in diverse community organizations.

In your culminating year, you will engage in a year-long internship, learning hands-on about teaching and learning opportunities in a community organization. During your Capstone Project, you will use critical reflection, problem-solving skills, and action research to identify community problems and propose solutions to create lasting change.

Students and faculty in the Primary (Pk-5) Licensure program are committed to working for social justice and to providing inclusive educational opportunities for all children. Students take a series of general education requirements and prerequisite coursework designed to lay the foundation for theoretical and methods courses that follow.

Throughout the program, students engage in coursework that includes multiple and sustained experiences in Pk-5th grade classrooms within the diverse urban, suburban, and rural districts in and around Marion County. Our students take rigorous courses that prepare them to think critically and reflectively about their own teaching practice and to teach across all content areas in inventive ways that meet the needs of all learners. Coursework and fieldwork are grounded in national and state curricular standards as well as the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s Professional Preparation Standards.

The Primary BSEd program is for those students who wish to work with children enrolled in school programs Pre-K to fifth grade. Upon successful completion of the coursework and field/student teaching placements, students apply for a teaching license through the Ohio Department of Education.

Ohio State academic programs are designed to prepare students for licensure or certification in Ohio. If you plan to pursue licensure or certification in a state other than Ohio, please review state educational requirements for licensure and certification at go.osu.edu/onground.

The Middle Childhood Licensure program provides the training needed to become a teacher and obtain initial licensure to teach grades 4-9 in two specific areas of concentration – language arts, mathematics, social studies and science.

Students take a series of general education requirements and prerequisite coursework designed to lay the foundation for theoretical and methods courses that follow. The curriculum emphasizes disciplinary content knowledge, as well as child development and the social foundations of education. Our students take rigorous courses that prepare them to think critically and reflectively about their own teaching practice. Throughout the program, students engage in coursework that includes multiple and sustained experiences grade 4-9 classrooms within the diverse urban, suburban, and rural districts in and around Marion County.

Through course and field work, you will:

• Use your understanding of the characteristics, needs and influences on children's and adolescents' development and learning to create environments that are healthy, respectful, supportive and challenging
• Know about, understand and value the importance and complexity of children's and adolescents'' families and communities
• Know about and understand the goals, benefits and uses of assessment
• Integrate your understanding of and relationships with children/adolescents and families; your understanding of developmentally effective approaches to teaching and learning; and your knowledge of academic disciplines to design, implement and evaluate experiences that promote positive development and learning for all children and adolescents
• Participate in two advanced field placements and a semester-long student teaching internship

The Middle Childhood Education major prepares students to teach in grades 4-9 leading to licensure in the state of Ohio. The components of this major meet state and national standards, licensure requirements, and Ohio State's general education requirements.

Ohio State academic programs are designed to prepare students for licensure or certification in Ohio. If you plan to pursue licensure or certification in a state other than Ohio, please review state educational requirements for licensure and certification at go.osu.edu/onground.