Master of Education vs Master of Teaching: What’s the difference?
In today's world, we look to doctors, scientists, or lawyers in awe, largely because of their accomplishments. But we seldom show the same honour to teachers, to whom these accomplished individuals owe much of their success. Teachers have been at the centre of society for centuries, educating and raising the younger generation, preparing them for their lives as adults.
In some countries, the teaching industry is saturated, with people flocking to teaching as a handy backup degree if their other career plans don’t pan out. But the same can’t be said about Australia. In fact, Australia is in dire need of qualified teachers. This creates opportunities for qualified teachers in and outside of Australia. But what qualifications do these teachers need to have? A bachelor's degree, a Master of Education, or a Master’s of Teaching?
In this article, we’ll take a thorough look at both degrees to help you distinguish between them.
What is a Master of Teaching?
A Master of Teaching degree is geared towards preparing individuals to become a teacher. It’ll cover the fundamentals of teaching and provide you with essential methods and techniques for teaching and managing a classroom.
What is a Master of Education?
The Master of Education degree is a postgraduate qualification. This degree provides those who study it with an advanced overview of the education sector, allowing them to specialise and own in on aspects of education. As a result, having a Master of Education behind your name also improves your career prospects in those fields of education as well. This degree is usually best for current teachers who aspire to improve their current career status.
What are the key differences between a Master of Teaching and a Master of Education?
When it comes to a Masters of Teaching vs Education, we need to point out that they’re both Master’s level degrees in education. But there are some factors that set them apart that’ll help you distinguish which one to go for, such as:
The aim of the degree
Doing a Master’s in Teaching aims to help you become a qualified registered teacher. It’s designed to help you teachers learn effective teaching methods and current teachers to improve their teaching ability.
A key difference to note is that a student doing a Masters in teaching might have some experience in teaching or none. A Masters in Education would be for someone who’s been a teacher already and aspires to develop their professional career in education by furthering their studies.
What the curriculum focuses on
One difference that sets these two courses apart as well is the curriculum focus. Both degrees will focus on education, but the Master of Teaching degree covers topics that’ll prepare a teacher for the classroom, while the Master of Education degree has a more comprehensive curriculum designed to take established teachers further in their teaching approach and other skills.
The result of the course
As a result of the curriculums being different, the learning outcomes will also be different. After doing a Masters's in Teaching, you’ll be better equipped to manage a classroom and conduct effective lessons. Not to mention, you’ll be a registered teacher.
To do a Master in Education, you already need to be a registered teacher, so, the learning outcome of this degree will result in the development of different skills, like research and leadership.
Career opportunities
Studying for a Master in Education is usually done by teachers to further their careers and open the door to new career paths in the education sector. For instance, teachers with this qualification can specialise in counselling, research, or other unique aspects of education.
The Master in Teaching is a course specifically designed to establish someone as a registered teacher. Giving them the skills to facilitate learning.
How you can specialise
Like most teaching qualifications, the Master in Teaching does allow you to specialise to a certain degree in where you want to teach. For instance, you could study early childhood education, primary education, or secondary education.
A Master's in Education offers a much wider field to choose from when you want to specialise. As an example, with a Master’s in Education, you can specialise in counselling, literacy, special education, or educational leadership.
The duration of the course
Usually, both degrees can take anywhere between one to three years. However, this depends on the institute you’re studying at and whether you’re doing it part-time or not. The study material might also play a part in the duration of your course.
For instance, the Masters in Teaching is more focus on practical teaching, equipping you to be a registered teacher in Australia. Whereas, the Master in Education offers a deeper approach to studying teaching. By allowin gyou to specialise, the research and course material is more comprehensive, requiring more time to get through.
Which degree is right for you?
The choice here doesn’t have to be a difficult one. The first question we’d ask is, are you a registered teacher? If not, then a Master of Teaching is the way to go because a Master in Education requires you to have a prior teaching degree first. Now, we know that this isn’t always the case. You might want to do a Master’s in teaching to develop your teaching more or recap newer teaching styles, and that’s great.
But if you’re looking to develop your teaching career or diversify your expertise in the educational sector, then studying for a Master's in Education is better for you!
