- Introduction
The NCTU Master Program of Professional Teacher was established on September 28th, 2012, at 9:28 a.m. in order to pay tribute to the renowned Chinese philosopher, Confucius, who made a great impact on Chinese education. Our program is Taiwan’s first and only master’s program to provide students with government-sponsored scholarships, aiming to cultivate the country’s great talents into excellent teachers. Starting from academic year 2015, we also began to cultivate indigenous teachers with language teaching abilities. Moreover, we have established a specialized class for indigenous peoples since academic year 2020, which focuses on cultivating teachers from 9 tribes, including the Amis, Atayal, Brunun, Paiwan, Taroko, Sediq, Saisiyat, Tsou, and Thao.
- Our vision and goals
Our program is established under the demand for setting the principles for being a teacher, building teacher’s devotion, strengthening teaching practices and leading educational reform. We aim to train our students to become excellent teachers with passion for teaching, devotion to education and teaching abilities. Our vision is to nurture teachers of the new era and to lead the evolution of our country’s teacher education. We highly value the importance of the principles and responsibilities of being a teacher, as well as the quality and innovation in education. Thus, our goal is to cultivate teachers to value the same and to continuously strive for growth throughout their teaching journey.
Through our program, we expect our students to understand that a teacher should not only be a professional in their field but also a person who values the ethics and responsibilities of a teacher. Also, they should be a self-examiner who seeks for growth, dares to carry out and lead educational reforms with innovations in teaching practices.
Based on our expectations, the required core abilities of our program are listed as below:
A: Ability to actively pass down cultural heritage; B: Rational and logical guiding ability; C: Caring ability; D: Critical thinking and analytical ability; E: Passion for following social news and trends; F: Practical problem-solving ability; G: Innovative teaching ability; H: Team player; I: Continuous learner.
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- Curriculum, Counselling and Assessment
The curriculum design of our program combines theory and practice, with an aim to mold students’ character and build up their passion for education. In the curriculum, students have to complete 27 credits in their Graduate School courses, 20 credits in Intensifying Comprehensive Teaching module courses and extra specialized course (students can choose from English, Counselling, Science, Information, and English as an Medium of Instruction; for Indigenous students, they can choose to take Indigenous language and cultural education with 20-24 credits). After students complete all credits, pass the graduation threshold for our program and complete their master’s thesis, they can get their master’s degree. Other than professional courses, our curriculum also provides diverse non-credit courses (e.g. Taichi, Scout’s wood badges course, Remote area tutoring project, Teaching development workshops and Educational Exchange programs in and out of the country) combined with teaching practice counselling courses and a strict assessment system, hoping to broaden students’ horizons in the educational field and intensify student’s teaching skills and abilities. Our curriculum is sure to prepare our students for deployment to remote areas around the country after they graduate, and help them become the robust power in pushing education in these areas.
Some main characteristics of our curriculum is listed as below:
- Practice-oriented Curriculum: All students are required to take the Intensifying Comprehensive Teaching module courses. These courses will be led by teachers from the Compulsory Education Advisory Group, and they will provide thorough analysis of teaching case studies in order to show students how they can design competency-based courses, transform academic knowledge and make appropriate use of their teaching skills.
- Teaching Practice Counselling System: Develop a long-term cooperation with professional development schools, and build mentorships between teachers of teaching practice counselling and our students. Students are able to observe classes and go through teaching practicums in order to increase their teaching experiences.
- Local Indigenous Internships: All Indigenous students are required to go to local indigenous schools and complete one semester of internship.
- Mandatory Tutoring Projects for Elementary Schools in Remote Areas: Every year, we will bring students to elementary schools in remote areas of Central Taiwan and hold a Tutoring camp. This enables students to develop social caring abilities and gives them a basic understanding of remote area education and demands.
- Educational Exchange Programs: Every year, students are able to visit outstanding Specialist Schools in Taiwan and go through a bilateral educational exchange with Beijing Normal University and South China Normal University.
- Scout’s Wood Badges Course: All students are required to go through the wood badges courses to build up their abilities to design experiential courses.
- Teaching Contest in Academic Courses: Each semester, we will hold a teaching contest on professional subjects such as Chinese, Math, Science…etc., with teachers from the Compulsory Education Advisory Group being the judge, in order to enhance students’ teaching skills in their professional fields.
- Teaching Assessment of Academic Courses: Each semester, we will invite supervisors from all cities’ Department of Education and Compulsory Education Advisory Group to assess students’ teaching portfolio and teaching skills. Those unable to meet the standard will be eliminated.
- Basic Teaching Competency Qualification Exam: Each semester, students should go through qualification tests on Phonics, Blackboard-writing, Oral reading, Story-telling and Speech…etc.
- Domain Subject Knowledge Assessment: All students should pass the Domain Subject Knowledge Assessment of the four domains of elementary school (Chinese, Math, Social Studies, and Science), and their final grade should reach a certain level or above.
- Curriculum Faculties
Our faculties include one Director, two full-time teachers, other teacher education related professors and excellent members from the Compulsory Education Advisory Group.
- Advantages of Our Program
- Taiwan’s first master’s program to provide a specialized class with government-sponsored scholarships
- Strong in implementing the cultivation of educational passion in curriculum
- Great emphasis on teamwork
- Solid courses focused on teaching practices
- Highly values remote area tutoring practices
- Strict assessment system
- First to set up a mentorship system in teaching practices
- All students are required to stay in our school accommodations and enroll in as a full-time student
- All students are specialized in two fields
- All students have the comprehensive ability to teach all subjects
- All students have the ability to handle mixed-age class teaching
- All students went through the Scout’s wood badge courses
- All students can make teaching props
- All students are able to teach via technology
- All students should pass the Teaching Assessment of Academic Courses
- All students should pass the Teaching Competency Qualification Exam
- All students have to prepare lessons together and have the ability to teach in public
- All students have to go through a field research in elementary schools
- All Indigenous students have to finish their internship in an Indigenous school
- All students should write a thesis about teaching
- Employer Satisfaction
- Survey for Employer Satisfaction of graduates
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- Survey for Employer Satisfaction of graduates’ core abilities
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