Education 5221
Education 5221 is a 3-credit, graduate course offered Fall and Spring Semester. The course includes information about teaching in US institutions of higher education (e.g., syllabi, instructional formats, as well as legal issues, including sexual harassment and plagiarism). The course assignments and activities also address issues of communicating in American English, grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary.
Enrollment is capped at 12-15 students per section. Additional sections will be offered if necessary.
Who needs to enroll
ITAs who scored
Below 50 on the SPEAK test,
Below 55 on the TSE, or
Below 28 on the Speaking section of the TOEFL iBT.
The 3-credits for Education 5221 should be considered part of the ITA’s total course load. Adding 3 credits to a full disciplinary course load will be unmanageable and may jeopardize the student’s ability to pass the course.
Certification is contingent upon passing Education 5221. ITAs who do not pass the course, will be required to repeat another semester of Education 5221. As for the instructional duties of repeating students, a recommendation will be made by the ITA Program to determine whether the ITA should or should not continue/assume instructional duties with direct interaction with students, e.g., teach a course, teach a lab session, proctoring. This recommendation will be based on the ITA's previous level of performance during the training program in conjunction with their performance on the TEACH test.
Education 5221 - TEACH TEST
The TEACH test is used for final ITA evaluations, its results will be used in conjunction with the grade in Education 5221. The class grade and the TEACH performance grade will weigh equally towards certification.
The TEACH test is a video-taped, panel-rated teaching simulation, which consists of a 7-minute presentation in the candidate's field of expertise, followed by a 2-3 minute question and answer session with panel reviewers.
The panel is composed of 7 members: an expert in the field of ESL assessment, a representative from the ITA Program, a representative from Temple's Teaching and Learning Center, 2 ESL teachers from the Intensive English Language Program (IELP), and 2 distinguished TESOL graduate students. Each ITA will be scored by the same number of panel members. Undergraduates and department representatives are welcomed to attend the TEACH test, and to ask questions to ITAs during the teaching simulation.
The ITA Program strives to make the TEACH test a reliable and fair assessment instrument, for this reason, under any circumstances, a student is allowed to appeal the results of the TEACH test.
