Academic Programs Overview | Course Work | Supervised Fieldwork and Advisement | Integrative Master's Project
The Integrative Master's Project (IMP) is one of the three major components of your degree requirements. As the culminating component, it is expected to be a significant, academically rigorous body of work that integrates many facets of your experiences at Bank Street and in the field, and applies theoretical knowledge to your current and future work as an educator or educational leader. The process of writing the IMP is intended to further your professional growth through inquiry, reflection, and integration.
When you have completed significant amounts of your supervised fieldwork/advisement and course work, you are eligible to begin working on this third requirement for completing a degree program at Bank Street College. The Integrative Master's Project can take the form of a Portfolio, Independent Study, or one of the three Semester-Based IMP Options.
You will discuss the appropriateness of each option with your advisor, who will help you select the option best suited to your learning style and preferences. You will need your advisor's or program director's approval to register for your Integrative Master's Project. In the case of the Portfolio and the Independent Study, this involves filing the appropriate commence form with the Registrar's Office and paying the $600 fee. For the Semester-Based IMP Options, you will register for them as you would a class, following the deadlines and procedures for regular registration. These options also carry a fee of $600. Details on each of the IMPs and on the registration process for each one are included below.
The Portfolio option allows you to work closely with an assigned mentor and, in monthly group meetings, with a small group of peers over the course of a full academic year. You must submit a Portfolio Application by the end of June. If you are selected as a participant in the Portfolio project, you work with your mentor to identify a theme that is highly relevant to your personal growth and professional development. The portfolio is developed through an emergent process of collecting documents and objects, called artifacts, which are significant markers of pivotal experiences in your professional and personal development. You will write a reflective essay to introduce the five artifacts and themes, a caption to accompany each artifact, and a conclusion. All students present their portfolios to mentors, peers, friends, and family the evening before Graduation.
The Independent Study is a significant, original work that you initiate, often growing out of a meaningful assignment in a course or an idea, question or experience rooted in a fieldwork or work setting. When you choose this option, you create the question or topic to research or elaborate in greater depth. The independent study offers opportunities to explore issues and develop a curriculum, a case study, a project, a program, a critical review of literature, or creative instructional approaches. This choice includes the possibility of writing literature for children and researching its use with children. Students work with a faculty mentor or, with approval, with a person outside the College who has expertise in the particular area of study. In general, the Independent Study is completed over the course of one year. Completed Independent Studies are housed in the Bank Street Library, where they can be read and borrowed by students and faculty as well as circulated through interlibrary loan outside the College.
The Semester based IMP options are:
IMP1: Site-Based Inquiry
IMP2: Collaborative Student-Faculty Inquiry
IMP3: Mentored Directed Essay.
Registration policies and procedures for the Semester Based IMP options are the same as they for classes. Students may register during the Web Registration Period designated for each term. After the web period is over, students may register during the Late Registration and Add/Drop Period designated for the term, which is done in person via the Registrar's Office. No registration for Semester-Based IMP options will be permitted after the first meeting for the option has taken place. For the Mentored Directed Essay option, no registration will be permitted after the end of the term's Late Registration and Add/Drop Period.
Detailed Descriptions of the Semester Based IMP Options:
The Site-based Inquiry Project is most appropriate for candidates who are currently employed and wish to focus their master's project on a topic/problem related to their own setting. Candidates may complete this option whether in the immediate New York City area or at a distance (the latter through on-line communication).
Description: Each candidate will work with an assigned faculty mentor to identify an educational problem or concern within their own work situation, to investigate that problem and to generate an action plan to move toward resolution. In some cases, it may be possible to implement an intervention. In other circumstances, a detailed action plan will be the outcome based on discussion and approval of the Mentor. Candidates will sign up as part of the general registration process.
A group of up to six candidates will meet together a minimum of four scheduled times during the semester-long inquiry project. While the Site-based Inquiry may be highly individual, it is also possible that two or more candidates in the group may wish to work together on a similar problem or inquiry. Sessions will be scheduled based on Mentor availability. Additional on-line or peer group discussions may be an option if group members wish to access the ideas and experiences of the group. Candidates will describe their inquiry and outcomes in hard copy or multimedia format. (Optional) presentations will take place at the end of the semester in which the project has been carried out.
Time Requirements: The Site-Based Inquiry must be completed within one semester. It will be important for candidates selecting this option to come to the first session with a written description of the problem they wish to investigate.
Sessions:
Examples of site-based inquiry ideas:
Content and Scholarship
Organization
Form
Candidates looking to explore a particular issue or problem in collaboration with both a faculty member and their peers may elect this option. The issue will be presented in advance as a particular research or policy concern of a faculty member. The faculty member and the group will help each candidate in the group identify a particular aspect of the issue to investigate and, together, determine a collective format in which to coordinate and present the findings.
Time requirements: It is critical that the inquiry plan for each student be carefully delineated, be do-able within the semester time frame, and be identified quickly at the beginning of the term so there is time for the research, documentation, and presentation of the findings. Clear timelines -- with completion comfortably before semester end or graduation - will be specified.
Structure: The faculty mentor will provide, in writing and before the first meeting, orientation to the topic and possibilities for research. The group will meet together a minimum of four scheduled times during the semester. The mentor and group members, individually and collectively, will communicate (via email and/or phone) in the intervening times.
The four sessions will generally follow this sequence:
1. At the first meeting, the topic will be discussed in greater depth, as will options for candidates to individualize the research to their own sites or available resources. Candidates should leave the meeting with agreement on directions and strategies for their personal inquiries.
2. Candidates will bring to the second session their initial research data -- which will have been shared with members of the group prior to the meeting -- ready to begin the process of analysis and prepare for further avenues of exploration.
3-4. In subsequent sessions, candidates will report, critique, analyze, and articulate the research on the various components of the larger topic, and collectively assess implications and possibilities of the findings. The group will assemble and compile its findings.
Findings/Presentation: Candidates will present their inquiry process and findings in hard copy and/or multimedia formats. The work of the individual group members will be brought together into a format for presentation, decided upon by the group in consultation with the mentor. Requirements for citation of resources, permissions for use of materials and information from human participants, and other components of a professional presentation will be outlined in advance for the candidates.
Faculty Responsibilities: The faculty mentor conceptualizes and develops the focus of the inquiry and a short, relevant list of readings for students. The faculty mentor will be responsible for facilitating the group meetings; orienting the candidates to the topic and process; seeing that all candidates are expeditiously embarked on relevant, practical, do-able research; monitoring the research and documentation of individual candidates and providing focused assistance where needed; and participating in the compilation of the group product. The faculty mentor will assess the individual projects to assure completion of the IMP requirement.
Candidate Responsibilities: Candidates commit to full, regular participation in the group sessions; active research on their selected component of the group topic, in consultation with peers and as approved by the mentor; meeting benchmarks in documenting their project in a timely way; meeting all ethical requirements of permissions and confidentiality; regular communication with the mentor; and sharing in compiling the project and presentation.
Examples of collaborative student-faculty inquiry topics proposed by faculty:
1. Children's self-regulation in the classroom
2. Classroom routines and transitions
3. An exemplary infant-toddler curriculum
4. Teacher leadership
5. Drama and literacy
Content and Scholarship
Organization
Form
Candidates may complete this option whether in the immediate New York City area or at a distance (the latter through telephone and on-line communication).
Description: Each student works with an assigned faculty mentor to design an essay that is based on existing program specific prepared questions. These questions are designed to help students think and write about the salient and significant issues pertaining to their chosen area of study, while drawing on and integrating knowledge gained in courses and field experiences. This option is designed to provide structure and focus with maximum flexibility. Together, mentor and candidate may adapt questions to support the professional growth, interests, and current work situation of the student. With the mentor's approval, the candidate may create his/her own question(s). Questions will have clearly demarcated sections to make them manageable for candidates. The number of questions and specific criteria for the essays and candidate-generated questions will be decided within programs/pathways so long as they address the guidelines and meet the criteria listed on the reverse side of this sheet. Mentors will be assigned within programs and pathways.
The Directed Essay questions for all programs offering the Mentored Directed Essay are now listed on my.bankstreet. Look for the Directed Essay Questions link under Helpful Links on the student home page.
During an initial meeting, the faculty mentor helps the candidate understand and adapt the appropriate questions, sets a timeframe with the candidate for when each section of the work will be due, and suggests appropriate resources. In two or more subsequent meetings, which can be face-to face or via phone and/or email, the mentor gives feedback on completed work and provides assistance as needed. In a final meeting, the mentor will give overall feedback and help the candidate to reflect on the process of developing the essays.
Time Requirements: The work must be completed within one semester, with the specific timeframe within that semester to be negotiated between candidate and mentor so long as the final due date listed on the Integrative Master's Project website is met.
Over for Guidelines for Adapting Directed Essay Questions and
Criteria for Excellence in Integrative Master's Projects
Through discussion, faculty mentor and candidate may adapt the existing Directed Essay question(s) so that they are personally meaningful, professionally relevant, and intellectually accessible to and appropriate for the learning style of the candidate. The process of writing the Directed Essay is intended to further the candidate's professional growth through:
Students are expected to strive towards excellence in their Integrative Master's Project and to follow the style guidelines of the American Psychological Association (APA). All projects must demonstrate graduate-level scholarship and meet the following criteria.
Content and Scholarship
Organization
Form