Course Descriptions
Core Courses
EDUC 6610 Teacher as Professional (3 sem. cr.)
This course explores what it means to be a professional in today’s diverse and changing educational landscape. Teachers examine their values, beliefs, vision, and mission. They explore their role in the larger context of the teaching profession, the importance of collaboration in a professional learning community, and the need to advocate for students, educators, and the field of education itself. Teachers learn how a professional stance impacts student learning. They also serve as a driver of their own professional growth and development.
EDUC 6640 Designing Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment (3 sem. cr.)
This course examines classroom curriculum, instruction, and assessment in the context of standards and accountability. The importance of alignment of these components and resulting impact on student learning is emphasized. Teachers explore learning theory, learner variables, and the need for differentiation to meet diverse learning needs. Multiple purposes and methods of assessment as well as effective approaches to grading and reporting are discussed. Using their state or district standards, teachers engage in a process for designing standards-driven classroom curriculum, instruction, and assessment that will meet the diverse learning needs of their students.
EDUC 6650 Enhancing Learning Through Linguistic and Cultural Diversity (3 sem. cr.)
This course explores teachers’ views on the value of linguistic and cultural diversity and the powerful learning opportunities it affords today’s classrooms and schools. Teachers examine their attitudes, beliefs, and biases regarding linguistically and culturally diverse students, families, and communities, and learn approaches for working together to ensure high levels of learning for all students. Strategies for ensuring equitable access to high-quality learning experiences are presented. Effective practices such as cultural responsiveness, anti-bias curriculum, differentiated instruction, and developing academic vocabulary are explored.
EDUC 6653 Introduction to Educational Research (3 sem. cr.)
This course is designed to provide students with an introduction to the basic fundamentals and principles of research. The research process is explored with the underlying assumption that educational research can improve classroom practice. Course participants are expected to develop knowledge and skills in the use of theoretical frameworks; quantitative, qualitative, and action research methodologies; critiquing and evaluating research; and compliance with ethical responsibilities of the researcher.
EDUC 6657 Creating an Effective Classroom Learning Environment (3 sem. cr.)
This course helps teachers create safe, supportive, and respectful learning environments that promote social-emotional development, self-responsibility, and character in order to optimize learning for all students. Teachers learn how to foster a sense of community in the classroom and develop positive relationships with and among students. Skills and strategies for managing dynamic and flexible classroom structures and for teaching conflict resolution are presented. The course also provides strategies for building positive relationships and engaging in effective communication and problem-solving with parents and families.
Educational Leadership
EDAD 6800 Facilitating Effective Learning for All Students (3 sem. cr.)This course introduces research on learning and develops an understanding of how different approaches to instruction are informed by research. To move teaching to more effective strategies, leaders learn to explain how and why learner-centered teaching enhances the achievement of all students, and learn how to overcome resistance among staff, students, and parents.
EDAD 6801 Ensuring Quality Education for Students With Diverse Needs (3 sem. cr.)
This course focuses on effective, learner-centered instruction that uses diverse and inclusive approaches for students at risk, as educators help all students reach increasingly higher standards of performance.
EDAD 6802 Using Data to Strengthen Schools (3 sem. cr.)
This course focuses on data-driven decision-making and the critical skills necessary to meet the needs of all children and to reach accountability expectations. Special emphasis is placed on the definition of action for effective schools—continuing analysis of the gaps between goals for student learning and actual student performance.
EDAD 6803 Allocating Resources Strategically and Structuring the Organization for Learning (3 sem. cr.)
This course focuses on research about effective schools, to provide guidance on the most productive ways to organize resources: time, people, money, and technology. Students learn to develop strategies to define the most important priorities, the overall educational design, and the organizational structures that best match the needs for improvement.
EDAD 6804 Enhancing Teacher Capacity and Commitment (3 sem. cr.)
This course focuses on the central role of school leaders—building human resources, from recruitment through induction to continuing professional development. It also covers methods for dealing with continuing ineffectiveness among members of school staff.
EDAD 6805 Facilitating Productive Working Relationships and School Culture to Enhance Student Learning (3 sem. cr.)
This course addresses critical functions of the school leader, including developing consensus that promotes action (effective decision-making process, patterns of communication, conflict resolution strategies); infusing leadership throughout the school (collaborative structures and strategies); and establishing a personal, ethical, and moral platform for leadership.
EDAD 6806 Collaborating With Families and Communities for Student Success (3 sem. cr.)
In this course, students develop the capabilities needed to identify and enlist the support of parents, as well as organizations and public agencies that serve youth and families, in ways that align with school goals. Special attention is paid to these functions in multicultural schools and communities.
EDAD 6807 Creating Positive, Safe, and Effective Learning Environments (3 sem. cr.)
Students in this course learn to treat differences and conflicts as opportunities for learning the social competencies that are essential to civic participation and interpersonal effectiveness, in school and beyond. The importance of safe and orderly environments for learning, with school cultures based on mutual respect among students, teachers, and staff, is recognized.
EDAD 6808 Meeting the Literacy Challenge: Leading New Initiatives (3 sem. cr.)
Literacy is at the core of success—in school and in life. The emphasis of this course is on what has been learned about teaching and learning, student assessment, professional development, parental and community involvement, and other related topics. Issues of curriculum and the effects of district and state policies on school improvement are explored in greater depth.
EDAD 6809 Implementing Continuous School Improvement (3 sem. cr.)
This course focuses on theories of change, with an emphasis on leadership behavior that promotes positive change over time. Based on the context of systems thinking, students demonstrate what it takes to structure a school that is a learning organization.
EDAD 6810 Internship (6 sem. cr.)
This course provides students with authentic opportunities to apply what has been learned in courses and to expand what future educational leaders need to know and be able to do. The internship includes three components: practical applications of learning within courses, internship experiences while taking other courses, and development and evaluation of the Program Portfolio.
Science (Grades K-8)
SCIE 6660 The Nature of Science (3 sem. cr.)Investigate the nature and history of science and the role science plays in 21st-century life. Discover unifying themes across all areas of science such as scientific inquiry, systems and energy, models and scale, constancy and change, ecology and the environment, and form and function. Explore environmental science and apply the scientific tools of inquiry, discovery, hypothesis, and theory to facilitate your own learning in science and to foster engaging and motivating scientific learning in your students.
SCIE 6661 Exploring the Physical World (3 sem. cr.)
Examine various physical phenomena (e.g., light, sound, heat, magnetism, and motion). Engage in authentic, active learning experiences that advance your knowledge about these phenomena and model creative teaching approaches that you can use to engage your students in powerful learning about the physical sciences. The practical application of theories and concepts will be emphasized.
SCIE 6662 Investigating the Living World (3 sem. cr.)
Take a journey of discovery and explore the components of the living world, including plants, animals, fungi, and other organisms as well as their ecology. Learn about the controversy that persists in the scientific community about what makes an organism alive and discover how organisms interact with each other and their environments. Use inquiry methods to develop learning experiences to engage your own students in exploring these ideas in the classroom.
SCIE 6663 Exploring the Earth and Beyond (3 sem. cr.)
Investigate timeless questions about how the Earth fits into time and space. Explorations will span from ocean depths to the breadth of the universe. Examine earthly and other-world phenomena, such as weather, climate, volcanoes, earthquakes, planetary systems, and supernovae, and explore the similarities and differences between our world and other worlds. Transferring this scientific knowledge to classroom instruction will be emphasized.
SCIE 6664 Looking into the Future of Science and Education (3 sem. cr.)
Take a future-focused view of science while developing your leadership skills in science education. Trends, issues, challenges, and opportunities related to science and its role in schools, society, and the workplace will be explored. Topics include genetic engineering, biotechnologies, environmental issues, such as climate change and global warming, and the call for education in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics). Engage in professional discourse to grapple with uncertainties and learn how scientific principles can be used to advocate for authentic social change.
