Accelerated Teaching Programs for Non-Education Majors

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• Accel­er­at­ed teach­ing pro­grams are designed for non-edu­ca­tion majors who want to tran­si­tion quick­ly into teach­ing careers. These pro­grams are ide­al for those seek­ing a more ful­fill­ing career and want­i­ng to use their knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence to edu­cate oth­ers.
• These pro­grams cov­er essen­tial areas such as edu­ca­tion­al the­o­ry, class­room man­age­ment, prac­ti­cal teach­ing skills, and field­work.
• Accel­er­at­ed pro­grams offer short­er and low­er asso­ci­at­ed costs, mak­ing them an attrac­tive option for career chang­ers. How­ev­er, they are inten­sive and require strong time man­age­ment skills to bal­ance study and per­son­al life effectively.

The edu­ca­tion domain can be quite reward­ing, espe­cial­ly if you like shap­ing the world of young learn­ers. Per­haps you are very pas­sion­ate about your domain and have become knowl­edge­able after you’ve earned your degree. How­ev­er, as you have a non-edu­ca­tion major, you can­not start teach­ing based on mere knowl­edge. Going through a teach career tran­si­tion the stan­dard way also takes too long, which may not work for you if you have a job and bills to pay.

In this case, an accel­er­at­ed teach­ing pro­gram can help you get your degree in half the time you would have got­ten your degree the stan­dard way. This could be a good alter­na­tive if you want to change your career and use your knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence to teach oth­ers. In this arti­cle, you will learn more about these accel­er­at­ed teach­ing pro­grams and how they can help you.

Relat­ed:

• Accel­er­at­ed Teach­ing Degree for Spe­cial Education
• Com­mon Chal­lenges in Fast-Track Teach­ing Programs
• Fast-Track Teach­ing Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion Pro­grams for Career Changers
• Accel­er­at­ed Teach­ing Degree Pro­grams Explained
• Accel­er­at­ed Degree Options for STEM Teachers

Who Are These Programs For?

Accel­er­at­ed teach­ing pro­grams of this type are main­ly rec­om­mend­ed for those who need quick cer­ti­fi­ca­tion for teach­ing but whose first major is not in edu­ca­tion. The pro­grams are best for those who want to change their career to some­thing more ful­fill­ing and pos­i­tive­ly impact soci­ety. If you have a back­ground in human­i­ties, STEM, busi­ness, or oth­er sim­i­lar domains, an accel­er­at­ed pro­gram could help you con­tin­ue your passion.

Types of Accelerated Teaching Programs

There are dif­fer­ent types of alter­na­tive teacher cer­ti­fi­ca­tion that you can get, depend­ing on your goals and pos­si­bil­i­ties. Here are your options:

1. Certification Programs

Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­grams are often state-spe­cif­ic, allow­ing stu­dents to get their bachelor’s degree in a short time (usu­al­ly 1–2 years). These are giv­en to address the teacher short­age and are pro­vid­ed in class­room, hybrid, or online for­mats. For exam­ple, the New York City Teach­ing Fel­lows cer­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­gram uses a com­bi­na­tion of course­work and field train­ing so that stu­dents can teach in New York pub­lic schools.

2. Master’s Degree Programs

If you want to earn both a teach­ing cer­ti­fi­ca­tion and an accel­er­at­ed master’s in edu­ca­tion, this pro­gram could be ben­e­fi­cial. Most­ly, it takes up to 2 years (depend­ing on the cur­ricu­lum and insti­tu­tion), allow­ing you to teach up to the high school lev­el. It also pre­pares you for full-class­room res­i­den­cy, mak­ing it a great option if you want to under­go a com­plete transition.

3. Teaching Bootcamp and Intensive Courses

Those look­ing for inten­sive teacher train­ing that brings them in front of the class­room fast might be inter­est­ed in teach­ing boot­camps. These often take part only dur­ing the sum­mer, con­tin­u­ing with men­tor­ship and ongo­ing sup­port as you begin teach­ing your own class.

Relat­ed:

• Cheap­est Online Bachelor’s of Edu­ca­tion Degree Programs
• Fastest Online Ear­ly Child­hood Edu­ca­tion Degree Bachelor’s Programs
• Top Online Bach­e­lor of Edu­ca­tion Degree Programs
• Best Edu­ca­tion Degree Programs

Curriculum and Training Overview

When you have no pri­or expe­ri­ence in edu­ca­tion, you might be required to start every­thing from scratch. Unless you com­plet­ed some pre­req­ui­site cours­es that allowed you to trans­fer your cred­its, accel­er­at­ed pro­grams should con­tain the fol­low­ing key components:

· Core Educational Theory

Core edu­ca­tion­al the­o­ry is an inte­gral part of get­ting your quick cer­ti­fi­ca­tion for teach­ing, as it sets the foun­da­tion for your new career. You may learn about education’s role through soci­ety, major learn­ing the­o­ries, their appli­ca­tion, edu­ca­tion tech­nol­o­gy, and diver­si­ty and inclu­sion. These can help you gain a bet­ter under­stand­ing of the stu­dents, espe­cial­ly if you are plan­ning to pur­sue a specialty.

· Classroom Management Skills

Being a teacher is not only about deliv­er­ing the infor­ma­tion to your stu­dents; it’s about mak­ing them lis­ten to you. Since there has been a surge in unruly stu­dents in the past few years, devel­op­ing class­room man­age­ment skills has become very impor­tant. Class­es on behav­ioral man­age­ment, class­room orga­ni­za­tion, and stu­dent engage­ment are often part of the cur­ricu­lum here.

· Practical Teaching Skills

Aside from under­stand­ing your stu­dents, you should also deter­mine how to deliv­er the infor­ma­tion effec­tive­ly. You will learn how to cre­ate les­son plans, cre­ate a cur­ricu­lum that fits nation­al stan­dards, and eval­u­ate stu­dents based on their learn­ing. Nowa­days, most non-edu­ca­tion majors teach­ing pro­grams offer class­es on tech­nol­o­gy inte­gra­tion, where aspir­ing teach­ers can learn how to incor­po­rate dig­i­tal resources into their lessons.

· Fieldwork

No teach­ing pro­gram is ever real­ly com­plete with­out field­work. Here, you will shad­ow teach­ers in the begin­ning, observ­ing their teach­ing style, and then you get the oppor­tu­ni­ty to teach your­self. When get­ting a fast-track teach­ing degree, your prac­tice will involve assess­ing actu­al class­es and assum­ing respon­si­bil­i­ty for teach­ing at least a few hours.

Certification and Licensure

Becom­ing a teacher will require you to meet cer­tain state teacher licen­sure require­ments. These exams are tak­en after you com­plete the pro­gram and can include the Prax­is exam or oth­er state-spe­cif­ic ones. For instance, if you become a teacher in New York, you’ll have to pass the New York State Teacher Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion Exam­i­na­tions (NYSTCE).

Benefits of Accelerated Programs

Here are some advan­tages you can get by choos­ing the accel­er­at­ed edu­ca­tor cer­ti­fi­ca­tion for professionals:

1. Shorter Duration to Graduation

Accel­er­at­ed class­es were made for you to com­plete your teacher train­ing in a much short­er time, tak­ing around two years instead of the stan­dard four. This approach allows you to switch to your new career much faster, eas­ing the short­age and bring­ing you clos­er to your career goals.

2. Lower Associated Costs

Get­ting an edu­ca­tor cer­ti­fi­ca­tion for pro­fes­sion­als is much cheap­er than going on the usu­al path. The main rea­son is that the pro­gram is short­er, so you will have few­er semes­ters to pay tuition for. More­over, since most of these class­es are held online, you won’t have to pay as much for trans­porta­tion or hous­ing, except for when you have field work to perform.

3. Intensive Teacher Training

When get­ting your online teach­ing cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, you also enjoy a focused cur­ricu­lum empha­siz­ing the most crit­i­cal aspects. Rather than rely­ing on the­o­ry, the aim is to nur­ture your prac­ti­cal skills and offer field expe­ri­ence. This can be very effec­tive for stream­lin­ing your tran­si­tion into a new career.

Challenges and Considerations

While there are mul­ti­ple ben­e­fits to con­sid­er, there are also some notable chal­lenges you should be aware of, including:

1. Pace and Intensity of the Program

Accel­er­at­ed pro­grams have a short­er time­frame, but that does not mean you will have to study less. Instead, you must assim­i­late the infor­ma­tion faster, with few­er breaks between your exams.

2. Balancing Life and Study

Accel­er­at­ed class­es are more flex­i­ble, but if you have a job, it can take away from your per­son­al time. Good time man­age­ment skills and a strong sup­port net­work are often required to succeed.

3. Completing the Career Change to Teaching

If you’ve worked in an office or cubi­cle your whole life, tran­si­tion­ing to a teach­ing career for non-edu­ca­tors can be com­pli­cat­ed. You need to acquire a new skill set and gain some expe­ri­ence until teach­ing in a class­room starts feel­ing natural.

Choosing the Right Teaching Programs for Career Changers

Con­sid­er­ing the num­ber of accel­er­at­ed pro­grams out there, you need to choose wise­ly. Here are some fac­tors you should consider:

• Accred­i­ta­tion: The pro­gram should be rec­og­nized by rep­utable accred­it­ing bod­ies, such as the Coun­cil for the Accred­i­ta­tion of Edu­ca­tor Prepa­ra­tion (CAEP), sug­gest­ing high-qual­i­ty standards.
• Cost: Most pro­grams cost between $10,000 and $20,000, depend­ing on the insti­tu­tion, but you should look for the ones that offer stu­dent aid.
• Dura­tion: Most pro­grams take around 2 years to com­plete, but more intense ones can be done in as lit­tle as a year.
• Loca­tion: Some pro­grams with in-per­son class­es may require you to relo­cate. If you can’t, go for an online pro­gram or at least a hybrid one.

The Inter­net is a good source for research­ing and com­par­ing pro­grams. Browse the uni­ver­si­ty or col­lege web­sites and see what pro­grams they can offer you. Select one that has the poten­tial for con­tin­u­ous education.

The Bottom Line

Even if you don’t have a major in edu­ca­tion, you can still become a teacher as long as you choose the right accel­er­at­ed pro­gram. With­in a year or two, you should be able to get your degree and start shar­ing your knowl­edge with young minds.

Sources:

USA Today

Dai­ly Mail