Accreditation

College accredits two programs

The College’s Accreditation Committee has granted accreditation to new programs at institutions in northern Ontario and Toronto, including a program to prepare teachers to teach Aboriginal students.

The committee granted initial accreditation to a four-year teacher education program offered by the faculty of education at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay that leads to an Honours Bachelor of Education (Aboriginal) degree. The program prepares teacher candidates to teach the Ontario curriculum to all students, especially Aboriginal children, in the primary and junior divisions. The accreditation period is two years or until graduation of the program’s second class of students, whichever is longer, to a maximum of three years.

Some of the teacher candidates will be based in their home communities and access instruction both via face-to-face and distance education methods. Community-based teacher candidates will also be able to enrol in on-campus courses offered in the summer.

The teacher education courses are distributed across three of the four years of study. Prior to year four and the practicum experience, teacher candidates enrol in field study, a supervised practical placement of 20 days, in which they have an extended opportunity to observe and practise-teach in an alternative instructional setting such as native cultural centres.

The Accreditation Committee has also granted general accreditation for a period of five years to the concurrent and consecutive programs of professional teacher education offered by the department of education at Redeemer University College. The program leads to a Bachelor of Education degree with concentration in the primary/junior and junior/intermediate divisions.

As a condition of accreditation, Redeemer’s department of education is required to provide the committee with additional information on the program’s methodology courses for the intermediate division level and on the program’s format and structure in the junior/intermediate divisions.

The committee also determined that Tyndale University College had fulfilled a condition on the initial accreditation of its consecutive program of professional education granted in 2007.

The Accreditation Committee’s full decisions are available on the College web site.