Education Major

Teaching is the ultimate way to shape the future. At Champlain College, you’ll be in classrooms during your first year, building deep expertise that leads to licensure.

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The Head of the Class

Get field experience through our Upside-Down Curriculum, and maximize your experiential learning.

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Step Forward and Craft a Better Future.

As a student in Champlain’s Education major, you’ll start spending time in local classrooms in your first year. With support and expert guidance, you’ll increase your classroom involvement throughout the following semesters until you’re ready to take the lead. Our holistic approach to teacher education will equip you to teach in a variety of settings, and you’ll choose a focus for licensure endorsement. You can specialize in grades ranging from early childhood through high school, and you can focus in many different subject areas. Your Faculty Advisor will help you find the perfect academic pathway to your ideal teaching career.

What Is Education?

There will always be a need for qualified and passionate educators. By majoring in Education, you’re taking the first step toward becoming a teacher or administrator in an educational setting. This can prepare you for a career in public or private schools, or in other settings such as colleges, community organizations, and private tutoring.

Why Study it at Champlain College?

Champlain’s Education major offers a breadth of concentrations available, with each corresponding to a teaching licensure endorsement. Want to be a middle school social studies teacher? Through that concentration, you’ll have deep subject-area training and the opportunity to graduate with licensure. The concentrations are designed to mix and match as you choose or enable you to select a minor. A dedicated Faculty Advisor will help you navigate these options and choose the concentration(s) that suit you best.

As an Education major at Champlain, you’ll spend time in a local school beginning in your first year, getting a head start in building the skills and experience to launch your teaching career with confidence.

You’ll quickly discover where your strengths and interests lie—or if the field is right for you—through the Upside-Down Curriculum. Working with various age groups and populations early on, you’ll begin to focus your academic journey by declaring a concentration(s) after your first year.

education students sit at desks, having a discussion, laughing

Different by Design

Real Classrooms, Right Away

The Education program and Upside-Down Curriculum will put you in local classrooms your first semester at Champlain College, which is unheard of for other education programs.

Choose Your Specialty

Know what grade and subject you want to teach? There’s a concentration for that. And each of Champlain’s subject and grade-level concentrations can lead to licensure.

Guides to Show the Way

Your professors become your reliable mentors, pointing out academic and co-curricular activities to build your professional skillset and enhance your resume.

Facts & Stats

100%

of Education majors in the Class of 2023 achieved career success within six months after graduation. That’s success you can see.

97%

of our Early Childhood/Elementary Education majors over the last six years were either employed or continuing their education within 6 months after graduation.

THE BEST

Champlain College was listed among the “Best Colleges” by U.S. News & World Report in 2025.

younger students doing an art project

In Classrooms. In Service

Discover, design, develop, implement, and evaluate a service learning project that’s authentic to a community or local organization in need. Working closely with community partners, you’ll identify issues that can be addressed through hands-on projects in the required course, EDU 270: Service Learning to Connect Schools & Society. These projects are designed to get you out into the community now, making a difference before you even graduate.

Learn more about EDU 270
teacher reading to two small children

Licensed in Vermont and Beyond

On top of being a flexible and knowledgeable teacher, you will have a uniquely impressive resume that will appeal to employers after graduation. Educators with a Vermont license are eligible to apply for certifications out of state under the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification‘s (NASDTEC) Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact. See the Information about Professional Licensure page for more details about professional licensure.

Learn more about the Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact Learn more about professional licensure
education student reading to child

Diverse in Options and Community

Champlain’s B.S. in Education is a reflection of the location in which it is situated—Vermont brings big opportunities to its small, close-knit communities. Our program not only gives you the advantage of concentrating in multiple subject areas, across multiple grade levels—its location allows you to apply them in multiple settings. Our faculty will help you develop deep relationships with community partners, and bridge education with mental health issues, social justice, resettlement, and accessibility.

Loan Forgiveness

Students who complete the education major and become a teacher in Vermont can receive different types of loan forgiveness and assistance, including:

Sample Courses in the Education Major

Our Education curriculum is designed for students who want to jump into the classroom and get a head start on their careers. You’ll get equipped with a strong foundation in psychology, teaching methods, and skills you’ll need for a successful career. You’ll tailor your learning through a concentration – or several – that combines your interests and passions with specific areas in the field. Check out some of the engaging and hands-on courses in our program.

First Year

EDU 110 Foundations of Learning and Teaching
EDU 112 Integrating Technology

Second Year

EDU 230 Content Literacy
EDU 233 Teaching Diverse Learners

Third Year

EDU 270 Service Learning to Connect Schools and Society
EDU 335 Curriculum Design & Differentiated Instruction

Fourth Year

EDU 425 Reflective Practices in Education
EDU 490 Integrated Curr & Student Teaching

See the Learning Outcomes for the Education major

View Full Curriculum

Concentrations

You might also be interested in these…

Based on your interest in the Education major, we thought you also might like to check out these other academic programs and opportunities.

    • Integrative Professional Studies Major 

      Design your own major through Champlain’s Degree Design Lab. You’ll combine courses and real-world learning experiences to personalize your own education.

    • Digital Humanities Major 

      Be a digital pioneer. Bring the fullness of your human self to the study of emerging technology, including Artificial Intelligence, and make sure the digital future is humane as well as human.

    • Social Work Major 

      Uplift families, empower individuals, and heal communities with Champlain’s Social Work major.

    • Psychology Major 

      Study human motivations and the latest neuroscience in a career-focused Psychology major that prepares you for this dynamic field.

    • Global Studies Minor 

      Explore current issues, history, and languages of specific regions and countries around the world. Engage with theories and perspectives on political, economic, and social dynamics of globalization.

    • Information Technology Minor 

      Identify core computer networking and infrastructure components and the roles they serve to supplement business, creative, and other professional pursuits.

    • LGBTQ Studies Minor 

      Examine the complex histories, cultures, political activities, and expressions of LGBTQ people while exploring larger social and institutional foundations like media representation and human rights.

    • Social Justice Minor 

      See your work through the lens of social justice. Learn how social, economic, and political issues influence each other and affect an individual’s or community’s essential rights.

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Career Success

Working with your faculty advisor, you’ll explore the range of careers in education to set you up for success. 100% of Champlain Education majors from the Class of 2023 achieved career success.

an education student reading a children's book in a classroom; student teaching
Education student interns at a local school, reading to the children

Your Career Outlook

Learn more about our career-focused education

By the time you graduate, you will…

  • Use your understanding of individual differences and diverse cultures and communities to ensure inclusive learning environments that enable each learner to meet high standards.
  • Understand how learners grow and develop, recognizing that patterns of learning and development vary individually within and across the cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical areas, and designs and implements developmentally appropriate and challenging learning experiences.
  • Work with others to create environments that support individual and collaborative learning, and that encourage positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation.

Champlain graduates go on to careers such as…

  • School Teacher
  • Education Administrator
  • Curriculum Designer
  • Grant Writer
  • After-School Mentor
  • Private Tutor
  • Prison or Juvenile Facilities Instructor

More Inside Education Major

  • Overview 

    Teaching is the ultimate way to shape the future. At Champlain College, you’ll be in classrooms during your first year, building deep expertise that leads to licensure.

  • Curriculum 

    Become an educator and learn the skills to teach the next generation of leaders through hands-on learning opportunities and field work. Study Education at Champlain College.

  • Faculty 

    Learn the skills to teach the next generation of leaders through hands-on learning opportunities and field work. Study Education at Champlain College.

Become Champlain Ready

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