Economics Section 5
Outreach from Institution (printable version)

a. Field experiences:
All economics for education students must complete 100 field experience hours before student teaching. Sixty of the hours are completed in structured Field Experience (FETE) courses, 55 of these hours in the major. The remaining 40 hours are completed independently in a variety of learning environments.

FETE (Field Experience in Teacher Education) courses are developmental field experiences completed at three points in the students' professional education sequence. FETE courses are taken as co-requisites to core courses in the professional education sequence. Instructors for all FETE courses are practicing educators from area schools.

The structure of FETE courses is as follows: After an initial orientation, all interactions with the instructors are electronic. Students have coursepacks of readings and field assignments. They also have weekly discussions through web caucus. Students are able to discuss their field experiences with both their FETE instructor in the online format and the instructor of the co-requisite course. This combination of practicing professional and teacher education professor feedback provides multiple points of view for reflection.

The following are the FETE classes in order:

1. FETE 201 Field Experience I. Prospective teachers will participate in a service-learning experience in a diverse community, and examine their beliefs and attitudes about working with others who are different from themselves. FETE 201 is the first field experience. It is taken concurrently with EDPS 322, Human Development and Learning. The focus of the course is the interaction of students’ learning with school and community environments and the impact of culture on development. Students visit a Detroit school and neighborhood. They study readings on culture and prepare a cultural autobiography examining the forces impacting their development as a teacher. All students in a particular section of FETE 201 are assigned to the same school. Schools are selected to provide an urban experience and experience with the Comer model. (5 field hours)

2. FETE 302 Field Experience II. FETE 302 is taken concurrently with CURR 305 - CURRICULUM AND METHODS - The focus of the courses is reflective classroom practice. In FETE 302, students must spend 25 hours in a classroom placement in grades 7-12 in the major subject area. During fall and winter semesters, hours must be completed with 2.5 hours per week for 10 weeks. During spring and summer, hours may be completed with two 2.5-hour sessions per week for 5 weeks.

Activities in FETE 302 include group observation and teaching activities and a student work analysis. The pre-student teacher must teach an individual or small group for at least 10 sessions. They must compile a reflective journal and analysis of one student's learning across time. (25 field hours)

3. FETE 402 Field Experience III: Field placement in a middle level or high school with a diverse student population. Emphasis is on developing literacy in diverse populations and adapting instruction to individual student needs.

4. FETE 402 is taken concurrently with RDNG 311, Teaching Reading in Secondary School. In FETE 402, students must complete 30 hours in a classroom placement. Grade level and subject area requirements are the same as in 300 level FETE classes. In addition, FETE 402 placements must be in a culturally diverse setting. Diverse is defined as 30% high need (e.g., language minority, ethnic minority, low SES). During fall and winter semesters, hours must be completed with 3 hours per week for 10 weeks. During spring and summer, they may be completed with two 3-hour sessions per week for 5 weeks. Activities in FETE 402 include teaching activities in content-area reading (helping students read the written materials in the content area) and an individual student learning analysis similar to the one in the in FETE 302. The analysis specifically addresses the impact of literacy on student learning of content

b. EMU has participated extensively in outreach efforts to local schools. EMU has developed a summer institute on improving social studies teaching in collaboration with Ann Arbor Public Schools and Washtenaw Intermediate School District. Instruction in economics for this workshop has been provided by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and consultants such as Ken Noble, Pat Bonner and John Noling. Each summer, over 50 K-12 teachers have participated in the workshop, which has been the recipient of Eisenhower professional development grant funding. The workshop features a K-5 and 6-12 section, and CEUs and EMU graduate credit have been made available as an incentive for teacher participation.

The Economics Department has also worked to develop a graduate certificate program for K-12 teachers in economics and education.

Our outreach to schools also includes collaboration in teacher preparation. Teachers and administrators from the above districts are invited each year to a meeting to review our social studies teacher preparation and outreach activities, and their feedback is used to strengthen the program.

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