Improving the quality of education in Texas schools and elsewhere is the goal of programs for the education of educators at the University of North Texas. To achieve this goal, programs leading to teacher certification and advanced programs for educators at the University of North Texas:
Educators as guides for engaged learners summarizes the conceptual framework for UNT’s basic and advanced programs. This concept is portrayed visually as a compass, which represents the tools educators employ as they orient students in the exploration of landscapes for learning.
The engagement of learners requires simultaneous commitment to academic knowledge bases and to learner-centered practice. The orientation of engaged learners requires commitment to the continuous processes of assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation that characterize discovery, problem-solving, curriculum development, program development, inquiry, and research.
Guiding engaged learners features on-going dialogue between educators and their students and with wider communities about how schools can prepare students for life-long learning in a democracy.
Guiding engaged learners draws on six areas of competence developed in all UNT programs for educators.
Through the experiences required in each UNT program of study, we expect that basic and advanced students will acquire the knowledge, skills, and dispositions appropriate to the educational roles for which they are preparing or in which they are developing expertise.
A broad community stands behind and accepts responsibility for every engaged learner. UNT supports the work of P-16 communities through basic and advanced programs for professional educators and by promoting public understanding of issues in education.