The Education Department made some cuts this week.
Splitting its minor into two, the department will now have students choose either "Education Studies," for those who do not plan to teach, or the Teaching minor, which emphasizes practice-based teaching method courses in the junior and senior years.
Assistant Professor Charles Dorn, who will become the Education Department chair following Professor Penny Martin's retirement this year, said that the Education Department is making every effort to make this transition as smooth as possible.
"This change has been coming for a number of years," Dorn said, although it is only in the last year and a half that the department has taken action to plan and execute the minor change.
The motivation for the separation of the minor is the result of two different groups of students that minor in Education.
"There are a group of students at the College who want to study education as...a humanities-related study," Dorn said, "and a group of students who are interested in teaching in some capacity."
While the interests of the two strands of students overlap in the beginning, which can be seen in the overlapping introductory courses of the Education Studies and Teaching minors, "as time goes by, there's clearly a divide."
Students who opt for the Teaching minor will take practice-based method courses, Education 301, "Teaching," which is a study of "how" one teaches, and Education 303, "Curriculum and Instruction," which is a study of "what" one teaches. Students who prefer the Education Studies minor will take courses such as "High School" and "Civic Functions of Higher Education in America."
The class of 2006 will be the last class to graduate with a single Education minor.
"We are asking the class of 2007 to choose between the two," Dorn said. "We have invited students to come and speak with us if they have particular concerns, and we will consider them on a case by case basis...We are trying to be very, very flexible."
Dorn said that the Education Department and the courses it offers will not undergo any significant changes due to the minor change.
"The only course change will be that Education 301 and Education 303 will be offered in the same semester, which was a change we were probably going to make anyway because students shouldn't be taking 'Teaching' without having taken 'Curriculum and Instruction,'" he said.
The Education Department is, however, hiring a new faculty member to replace Martin. Doris Santoro-Gomez from Columbia University Teachers' College will be joining Bowdoin's faculty in the fall.
The College also offers a teaching certification program through the Maine State Department of Education, which certifies candidates in the major disciplines taught in high school, although this is separate from the Teaching minor.