The Graduate School of Education (GSE) offers a five-year joint bachelor's degree/master's degree/initial teacher certification program in Physical Science and Physics Education.  Rutgers undergraduates do preliminary coursework during their sophomore and junior years, are admitted to the program during the spring semester of their junior year, and the professional education sequence intensifies in the senior year.  Students then qualify to have their baccalaureate degree awarded by one of the undergraduate liberal arts colleges.  Students then continue with the professional sequence the summer after graduation.  Students return in the fall to complete a student teaching internship with related coursework and continue with full time graduate study, including a field-based research project, in the spring.  The Master of Education degree is conferred upon the completion of all five-year program requirements.  After the master's degree is awarded, the GSE will make a recommendation to the New Jersey State Department of Education on behalf of the student to receive a Certificate of Eligibility with Advanced Standing as a teacher.

A detailed outline of the courses required for the five-year certification program is available from the Office of Academic Services (Graduate School of Education, 10 Seminary Place, Room 110).

The program has four major goals:

1. To help students learn pedagogical content knowledge of physical sciences, i.e., content-specific teaching methods in physics and chemistry;
2. To provide students with a grounding in the historical and philosophical contexts of the discipline that they will be certified to teach, i.e., history and philosophy of physical science;
3. To provide students with research experiences in physical science.  this will help them better understand how scientists work and how discipline-specific knowledge develops.
4. To provide students with the knowledge and skills of integrating technology into physical science instruction.