Graduate Program in Education - Course Descriptions

EDG 500 Learning Theories     3 HOURS      
This course is designed to provide students with a foundation and perspective on the nature of learning. Students will examine the ideas of learning theorists looking for the relationship between theories of learning and the teaching methods by which they are applied in the classroom.

EDG 502  Classroom Management     3 HOURS    
This course is designed to provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to establish a classroom learning community in which they can organize and conduct effective instruction, and in which their students can be challenged and highly involved in those learning activities. Smooth running classrooms exist because teachers have clear ideas about the classroom conditions and student behaviors necessary for a healthy learning environment.

EDG 504  Teaching Models      3 HOURS    
This course will focus on several teaching models and how these models may be used in organizing instruction, studying classroom interaction and effectiveness.

EDG 506  Curriculum Design     3 HOURS     
This course will focus on skills as related to the development and organization of curriculum, design, implementation, and evaluation of the learning program with students.

EDG 508  Application of Educational Research and Evaluation     3 HOURS    
This course is designed to enable teachers to become proficient users of the methods and products of educational research. This will include review of types of educational research, a review of procedures and common sources for reporting educational research findings, and experience with the action research methodology.

EDG 509  Computers in Education     3 HOURS    
This course is designed to emphasize the uses of technology in both the classroom and in data management for program evaluation and administration. Students will be expected to generate a series of products that can be used to support the teaching/learning process.

EDG 522 Application of Content and Pedagogy Principles: English, Math, Science, Reading, or Social Studies      3 HOURS
With the supervising faculty members in education and the selected field, the student will design and conduct a study relevant to one or more of the selected field's disciplines. The student proposal will include a rationale for conduction the study based upon its relevance to the target discipline(s) and its appropriateness to the student's instructional assignment. Following approval and at the conclusion of the study, the student will submit a scholarly report including at minimum the components initially agreed upon.

EDG 532 Differentiating Curriculum      3 HOURS
This course will examine two critical areas: differentiated instruction and inclusive schooling. In looking at differentiated instruction, students will be examining how traditional assessment observation techniques and authentic assessments can be used to determine strategies, methods and materials for optimal learning. This course will also examine how to teach in such a way that children, including those with mild to severe disabilities, children who are gifted, and children from diverse cultural and ethnic groups, learn together well.

EDG 533 Inclusionary Issues      3 HOURS
This course will provide an overview of exceptionalities found in an inclusionary classroom. These will include, but not be limited to students with mental retardation, developmental delays, specific learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, severe behavior disorders, serious emotional disorders, communication disorders, autistic spectrum disorders, physical disabilities, health issues, hearing and visual impairments, and gifts and talents. This course will also include the studies of cognition, intelligences, learning styles, and modalities, as well as various service models for instruction.

EDG 545 Contemporary Educational Issues      3 HOURS     
This course will focus upon current educational reform issues and research findings to school organization and governance, teaching, learning, and classroom management. Students will investigate and discuss these and many other areas of current and educational interest.

EDG 547 Changing Values and Education      3 HOURS     
This course provides an overview of the impact on education of the changing values of the broader society. Such trends as increasing geographic mobility, continuing concentrations of minority populations in cities, changes in the traditional family, and evolution in the nature and areas of employment opportunities are examined in light of the impact of these changes on the role of the teacher and the educational community at large. Students are expected to develop further understanding of these changes and generate appropriate responses.

EDG 548 Applications of School Law & Finance      3 HOURS     
The law strand addresses the statutes and judicial decisions which relate to schools and the responsibilities of the board of education, teachers, and administrators. Emphasis is placed on understanding the legal framework as it relates to providing quality instruction. The finance strand addresses the guiding principles for developing adequate financial programs; the detailed study of sources of local, state, and federal revenues; and the procedures of managing instructional funds with reference to budgeting.

EDU 549 Teacher as a Leader in School Reform      3 HOURS    
This course is designed to develop and refine the leadership skills of teachers. It will focus upon the development and elaboration of such skills and topics as communication, motivation of professional adults, problem solving, goal setting, decision making, team building, and so forth. Each teacher will be encouraged to engage in self-analysis in each of these skills.

EDG 580 Independent Study      1-3 HOURS
These courses involve individualized study, informal conferences to allow discussion, and research of a specific topic of study. The student(s) and the instructor prior to the start of the semester mutually agree upon the topic and its evaluation. Requires permission of the Graduate Director and the Academic Dean.

EDG 600 Practicum in Instruction (Capstone Experience)      3 HOURS     
This practicum will provide an opportunity for the student to ‘try out’ new understandings about teaching and schooling. This course will represent a laboratory experience in which the student will experiment, reflect and critique. It also provides students with an opportunity to apply theoretical principles to their classroom situations. A project is to be used as a culminating experience of the candidates’ Masters program. The candidate will sit for an oral defense of the completed project with his or her advisor and two other faculty members.