Advanced Teaching :: Curriculum

Curriculum

Fifteen (15) graduate courses are required for the master's degree.

Course of Study for Master's Degree

MS_ED 402 Social Contexts of Education
How social contexts such as families, schools, and the workplace shape individuals; how individuals' intellectual and interpersonal capacities, preferences, and goals are shaped by their social contexts. Societal structures that organize, supply, and channel individual learning experiences and how they provide the formal and informal settings in which social interaction takes place. How participation in these socializing settings molds the development of individuals' capacities and forms their goals.

MS_ED 403 Childhood and Early Adolescent Development
Overview of developmental concepts from birth into adolescence. The interplay of biological invariants, individual differences, and cultural experiences; relationships among cognitive, social, and cultural aspects of development and learning; major developmental theories and contexts of the construction of these theories; implications for teaching and learning.

MS_ED 404 Adolescent Development in Social Contexts
Adolescent development in its differing social contexts, with particular attention to schools, families and peer groups. By mixing social science with philosophy, the class explores the types of environments that best enhance growth and development during this stage of life.

MS_ED 406 Research and Analysis in Teaching and Learning I: Discussion and Question Development
The course aims to help students meet three goals that will advance the progress of the Master's Project and, at the same time, develop skills of questioning and discussion that are useful in many teaching-learning contexts. The three goals include: the formation of a question which the Master's Project will address; a description of the rationale for the question; and the start of a literature review on the topic. In order to meet the goals, students will develop questions about the meaning of texts, refine these through small-group discussion, and develop skills of effective discussion participation and leading, including preparation for discussion. Taken together, these skills permit not only the cultivation of meaningful questions but progress toward their resolution, as they develop habits of careful reading and reflection. Texts for the course will include classic works related to discussion and questioning and the domain of the Master's Project. Each student will lead a discussion on a text germane to the question chosen for the Master's Project.

MS_ED 407 Research and Analysis in Teaching and Learning II: Literature Review and Research Methodology
This class is intended to be a forum in which to investigate the paradigms and approaches to educational research that participants can utilize in their Master's Projects. Participants discuss and refine their research questions and examine methods of data collection within the framework of research plans they design for their projects. Teacher research and action research are particularly emphasized for practitioner researchers. Participants investigate criteria used to evaluate research relevant to education and experience peer review of their own research displayed during the course. This is the second of a three-course sequence relating to student's Master's Project research. The third class is MS_ED 408, Research and Analysis in Teaching and Learning III: Analyis Interpretation and Dissemination.

MS_ED 408 Research and Analysis in Teaching and Learning III: Analysis Interpretation and Dissemination
This course helps students refine the reflective skills required of educators in complex social institutions such as schools, businesses, and nonprofit organizations and develop effective problem-identification and -solving approaches. Intensive analysis and discussion of questions encountered in elementary and secondary schools, administrative, higher education, and corporate settings. Students present their Master's Project in this course.

9 Electives
(Choose from approved elective list provided by your advisor

MS_ED 402		Social Contexts of Education How social contexts such as families, schools, and the workplace shape individuals; how individuals' intellectual and interpersonal capacities, preferences, and goals are shaped by their social contexts. Societal structures that organize, supply, and channel individual learning experiences and how they provide the formal and informal settings in which social interaction takes place. How participation in these socializing settings molds the development of individuals' capacities and forms their goals.
MS_ED 403		Childhood and Early Adolescent Development Overview of developmental concepts from birth into adolescence. The interplay of biological invariants, individual differences, and cultural experiences; relationships among cognitive, social, and cultural aspects of development and learning; major developmental theories and contexts of the construction of these theories; implications for teaching and learning.
MS_ED 404		Adolescent Development in Social Contexts Adolescent development in its differing social contexts, with particular attention to schools, families and peer groups. By mixing social science with philosophy, the class explores the types of environments that best enhance growth and development during this stage of life.
MS_ED 406		Research and Analysis in Teaching and Learning I: Discussion and Question Development The course aims to help students meet three goals that will advance the progress of the Master's Project and, at the same time, develop skills of questioning and discussion that are useful in many teaching-learning contexts. The three goals include: the formation of a question which the Master's Project will address; a description of the rationale for the question; and the start of a literature review on the topic. In order to meet the goals, students will develop questions about the meaning of texts, refine these through small-group discussion, and develop skills of effective discussion participation and leading, including preparation for discussion. Taken together, these skills permit not only the cultivation of meaningful questions but progress toward their resolution, as they develop habits of careful reading and reflection. Texts for the course will include classic works related to discussion and questioning and the domain of the Master's Project. Each student will lead a discussion on a text germane to the question chosen for the Master's Project.
MS_ED 407		Research and Analysis in Teaching and Learning II: Literature Review and Research Methodology This class is intended to be a forum in which to investigate the paradigms and approaches to educational research that participants can utilize in their Master's Projects. Participants discuss and refine their research questions and examine methods of data collection within the framework of research plans they design for their projects. Teacher research and action research are particularly emphasized for practitioner researchers. Participants investigate criteria used to evaluate research relevant to education and experience peer review of their own research displayed during the course. This is the second of a three-course sequence relating to student's Master's Project research. The third class is MS_ED 408, Research and Analysis in Teaching and Learning III: Analyis Interpretation and Dissemination.
MS_ED 408		Research and Analysis in Teaching and Learning III: Analysis Interpretation and Dissemination This course helps students refine the reflective skills required of educators in complex social institutions such as schools, businesses, and nonprofit organizations and develop effective problem-identification and -solving approaches. Intensive analysis and discussion of questions encountered in elementary and secondary schools, administrative, higher education, and corporate settings. Students present their Master's Project in this course.
9 Electives		(Choose from approved elective list provided by your advisor