The Education and Physical Education Department at the University of Puerto Rico in Aguadilla, Educator Preparation Program (EPP) is based on a learning communities’ perspective under which everyone can develop, participate, and grow through community involvement. As a result, learning communities, teamwork, and cooperative work of the highest caliber as a fundamental part of our program. Furthermore, the general education component places emphasis on areas such as content knowledge, skills, dispositions, ethics, and educational technology.

Our program also places great importance on academic activities such as creative expression for the development of the candidate as well as other members of the university community. We consider the human being as an active part of its own development and learning, so we provide the space for this growth. Consequently, our candidates develop the capacity to produce and integrate history, society, and culture into their teaching in dynamic ways.

Mission

The mission of the program is to offer study alternatives that respond to the needs of the student population of the northwest region. The program seeks to promote the comprehensive development of the student through a curriculum that establishes a balance between specialty academic areas and general education.

Vision

The Education Program responds to the vision of the University of Puerto Rico in Aguadilla, to be a model of excellence among University Colleges inside and outside of Puerto Rico. The commitment is to offer a cutting-edge academic program aimed at training competent professionals in the field of education. The comprehensive development of the student is promoted through a curriculum that establishes a balance between specialty academic areas and general education.

Graduates of the Education Program will be professionals who will be distinguished by their high sense of social responsibility, respect, commitment and sensitivity towards human beings, their environment and their culture.

Philosophy

The Education program of the University of Puerto Rico in Aguadilla is inserted in a learning community perspective in which all its constituents have the opportunity to participate, grow and develop through community contribution and collaboration. Therefore, as a learning community, valuing collaborative and cooperative work of the highest quality and excellence is essential. This program also holds academic activity in very high regard as an expression of creativity and a space for personal growth for all members of the university community: teacher candidates, teachers, and non-teachers.

The theoretical and philosophical foundations of this program rest on a cognitive and humanistic conception. This conception considers that the human being is an active entity in the production of knowledge, socially and individually. This conception is supported by the educational process as a fundamental activity so that individually and socially the learner can make their own construction of reality. This individual construction is dialectically related to other instances of social and cultural reality through academic, intellectual, and cognitive tools that mediate the process and make it dynamic and changing. This dynamic of change is constructivist and allows learning and teaching to flow continuously and unequivocally through all the complexities of the process, taking into consideration the teacher/student interaction as a particular instance of human interrelationships. In this way, a reference framework is formulated that contextualizes the goals and objectives of this program.

Goals

• Maintain the University of Puerto Rico in Aguadilla within the framework of action and educational mission that has been entrusted to it.
• Provide academically so that the participant can aspire to the Elementary School Teacher Certification, and those other certifications that the study program offers and that qualifies him to obtain it, in accordance with the Regulations of Certifications of the Puerto Rico Department of Education.
• Provide experiences that allow them to integrate into their teaching function the knowledge, skills and attitudes that contribute to the optimal development of the potential of the Puerto Rican student and of himself/herself.
• Integrate the new changes that have emerged in the curriculum, organization, structure, and development of the educational system of Puerto Rico.
• Stimulate students towards research in accordance with the educational needs of society.

Objectives

1. Prepare new courses, workshops, seminars, projects and research experiences aimed at developing knowledge of new areas of knowledge.
2. Offer the student the prescribed courses that enable him or her to obtain the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Education.
3. Demonstrate competence in the selection, review, adaptation, evaluation, and integration of the curriculum, adjusting it to the need’s specific to the student.
4. Demonstrate a positive attitude towards educational problems and changes in the profession.
5. Share learning experiences related to culture, in general, and Puerto Rican culture, in particular.
6. Demonstrate interest and skills in school and social research of their teaching subject and the external factors that affect it.
7. Demonstrate mastery of the basic aspects of the dynamics of human development, emphasizing the stages from prenatal age to adolescence.
8. Plan to address individual differences by applying various approaches in real situations.
9. Demonstrate mastery in the use of emerging technology resources with the purpose of enriching the teaching-learning process.
10. Demonstrate responsibility through self-analysis and self-evaluation in order to stay up to date with new trends and pedagogical orientations that contribute to their professional improvement.
11. Design the teaching process through the creative application of methods and techniques appropriate to each situation.
12. Develop the communication, analysis and reflection skills necessary in your profession.
13. Use diagnostic and assessment techniques to determine growth and comprehensive development of the student.
14. Analyze the dynamics of human development and its implications in the teaching-learning process.

Graduate Profile

The characteristics that define the profile of this new professional are the following:

1. Leader in educational decision making, research, evaluation and use of educational technology with a view to enriching the teaching-learning process, especially those of new creation (computers, CD-ROMs, video discs, cellular and digital technology, etc.).
2. Able to understand and use the resources offered by the global communications network through computers. Know the role of the Internet in the globalization of knowledge and the educational resources available.
3. Knowledgeable about the nature of the student, capable of understanding the stages of human development and weighing the implications educational aspects of them when carrying out their work.
4. Cultured citizen, capable of valuing and understanding the fundamental principles of universal culture.
5. Distinguished by his high sense of social commitment, respect for human dignity and sincere appreciation for the Puerto Rican culture and environment.
6. Curriculum innovator, capable of selecting, reviewing, adapting, creating and integrating study content, adjusting it to the learning styles and rhythms and potential of the students.
7. Characterized by his open attitude to change, his flexibility and his willingness to listen to and observe his students, so that he can visualize and be aware of their needs, attitudes, interests, aspirations and points of view.
8. Able to create and foster an environment where trust, mutual respect, objectivity and the practice of the highest values permeate.
9. Reflective about the problems and the different functions that he will perform in his profession, as well as towards the new educational approaches that are continually being projected in the school curriculum.
10. Ready to fulfill the responsibility of self-analysis and self-evaluation as a professional so that it can stay up to date with new trends and pedagogical guidelines that can contribute to its improvement.

Completer’s Proficiencies

The competencies of the teacher candidate of the Department of Education and Physical Education of the University of Puerto Rico in Aguadilla are the following:

1. Knowledge of the principles, concepts and processes that represent and integrate the area of ​​education to serve a diverse population.
2. Knowledge of current philosophies and the social and psychological repercussions on students and school communities.
3. Ability to interact effectively as a learning facilitator, demonstrating ethical and professional behavior.
4. Mastery of methodologies, strategies and techniques that demonstrate an effective teaching and learning process.
5. Knowledge and application of planning practices and development of educational tasks, as well as the assessment of learning in the classroom.
6. Ability to obtain, analyze, evaluate and use information effectively in research and decision making.
7. Mastery of language and communication skills.
8. Knowledge and effective use of multimedia as a tool in the learning process.
9. Awareness of ethical and aesthetic moral values ​​and respect for diversity and inclusion.

Completer Profile

The program will train graduated professionals with the knowledge and skills that allow them to:

• Serve as teachers at elementary or secondary level.
• Know the nature of human development and its educational implications and understand the foundations of universal culture.
• Integrate technology resources into education through the practical study of the theories that support its application, the analysis of studies and research, and the evaluation and selection of educational programs.
• Adjust the curriculum to the different styles, rhythms, and potentialities of individual learning, as well as the needs, attitudes, aspirations, and points of view of their students.
• Make well-documented decisions for the evaluation and use of modern technology and the global communication network, creatively applying it in the teaching-learning process.
• Carry out the continuous process of self-analysis and self-evaluation that contribute to their personal and professional improvement.

Academic Programs

Our academic programs are two:

• Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education
• Bachelor of Arts in Education with Concentration in  English  with  Multimedia  Technology  K-12

The Education and Physical Education Department of the University of Puerto Rico has been granted at all licensure levels. This accreditation status is effective between Spring 2022 and Spring 2025. The next site review will take place in Fall 2024.