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Master's of Science in
Agricultural Education Degree
The Master's of
Science in Agricultural Education degree is designed primarily
for people who currently (or would like) to teach agriculture at the
middle school, high school and/or post-secondary level. This program is also
popular with individuals whom are thinking about pursuing a doctoral
degree in the future. Student's gain an in
depth knowledge of the context and content of school-based agricultural
education. They also receive practical experience in conducting
research.
This degree program is 36 semester hours in length. This program is
designed to be completed on-campus. At least 27 of the hours must be
completed on-campus. The other 9 hours can be completed by
distance education.
Upon
completion of the program, the student will receive the Master's degree
and can also apply for the Master's (M) teaching license from the state
of North Carolina (one has to apply for the teaching license-it does
not automatically happen). It should be noted that one has to
first have the initial teaching license (the "A") before applying
for the "M". If one does not have the "A" license it is possible to
work on that license while in the graduate program. This is done by
enrollingsimultaneously in the NCSU LEAP program.
Students
applying
to
this
progam must take the Graduate Record Exam (GRE).
The
requirements for the Master's of Science in Agricultural Education
degree are:
1. Complete the six core required courses (18 hours)
- AEE
501
Foundations
of
Agricultural and Extension Education
- AEE
505
Trends
and
Issues in Agricultural and Extension Education
- AEE
526
Information
Technologies
in Agricultural and Extension Education
- AEE
529
Curriculum
Development
in Agricultural and Extension Education (or
AEE 595E Program Planning in Agricultural Education)
- AEE
535
Teaching
Agriculture
in Public Schools
- AEE
578
Scientific
Inquiry
in Agricultural and Extension Education
2.
Complete 12 hours of subject matter courses
In order to qualify
for the advanced (M) teaching license in North Carolina, one must
complete 12 hours of course work that can be classified as subject
matter or technical courses. The Department of Agricultural and
Extension Education defines subject mattter courses to be those
containing substantial content that could be taught to high school
agricultural students. Therefore nearly any course taught in the
traditional fields of agriculture such as Animal Science, Crop Science,
Horticulture, Agricultural and Resource Economics, Entomology,
Forestry, etc. fit this definition. There are some courses that are
taught within the Department that also contain content that could be
taught to high school agricultural students. The AEE courses that
qualify as subject matter courses include:
- AEE 503 Youth Organization Management
- AEE 522 Experiential Learning in Agriculture
- AEE 595 Teaching Biotechnology
- AEE 530 Priority Management
- AEE 507 Comparative Agricultural and Extension Education
- AEE 560 Organizational and Administrative Leadership
- AEE 595V Marketing
3.
Complete and defend a thesis.
Students are to
conduct original reseach on a problem of significance to the field of
agricultural education. This will results in a thesis, which is
typically a 50-150 page research report. Typically a thesis is divided
into five chapters:
- Introduction
to
the
Study
- Review
of
the
Literature
- Research
Methodology
- Research
Findings
- Conclusions
and
Recommendations
The
student's advisory committee will provide guidance and direction to the
study. At the conclusion of the research process, the student will
present the results of their research to their graduate committee.
Some of the recent theses written in our department have focused on
agricultural literacy of urban students, predictors of high quality FFA
chapters, and the impact of block scheduling on agricultural education
programs. The students often present the results of their research at
regional and national meetings and publish their research in the
leading professional journals. And our students have won more than
their fair share of awards for outstanding graduate student research.
Students receive 6 hours of credit in AEE 695 Master's Thesis Research
for their thesis. MS students will often choose to enroll in AEE 579
Research Design. This is an extemely useful course for students writing
a thesis.
4.
Prepare a teaching portolio
In order to qualify for the
advanced (M) teaching license in North Carolina, one must prepare a
teaching portfolio. This portfolio will be presented to the student's
advisory committee during the thesis defense. More detail about this
requirement can be found athttp://www.cals.ncsu.edu/agexed/graede/portfolio.html.
If a student wants the content of
this degree but does not desire teacher certification, the student's
graduate commitee can approve appropriate modifications to the degree
requirements.
While you will probably never need to know this--the Graduate School
code for this degree program is ATE(MS).
A table comparing all five
Master's degree programs offered by the Department of Agricultural and
Extension Education can be found at http://www.ncsu.edu/cals/agexed/grad/masterschart.html.
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