Education students enrolled in the BJU School of Education and Human Services are being prepared to step confidently into classrooms across the country. They are trained to engage, inspire, and instruct students from a wide range of backgrounds. However, one area where many teacher candidates often feel less prepared is in supporting students who are not fluent in English. Faculty in the Division of Teaching are working actively to change that.
In the sophomore-level course, Theories of Teaching and Learning, all teacher candidates are introduced to the complexities of student diversity, particularly around ethnicity, culture, and language. They explore how schools can support students who speak a language other than English and are in the process of adding English to their linguistic repertoire. As language diversity continues to increase in classrooms across the nation, teacher candidates learn about various bilingual education models and how English-speaking teachers can support Multilingual Learners effectively.
Early Childhood and Elementary Education majors take a series of methods courses during their sophomore and junior years, where they engage deeply with content standards across a wide range of subjects, including Math, Science, Social Studies, English Language Arts, Health, Physical Education, Computer Science, and the Visual and Performing Arts. Integrated throughout each of these courses are the English Language Development (ELD) Standards Framework developed by the WIDA Consortium (World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment). These standards help future educators understand the process of language acquisition, the natural order of language development, and both the internal and external mechanisms by which students learn language, whether through explicit instruction or immersion-based implicit learning.
A foundational part of this approach is the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Guidelines, which prepare teacher candidates to recognize and respond to the unique strengths, interests, and needs of every student. Through UDL, candidates learn to anticipate and address barriers and to apply targeted strategies, differentiation, and accommodations that promote success for all learners, including those acquiring English.
Teacher candidates put theory into practice through field experiences in diverse classrooms throughout Greenville County. These hands-on experiences provide invaluable opportunities to implement inclusive strategies and deepen their understanding of how best to support Multilingual Learners.
With these intentional efforts, the School of Education and Human Services is not only preparing teacher candidates to teach, but to teach well—in every classroom, to every student.
