Master of Arts in Teaching
The M.A.T. is a non-thesis degree designed primarily for teachers who are certified in English and who wish to sharpen their knowledge of writing and English literature and improve their teaching skills. Students considering the M.A.T. should be aware that they may take classes worth three credit hours at the department’s Grace Nixon Institute, an intensive four-week summer program for secondary-school teachers.

Credit and Grade Requirements
A minimum of 33 semester hours of credit is required for the degree of Master of Arts in Teaching. Of these, at least 24 credits must be earned in the Department of English at the University of Idaho and at least 24 credits must be at the 500 level. The remaining course work in English may be at either the 400 or 500 level. In addition, six credits must be taken in professional courses in education taught by the UI College of Education or equivalent college elsewhere. Students may also earn 3 credits for their M.A.T. project (see below). By the time they receive their M.A., all students must have a grade-point average of 3.0 or better.

Students considering the M.A.T. should be aware that they may take two classes worth three credit hours each.

Course Requirements

By the time they receive their M.A.T. all students must have completed each of the following areas:

• Medieval through 18th century British literature.
• Romantic through modern British literature.
• Early American literature (colonial through Civil War).
• Later American literature (post Civil War through contemporary). Linguistics.
• History of the English language or a second linguistics course. Literature of women, minorities, third world cultures.History/theory of literary criticism.
• Theory/practice of teaching literature to adolescents (adolescent literature or equivalent).
• Theory/practice of teaching writing (Eng 401, Eng 505, Eng 506).

Language Requirement
There is no language requirement for the Master of Arts in Teaching.

M.A.T. Project
The M.A.T. degree does not require a thesis. However, since the degree focuses on improving teaching, the candidate will develop a teaching project in consultation with his or her project committee. This two- person committee consists of the student's major professor, who is a member of the English graduate faculty, and a co-advisor from the College of Education.

The project will be tailored to the candidate's professional goals. It may be, for example, a teaching plan that includes a substantial, annotated collection of materials for a secondary school English course; or it may consist of materials that can be used by other teachers across grade levels (for example, materials for including Native American literature in the curriculum); or it may be a classroom-based study of some aspect of the writing process or of methods of teaching reading writing, or literature. The project must reflect current research in English education and provide a clear and substantial rationale for its pedagogical significance. The project will be given three credits and graded (P/F) by the project committee.

M.A.T. Examination
Each student will take the M.A.T. examination when nearing the completion of his or her course of study and the project. The examination is a one hour oral defense of the project. The examining committee, chaired by the major professor, is the project committee. In order for the student to pass the examination, the committee must consider that the project (including the examination) merits at least a grade of B.

This page was last revised Sunday, 04 November 2007.