"I chose Otterbein specifically for their Education program. I knew it was one of the best schools in Ohio for teacher preparation, so I immediately fell in love with its atmosphere. It is my home away from home."

Michele S.
Middle-Childhood Education, 2009

Changing Lives One Student at a Time

Welcome to the Department of Education at Otterbein College!

Our Mission
The professional education unit of Otterbein College is committed to providing a coherent, developmentally based teacher education program that prepares teachers to create and work within learning communities, which maximize the potential of all learners.

The program promotes collaborative learning and critical reflection as a way to develop a community of life-long learners, who can respect diverse perspectives, make informed decisions, and be responsive to the changing needs of children in our society.

We Believe In:

• The Power of Knowledge
  • Effective teachers are knowledgeable and see themselves and their students as life-long learners. our graduates will be able to make informed decisions based on complex data.
• The Interdependency of Pedagogy and Content
  • Knowledge is not a series of discrete bits of information. Effective teachers help their students see relationships among different areas of study and their application to the real world. In our curriculum, liberal arts and professional courses are intentionally connected. In the same manner, pedagogy and content often are addressed together.
• The Potential of All Children
  • Every child deserves to be taught by quality teachers who believe that each child is capable of learning. The Otterbein teacher education program provides its candidates with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions for creating learning environments that are developmentally responsive for each of the students they teach.
• The Richness of Diversity
  • Our program prepares teacher to accept, honor, and enhance the diversity within the school environment. Diversity includes but is not limited to ethnicity, gender, social class, sexual orientation, and special needs.
• The Possibilities of Technology
  • As teaching and learning become more complex, the effective use of technology within the classroom becomes even more essential. During their teacher education program, Otterbein students will not only use technology as an integral part of their own professional preparation and see technology modeled for classroom productivity, but they will also learn how to use technology effectively in their classroom.
• The Necessity of Reflection
  • The transition from being a student to becoming a teacher requires a great deal of reflection and introspection on the part of teacher education candidates. In order to truly discover their teacher persona, teacher education candidates must take a critical look at what they believe about teaching and learning throughout their program and strive to incorporate those values in their own teaching.
• The Merit of Experiential Learning
  • Otterbein is committed to continuous and progressive field experiences. The program exposes teacher education candidates to a variety of settings.
• The Importance of Accountability
  • Our program is committed to the formative and summative assessment of the knowledge, dispositions, and skills of teacher education candidates in order to assure that graduates from the program are effective and qualified teachers. Furthermore, the unit will use the information obtained from these assessments to change, alter, and/or modify the program so that the quality is maintained.