Education: Found. & Policy (EDF)

Introduces the teaching profession through an overview of its foundational principles, educational systems, and current topics in education. Includes 15 hours of required field experience in PreK–12 schools.

Examines patterns of cognitive and behavioral development in adolescence with emphasis on applications for instruction, classroom management, and student support in secondary school settings.

Explores strategies for organizing instruction, managing classroom behavior, and creating safe, effective learning environments. Emphasizes school safety, professional conduct, and classroom legal considerations.

Examines typical and atypical child development from birth through adolescence, emphasizing developmental patterns, learning environments, and major educational theories that inform teaching practice.

This course examines human growth from conception through late adulthood, integrating major developmental theories with biological, cognitive, emotional, and social changes across each stage. Students analyze how culture and context shape development and apply research to real-world scenarios. Through case studies and experiential activities, learners assess developmental needs, recognize risk and protective factors, and identify strategies that promote healthy development in varied populations.

This course will provide an overview of knowledge and concepts related to assessment and program evaluation. Best practices and methods in designing appropriate, evaluation-aligned assessment tools will be a key feature of the course.

Focuses on the design, administration, and interpretation of classroom assessments and standardized tests. Emphasizes using assessment data to guide instruction, support student learning, and communicate results effectively.

This course explores situations that place youth at risk such as poverty, disability, stressors and family dissolution. An examination of family strengths, cultural diversity and techniques for working with families in community based settings. The course will primarily focus upon: a) youth, family, community, and developmental contexts of risk and resiliency, and b) community approaches to support youth and families.

This course focuses on specific effective professional communication efforts of administrators and community leaders from social agencies, educational settings, and organizational environments, including non-profit agencies and organizations.

This course will examine and compare educational systems in their national contexts around the world. Emphasis will be placed on a blend of historical, philosophical, political, cultural, and sociological perspectives on a variety of foundational topics in international education, including the vital interests of developing and developed states; the implications for ethno-nationalism, political, economic, environmental and educational relationships.

Examines strategies for managing instruction, organization, and classroom leadership to promote a productive and safe learning environment. Emphasizes the application of professional ethics, legal responsibilities, and evidence-based practices in educational settings.

Focuses on research-based methods for assessing student learning, analyzing classroom data, and using evidence to inform instructional decisions and improve student outcomes.

Focuses on theories of learning and their application to instruction.

Hands-on experience with several systematic designs of instructional courseware. Topics include instructional strategies, comparison and implementation of instructed designs, and a simulated design environment.

Introduces methods for analyzing student performance data to guide continuous school improvement. Emphasizes the use of multiple quantitative measures to identify academic trends, implement progress monitoring systems, and support evidence-based instructional decisions.

Introduces fundamental concepts of measurement and assessment in education, including the development of teacher-made tests, use of classroom assessments, interpretation of standardized test data, and application of basic descriptive statistics to support instructional decision-making.

Design, use and analysis of survey questionnaires for data collection; significant research questions and strengths and weaknesses of various methodologies will be discussed.

Analysis of major types of educational research design, including experimental, correlational, ex post facto, and case studies.

This course explores theories and pedagogies that address students’ academic performance and language proficiency.  

This course introduces the student to higher education in a global context. The students will examine trends in higher education in the global context, compare higher education systems, identify internationally framed higher education collaborations and partnerships, and explore innovative curriculum models and multi-national student learning experiences.

Individual study by students under the direction of a faculty member.

This course explores emerging topics affecting schools and universities through case studies, research briefings, and applied problem-solving.

The systematic observation of one's own practice with the goal to understand, improve practice, and/or investigate the current state of education settings and practice.

Introductory statistics including non-parametric tests, bi-variate correlational statistics, chi-square, product-moment correlation, simple linear and t-test, and analysis of variance purposes of analyzing educational issues through and computer analysis and interpretation skills.

Basic concepts and principles of qualitative research; the nature of qualitative research, developing research questions, types of qualitative research, sampling, and data analysis and interpretation.

Various methods of data collection, including interviews, focus groups, observations, artifact collection, oral history, and mapping are included. Various methods of coding and summarizing data and available software are addressed.

This advanced course is offered as an advanced research class for doctoral level students. The purpose of the course is to familiarize students with the rationale and use of mixed methodology in educational research, driven by a pragmatic research paradigm that contains both the quantitative and qualitative approaches to data collection, analysis, and interpretation. The course structure has two main parts: (1) group work practicing quantitative, qualitative, and mixed analysis procedures and (2) individualized work leading to a proposal for a mixed methods study.

The history of primary and secondary schooling from the colonial period to the near present will be explored, including periods of significant transformation and the forces that have produced continuity over time. The interaction between educational practices and the larger cultural, social, economic, and political context will be considered.

This course explores how education both shapes and is shaped by society by examining how social institutions, cultural norms, and individual experiences influence educational processes and outcomes.

This course examines and analyzes multilingualism in education with a comparative lens by applying relevant theories, exploring practical applications, and understanding current issues within contemporary educational systems. 

This course considers issues that affect educational policy and instructional practice in multilingual settings, with emphasis on the continuum of learners’ multilanguage and multiliteracy within the educational context. 

Instruction in and linkages to issues related to measurement, assessment and evaluation concepts, which are integral to educational policy and decision-making.