Degree Offered
- Bachelor of Arts
Nature of the Program
Students who want to become secondary Social Studies teachers (grades 5-Adult) complete a series of Secondary Education courses, requirements for General Education Foundations (GEF) components that are related to the area of specialization, and courses specific to the area of specialization: Social Studies, Grade 5-Adult.
The program boasts a clear set of research-based program goals and carefully sequenced learning experiences. Students will learn to integrate what one teaches with how it is taught and will receive more than 1,000 hours of experience in public school classrooms. The program functions in close collaboration with exemplary local public schools and has selective and rigorous standards for admission and retention of students as well as rigorous performance requirements that are relevant to effective teaching practice.
Minors
All students have the possibility of earning one or more minors; view a list of all available minors and their requirements here. Please note that students may not earn a minor in their major field.
Admissions for 2025-2026
- First-Time Freshmen are admitted directly into the major.
- Students transferring from another WVU major must meet the following GPA benchmarks:
- Students with 60 or fewer credits need a 2.5 GPA to be admitted to the major
- Students with 61 credits or more need a 2.75 GPA
- Students transferring from another institution must meet the following overall GPA benchmark:
- Students with 60 or fewer credits need a 2.5 GPA to be admitted to the major
- Students with 61 credits or more need a 2.75 GPA
Major Code: 1491
General Education Foundations
Please use this link to view a list of courses that meet each GEF requirement.
NOTE: Some major requirements will fulfill specific GEF requirements. Please see the curriculum requirements listed below for details on which GEFs you will need to select.
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| General Education Foundations | ||
| F1 - Composition & Rhetoric | 3-6 | |
| Introduction to Composition and Rhetoric and Composition, Rhetoric, and Research | ||
or ENGL 103 | Accelerated Academic Writing | |
| F2A/F2B - Science & Technology | 4-6 | |
| F3 - Math & Quantitative Reasoning | 3-4 | |
| F4 - Society & Connections | 3 | |
| F5 - Human Inquiry & the Past | 3 | |
| F6 - The Arts & Creativity | 3 | |
| F7 - Global Studies & Diversity | 3 | |
| F8 - Focus (may be satisfied by completion of a minor, double major, or dual degree) | 9 | |
| Total Hours | 31-37 | |
Please note that not all of the GEF courses are offered at all campuses. Students should consult with their advisor or academic department regarding the GEF course offerings available at their campus.
Degree Requirements
Students must complete WVU General Education Foundations requirements, College B.A. requirements, major requirements, and electives to total a minimum of 120 credit hours. For complete details on these requirements, visit the B.A. Degrees tab on the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences page.
Departmental Requirements for the B.A. in Social Studies/Secondary Education
Students wishing to graduate with a degree in Social Studies/Secondary Education must abide by the following rules:
- Capstone Requirement: The university requires the successful completion of a Capstone course.
- Writing and Communication Skills: The Social Studies/Secondary Education program is a SpeakWrite Affiliated Program, committed to fostering and assessing student's written, verbal, visual, and mediated communication skills. The Social Studies major requires its Bachelor of Arts program graduates to complete ENGL 101 and ENGL 102 (or ENGL 103), HIST 250, HIST 464, Hist 300/400 (social studies elective), Hist 300/400 level in the African, Asia, Latin American concentration (social studies elective).
- Calculation of the GPA in the major: Students must earn a minimum grade of C- in all courses applied to major requirements, and a minimum cumulative grade point average of 2.75. If a course is repeated, all attempts will be included in the calculation of the GPA unless the course is eligible for a D/F repeat.
- WV State Certification Requirements:
- PRAXIS II #5081 Social Studies Content Knowledge (NOTE: Successful completion of this assessment is required prior to Residency 1; scores must be received prior to obtaining a residency teaching permit.)
- edTPA Teacher Performance Assessment – a three-part performance exam during Residency 2. NOTE: Successful completion of this assessment is required for program completion.
- Teacher candidates complete field experience hours in middle and high schools while completing professional education coursework. During the final year of the program, teacher candidates are placed in an appropriate school to complete their residency experience. The School of Education in the College of Applied Human Sciences coordinates the placement and supervision of teacher candidates as they engage in these professional experiences.
Curriculum Requirements
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| University Requirements | 21 | |
| ECAS B.A. Requirements | 3 | |
| Social Studies/Secondary Education Major Requirements | 96 | |
| Total Hours | 120 | |
University Requirements
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| General Education Foundations (GEF) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 (31-37 Credits) | ||
| Outstanding GEF Requirements 1 and 3 | 9 | |
| HIST 191 | First-Year Seminar | 1 |
| General Electives | 11 | |
| Total Hours | 21 | |
ECAS Bachelor of Arts Requirements
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Fine Arts Requirement (F6) | 3 | |
| Global Studies and Diversity Requirement | ||
| Total Hours | 3 | |
Social Studies/Secondary Education Major Requirements
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| History Requirement: | 18 | |
| Growth of the American Nation to 1865 | ||
| Making of Modern America: 1865 to the Present | ||
| World History to 1500 | ||
| World History Since 1500 | ||
| West Virginia | ||
| American Foreign Relations 1941 to Present | ||
| Economics Requirement: | 6 | |
| Principles of Microeconomics | ||
| Principles of Macroeconomics | ||
| Geography Requirement: | 7 | |
| Global Sustainability | ||
and: | ||
| Digital Earth and GIS | ||
| Digital Earth and GIS Laboratory | ||
or: | ||
| Climate System Science | ||
| Climate System Science Laboratory | ||
| Political Science Requirement: | 6 | |
| Introduction to American Government | ||
| State and Local Government | ||
| Psychology Requirement: | 3 | |
| Introduction to Psychology | ||
| Sociology and Anthropology Requirement: | 6 | |
| Introduction to Anthropology | ||
| Introduction to Sociology | ||
| Social Studies Electives: | 6 | |
HIST (Non-Western) at the 300-Level or above : | ||
| Greece and Rome | ||
| History of Sacred Places | ||
| Myth and Culture in Pre-colonial Africa | ||
| Pre-Colonial Africa | ||
| Colonial Africa and Independence | ||
| Modern China | ||
| Modern Japan | ||
| The International Middle East | ||
| The Aztec, Maya, and Inca | ||
| The Vietnam War | ||
| Latin America and the World | ||
| Greece: From Troy to Alexander | ||
| Rome: From Romulus to Zenobia | ||
| East Africa to 1895 | ||
| East Africa Since 1895 | ||
| West Africa to 1885 | ||
| West Africa from 1885 | ||
| History of Chinese Thought | ||
| Africa in World History | ||
| History of Modern Mexico | ||
| Mexican Law from Montezuma to El Chapo | ||
HIST at the 300-Level or above | ||
| UNDERGRADUATE PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS: | 41 | |
| Professional Inquiry in Education | ||
| Learning in PreK-Adult Educational Settings | ||
| Teaching Language Arts: Secondary School | ||
| Disciplinary Foundations for Social Studies Teaching | ||
| Teaching Social Studies: Secondary School | ||
| Identity and Cultural Diversity in the Classroom | ||
| Special Education in Contemporary Society | ||
| Differentiation of Instruction | ||
| Teaching Practicum | ||
| Professional Field Experience (Residency 1) | ||
| Professional Field Experience (Residency 2) | ||
| CAPSTONE REQUIREMENT: | 3 | |
| Residency/Technology Capstone in Secondary Education | ||
| Total Hours | 96 | |
Suggested Plan of Study
| First Year | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Fall | Hours | Spring | Hours |
| ENGL 101 (GEF 1) | 3 | HIST 153 (GEF 8) | 3 |
| GEF 3 | 3 | HIST 179 (ECAS Glo. St. & Dev. Req.; GEF 7) | 3 |
| SUST 102 | 3 | POLS 102 (GEF 8) | 3 |
| HIST 152 (GEF 5) | 3 | PSYC 101 (GEF 4) | 3 |
| HIST 191 | 1 | Elective | 3 |
| Elective | 3 | ||
| 16 | 15 | ||
| Second Year | |||
| Fall | Hours | Spring | Hours |
| ECON 201 (GEF 8) | 3 | ECON 202 | 3 |
| ENGL 102 (GEF 1) | 3 | EDUC 200 | 3 |
| POLS 220 | 3 | HIST 250 | 3 |
| SUST 207 | 3 | SOC 101 | 3 |
| SUST 207L | 1 | Elective | 3 |
| or | |||
| Elective | 2 | ||
| 15 | 15 | ||
| Third Year | |||
| Fall | Hours | Spring | Hours |
| C&I 453 | 3 | Eberly Fine Arts B.A. Requirement (F6) | 3 |
| C&I 490 | 1 | C&I 454 | 3 |
| HIST 180 | 3 | C&I 490 | 1 |
| EDP 301 | 3 | HIST 464 | 3 |
| ANTH 105 | 3 | HIST (Non-Western) at the 300-level or above | 3 |
| SPED 404 | 3 | HIST 300/400 (300-Level or Above) | 3 |
| 16 | 16 | ||
| Fourth Year | |||
| Fall | Hours | Spring | Hours |
| C&I 491 (Residency 1) | 6 | C&I 491 (Residency 2) | 9 |
| C&I 324 | 3 | EDUC 485 | 3 |
| C&I 489 | 3 | ||
| SPED 460 | 3 | ||
| 15 | 12 | ||
| Total credit hours: 120 | |||
Degree Progress
- By the end of the fourth semester in the major, the student must have completed EDUC 200 with a C- or better and must have a minimum GPA of 2.75. If a student does not meet these criteria, they will be removed from the major until the benchmarks are met.
- By the end of the sixth semester in the major, the student must have completed 125 hours of field placement and must have a minimum GPA of a 2.75.
- To graduate with this major, a student needs an overall GPA of 2.75.
Major Learning Outcomes
Social Studies/Secondary Education
The learning goals for the WVU Secondary Teacher Education Program are to prepare students who:
- Have commitment and skills to engage in life-long learning;
- Are effective communicators;
- Recognize that teaching is a professional, moral, and ethical enterprise with well-developed ethical frameworks which facilitate effective teaching;
- Will serve as a facilitator of learning for all students;
- Possess in-depth knowledge of both pedagogy and content, and the relationships between them;
- Are reflective practitioners;
- Are aware of, and have respect for, human diversity;
- Value and integrate knowledge from a wide variety of fields, are creative and open to new ideas, and are able to act constructively in a world characterized by technological, cultural, and societal diversity and change.