This program is designed for persons who already have teacher certification at the T-4 level or for persons who are eligible for such as they have completed an undergraduate teacher preparation program.

Program Requirements

Students will be required to take 36 semester-hour courses designated to have numbers 5000 or above to satisfy the requirements for the Master of Science degree in Middle Grades Education. The combination of graduate level courses will be determined by the graduate advisor with input from the graduate student.

Most education classes are held at the Warner Robins Center; some content courses are offered on the main campus.

M.S.Ed. candidates are required to complete an Action Research Project in lieu of a thesis. Candidates will be required to submit an oral presentation of their proposed action research project, in consultation with their major professor, when enrolled in EDUC 5503 – Fundamentals of Research Design. Approval to complete the project must be obtained from the FVSU Human Subjects committee before any research is conducted. During the final semesters of coursework, candidates enroll in the Action Research Practicum and complete the research. Candidates present their work to a committee of graduate faculty, and they submit their research in article format.

Program of Study

The following is the program of study for the M.S. Ed. in Middle Grades Education. Because most of the candidates enrolled in this program are teaching fulltime, the candidate may not be able to take a full schedule of 9 hours during the academic year. In addition, the candidate’s enrollment in content courses will depend upon the frequency such courses are offered in the College of Arts and Sciences. It is expected that Middle Grades candidates will take pedagogical and content courses whenever they are offered. Therefore, no order of study is offered except to suggest that the candidate should take EDUC 5503, Fundamentals of Research Design, as early in his program as possible.

Master of Science of Education
(M.S.Ed.) in Middle Grades Education

Professional Education Courses (21 hours)
EDUC 5503 Fundamentals of Research Design 3 hours
Elective from graduate education courses 3 hours
FVSU 0500 Orientation to Graduate Studies 0 hour
EDUC 5423 Seminar in Social Issues and Comparative Education 3 hours
EPSY 5513 Pre-Adolescent Psychology 3 hours
EDMG 5613 Curriculum Needs of the Transient Learner 3 hours
EDMG 5623 Methods and Problems of Teaching in the Middle Grades 3 hours
*EDUC 5793 Applied Research Practicum (capstone) 3 hours

Major Content Requirements (15 hours)
The candidate must take minimum of nine (9) hours in one concentration and a minimum of six (6) hours in a second concentration.
The following is a list of some of the content courses available; others may be offered by the department if needed.

Language Arts
ENGL 5003 Communicative Arts 3 hours
ENGL 5023 Teaching Literature in the Middle Grades 3 hours
ENGL 5423 American Literature II 3 hours

Math
MATH 5301 Numbers & Operations 3 hours
MATH 5020 Algebra Connections 3 hours
MATH 5030 Geometry & Measurements 3 hours
MATH 6010 Advanced Studies of the Calculus 3 hours
MATH 6020 Probability and Statistics 3 hours

Science
BIOL 5103 Issues in Environ. Science 3 hours
BIOL 5243 Human Anatomy 3 hours
BIOL 5334 Environmental Microbiology 3 hours
BIOL 5354 Physiological Toxicology 3 hours

A capstone research project is proposed in the first semester of the program and completed prior to graduation. This activity encourages middle grades candidates to be data-oriented and helps them to contribute to the educational mission of the school.

Candidates who are not full-time teachers will be placed in schools for field experiences and/or practica in order to complete the assignments for individual courses and the Key Assessments of the program. Otherwise, all candidates will use their own classrooms for these purposes, including the capstone research project.

The graduation requirement is a cumulative grade point average of not less than 3.0 on a 4.0 scale, the successful completion of the Final Written Comprehensive Examination, and a passing score on the Action Research Project, presentation, and paper.