Master of Arts in Education

This course will acquaint students with several major psychological perspectives for appreciating learning that goes on in school and other settings. Students will also connect theories of learning to their own experiences as learners - inside this course, in other courses, on the job, and in other settings. By constantly examining the relationship between the ideas about learning introduced in this course and the learning situations in the students' world outside of this course, students will find greater meaning and significance in both. We consider implications of these perspectives for practice, particularly the practice in your field.

New technologies not only have the potential of changing what and how students learn, but they can also alter the task of teaching in significant ways. In this course, we will examine the complex charge of being responsible for managing relationships among technology, teaching and learning. We will look at technology from multiple perspectives to assess its potential benefits and challenges to different audiences. Professional development strategies, project management, planning, evaluation, relationship building, along with the ethical and social implications of technology integration will be examined

Credits: 3
Section: 730 - 7/1/2013 - 8/23/2013
Instructor: Dr. Rand Spiro

This is a course designed to bring together current understandings of technology and how it can be used for learning across the academic subjects taught in elementary, middle school, and high school: mathematics, science, language arts, social studies, and the arts. We will weave together three threads in this course, as suggested in the course title -- technology, teaching, and learning. Each of these three topics will receive attention in interaction with the others. Given the speed of change in technology, we will emphasize the affordances of new and developing educational media. The goals of this course are multiple. By the end of the semester, you should

1. Understand the overall affordances of technology for meaningful learning in K-12 settings;
2. Understand how the affordances of technology intersect with current theories of learning; and
3. Understand some of the issues entailed in teaching with technology.

This course examines ways in which K-12 teachers can bring the world into their classrooms with technology to better meet the educational needs of students. The course focuses on ways in which teachers and students can broadcast their ideas and information to the outside world for purposes of collaboration and communication. The course includes discussions of various online learning management systems including their functions, strengths, and weaknesses along with the exploration of various teaching methodologies and how they should be used in the online environment to ensure teaching and learning success.

This course introduces the practice of special education in today's schools, with a focus on the United States. We will analyze characteristics of students with learning and behavior disabilities and the implications of learner differences for the legal and professional responsibilities of classroom teachers. We will survey general principles of instruction that can help improve students' access to the general education curriculum, including collaboration with other professionals, universal design for learning, response to intervention (RTI), and assistive technology. Each of these topics is covered in more depth in later courses. We also address multicultural considerations in the diagnosis and instruction of students with disabilities. The overall goal of the course is to expand your expertise and confidence in providing an inclusive classroom that effectively addresses the needs of the diverse population of students

This course is designed to provide teachers and other practitioners with a foundational knowledge in classroom management, behavioral intervention for mild/moderate behavioral challenges, and knowledge of behavioral technologies to support classroom teaching with diverse students, including those with special needs. Especially salient to this course is the acknowledgement of prevention and intervention strategies conducted at multiple levels, including the macro level of schools and communities and at the micro level as teachers negotiate meaning with students on a moment-to-moment basis. Students will directly utilize a series of behavioral assessments in a variety of domains to build a technology of resources for identifying and successfully intervening with problematic behavior. The functional analysis of the etiology of behaviors will allow students to identify crucial factors that motivate, prompt, and maintain the behavior. Students will then apply their principles and understanding of behavioral change to develop and implement behavioral, social, and academic interventions.

It is recommended, but not required, that students take CEP 840 prior to CEP 850. For an override, contact Missy Davis at: davisme@msu.edu.  This course will examine the use of technology to meet the needs of students who face challenges reading and comprehending text. We will examine ways in which technology can be used to support students' literacy acquisition and to improve their performance and independence as they read and write. We will consider students with literacy difficulties and students with mild disabilities (such as learning disabilities), and will examine technology applications that can be used in the general education classroom. Participants will examine a variety of technology-based applications online, choose applications that are relevant for the students they teach, and create a technology and literacy plan.

It is necessary to e-mail Ayodele Webb at: webbayod@msu.edu and request an override to enroll in this course. Children and youth face a variety of developmental challenges and a variety of external barriers that inhibit the successful resolution of developmental tasks. Understanding the normative processes of human development in their context provides a conceptual base to help children and youth meet these challenges. Developmental processes related to school success are particularly important in our current climate of educational accountability. Applying a theoretical framework to child/youth intervention programs and understanding best practices identified by the literature facilitate counselor’s capacity to positively impact the lives of children and youth.

This course can count towards the Special Education concentration.  The course will equip both teachers and administrators with knowledge of how to collect data for the purposes of informing instruction and intervention within response to intervention and multi-tiered systems of support models (RTI/MTSS). The course will begin by highlighting historical and legal influences on the increasing implementation of these models, and follow with an overview of key assessment principles that are pertinent to effective implementation. A variety of academic (math, reading, writing) and behavioral assessment tools and strategies will be explored. Students will display their own assessment administration and interpretation skills through recorded video demonstrations of their work with children and adolescents, with instructor feedback provided on their developing skills. Methods for managing and communicating related assessment information to parents and students will also be addressed. Please note you will need to record and upload video of your skills for this course. 

The Psychology of Classroom Discipline is a 6-week summer course designed to help teachers and other school professionals improve classroom management strategies. The course will review "best practices" in classroom management and focus on research-based strategies that improve the learning environment for all students.

The course explores leadership as the challenge of helping members of organizations learn, gain new capabilities and reach improved outcomes. Educational contexts will be the main setting for examinations of shifting definitions and understandings of leadership, the influences of formal and informal leaders, leadership as actions that take place in particular contexts, and competing perspective on leadership strategy as it applies to organizational turnaround or improvement. Students work in cycles of collaborative group work and independent study. Assignments include analytic memos, short essays, exams and action plans.

The contemporary history of diverse students and their families in education can be articulated as an evolving experience for students and families from varied backgrounds. The context of education today should communicate that teaching and learning in contemporary school environments should be a shared discovery opportunity where students and educators learn from one another and experience very personal understandings, if the educational opportunities are designed to maximize student learning. This course will examine these aspects of how schools engage diverse students and families by looking at the context of schools and the communities where schools exist and where students come from. It will also look at the historical relationship between school and home and consider how the contemporary social, cultural and linguistic contexts impact the process of education.

“The Learning Society” is a popular but problematic phrase meant to describe recent developments in education across the life span and to guide institutions and individuals worldwide in their educational goals, activities, and plans for the future. By now, as it is used by many authors and leaders, the learning society refers to a complex global configuration of activities and possibilities.

Many of those who use the phrase the learning society credit it to the famous educational leader and innovator Robert Maynard Hutchins of the University of Chicago and his book The Learning Society (1968). He features the classical Greek Polis, or the ideal of an educated citizenry according to ideals that are associated with the liberal arts and sciences. He was concerned about the narrowing of education by the demands of the workplace and the professions.

Today, business leaders and theorists (or gurus) of work and economic and technological organization are urging participation in the learning society based on a very different understanding of what the phrase means. Others propose individual growth as the cornerstone of the learning society, seeing it as an entitlement in the “post-industrial” world. Still others focus on the learning society as the domain in which technology will provide the essential format for education in schools and at work, and for learning everywhere else as well. Thus, the learning society stands for a combination of historical, organizational, and cultural forces at work in the 21st century which deserves critical attention.

The goals of EAD 860 online are to explore: 1) what is meant by the learning society as the phrase is used in the US and other nations, or how the phrase has come to mean several things in its brief history (the “genealogy” of the learning society); 2) primary domains and activities of the learning society in their historical, social, economic, and cultural contexts; and 3) the experiences and views of individuals living and working in the learning society.

We will use many kinds of texts (scholarly work, autobiography, and journalism) and also films, audio, and online exhibits, to study our subject. This is a self-paced course with no required interaction among students (e.g., chat room postings or small group assignments). There will be voluntary Discussion Forums. Students will be required to complete on their own six units based on the texts and other web-based resources. A brief paper is required for each unit (75%) and a longer, essay based, final exam (25%). While the course is self-paced, and students determine the rate at which they complete the units and the writing assignments, all work must be completed by the end of the semester.

Adult career development is a critical part of the human life cycle, including differences reflecting age, gender, and historical (or cohort) experience. And careers must be understood in relation to the nature of work in its many forms, opportunities for learning, the structure of occupations and professions, and the impact on individuals of organizations (and the reverse). Accordingly, the study of how adults develop in their work requires attention to ideas in several fields of inquiry. There is as yet no widely agreed upon theory of career development across the disciplines that capture its variability and whatever principles are available to guide our understanding of the experiences of individuals.

We will study the structure of careers, including theories of career stages, and also key developmental features of work across the life cycle, focusing on how individuals make their work satisfying and meaningful. Our goal will not be to discover an ideal or universal scheme for career development--as is the case in many popular handbooks--but to inquire into the variety of ways in which individuals have constructed, in their careers and then in texts representing them, satisfying ways to lead a life of work.

This course explores educational leadership from a variety of perspectives. We will develop a better understanding of leadership in complex educational settings, what it looks like throughout the organization, how it is enacted, and how it is relevant to addressing problems facing us today. In this case based course, students use leadership literature to address contemporary issues and see ways in which leaders can be instrumental in creating organizational change. Students will also explore their own leadership philosophies and practices.

This course can count toward the P-12 School and Postsecondary Leadership concentration. Planning and evaluating programs for learning in diverse educational contexts.

This course can count toward the P-12 School and Postsecondary Leadership concentration. This course considers the latest research findings on the needs of various student populations that K-12 Schools may struggle to serve well and the most effective programs and services geared toward meeting those needs. The course focuses on creating change at the school level to better serve all students in K-12 settings.

Between July 1 and August 11, students will work independently at their own pace through 6 units of study focused on different student groups. Students can set their own schedule and work their way through the materials as quickly or as slowly as they desire. The only deadlines are that at least 2 units must be completed by midnight on August 1, and all 6 units must be completed by midnight on August 11.

Each unit is designed to take 8-10 hours to complete and includes 2 recent research articles or book chapters to read, a video-recorded mini-lecture, 1-3 brief online videos to view, an online quiz to check your understanding, and a 3-4 page paper in which you will analyze a student case or create a school plan for improving the educational opportunities for students.

There are 3 required units of study and 3 elective units of study.

Units of Study:

All students will complete the following 3 units:

• English Language Learners
• Students Receiving Special Education Services
• Students At-Risk for Dropping Out of School

Plus each student will select 3 of the following units:

• Students who are Homeless
• Students who are Victims or Instigators of Bullying
• Students in Gangs
• Students with Substance Abuse Problems
• LGBT Students
• Students in Foster Care

Credits: 3
Section: 730 - 5/13/2013 - 8/15/2013
Instructor: Dr. Steven Weiland
For course override and enrollment be sure to e-mail your PID and request to onlineed@msu.edu.

This course, the introductory one in the MSU online MAED program, is designed to be foundational. It provides an opportunity to think and exchange ideas about our beliefs about education and the many forms of inquiry related to it.

Questions such as these will stand behind our work: What are education’s purposes, traditions, characteristic activities, and its recurring problems and efforts at reform? What is most worth knowing and how are individual, institutional, and social views of schooling and the curriculum reconciled? How do we learn, what do we want from teaching, and from education outside of schools and beyond the years of formal schooling? How do conditions of contemporary life (e.g., globalization and new information and communications technologies) influence education? How has educational inquiry been defined and practiced, and how has it changed in response to new circumstances? What role does knowledge of human experience unlike our own play in inquiry? What resources are available for making inquiry part of teaching, administration, and leadership in schools and other educational institutions?

The syllabus is organized around four domains of educational inquiry, interpretation, and criticism: classroom-based or teacher research, theories of intelligence and the curriculum, history and biography, and ethnographic participant observation and reflection. These do not, of course, exhaust the possibilities for inquiry but they provide an opportunity to sample influential and practical forms. Attention to the four domains of inquiry is framed by opening and closing course units devoted to, respectively, the philosophy of education (particularly the legacy of John Dewey) and the impact of new information and communications technologies.

Our educational inquiries inevitably begin with our own experience and preferences but they don’t end there. Thus, the course will emphasize our interaction with the many forms of inquiry, their different goals, methods, uses, and meanings. We will study work by a small group of influential writers on education, and make considerable use of online resources via hypermedia, or the course’s extensive “web” of electronic links. Thus, ED 800 represents the fact that education, as a subject of inquiry, interpretation, and criticism, is a multi-disciplinary and now multi-media endeavor inviting us to understand the nature of teaching and learning, with administration and leadership, from diverse perspectives.

Assignments will include reading (books, articles, and essays), viewing (films, video, online exhibits, and websites), listening (audio reports, documentaries, and interviews), and writing (several brief papers and a longer one at the end of the course).

The Capstone Seminar is designed to engage students in discussion and reflection on their learning in the Master of Arts in Education program. Each student will create a Web-based portfolio that presents a well-organized representation of their work and thinking in the program and participate in online discussion with other students in the seminar around their developing portfolios.

This course prepares athletic administrators, school administrators, coaches, and directors of recreational programs for the responsibilities associated with providing and maintaining educationally sound athletic programs for amateur athletes. Obligations of those who are responsible for managing the risks associated with participation in physical activities are identified, as are the consequences of failing to protect the welfare of individuals who participate in school and agency-sponsored programs. Included are issues surrounding the topics of negligence, supervision, corporal punishment, contracts, termination of employees, due process, defamation, roles of independent contractors, gender equity, sexual harassment and the abuse of power, product liability, expected standards of care, waivers, essential records, transporting athletes and eligibility. Course content is conveyed through text books, journal articles available electronically and message boards.

This course explores the manner in which student learning can be organized across and through social differences. Course topics therefore include the following: the achievement gap, parental involvement, small learning communities, tracking, as well as democratic and culturally-relevant pedagogy across the various disciplines. Underlying these topics, and a thread which is woven across the course, is the manner in which institutions such as schools construct and enforce specific notions of "intelligence" and "success." So as to inform the practice of classroom teachers, course readings are limited to research that provides rich descriptions of classroom life.

TE 831 is an interdisciplinary graduate course designed to explore the educational value, potential, and challenge of using technology in the teaching and learning of subject matter. The course focuses on the teaching of subject matter within three technological contexts: Electronic Games, The Internet/WWW, and Video/Multimedia.

Electronic Games - Real Learning and Playing Games
Electronic games hook students' interest and imagination in ways that most school tasks do not. While there's much about the content of electronic games that is problematic there is much to be learned about the teaching and learning principles embedded in these environments. What can we learn about what makes a 'good' electronic game and about how players engage with and interact with them that we can import to our classrooms?

Internet and WWW - Designing and Supporting E-Learning
Similarly, the internet/WWW has become commonplace in students' lives both as a source of and a place for communication. Though there is much in the Internet/WWW that can be objectionable, we need to take on the challenge of teaching students how to use these tools well and responsibly. We'll examine the learning opportunities that can be created for students as they surf the web or as they talk with virtual friends.

Video and Multimedia - Learning from and with Multimedia
From MTV to YouTube to vidoeing with cell phones, students are growing up in a culture that constantly consumes and produces multimedia. Within this theme we'll study the following question: What are the challenges and possibilities of using multimedia in the classroom?

Credits: 3
Section: 730 - 6/17/2013 - 8/9/2013
Instructor: Dr. Laura Apol

It is recommended, but not required that students take TE 849 prior to TE 836. This course is designed to help students become better acquainted with "classics" of children's literature and with books that have won significant children's literature awards.

To that end, we'll begin by investigating some of the major awards in children's literature (who gives them, what are they given for, who are some of the recipients); we'll then look more closely at some books that have won awards for the quality and innovation of their illustrations as well as books that have won awards for the quality and innovation of their text. From there, we'll move into thinking about books that might be considered classics of children's literature. We'll begin this module by asking questions about the whole notion of a "classic" piece of literature; we'll then compare classics and their movie versions; and we'll conclude this module by identifying and reading contemporary scholarship about books of the past. Finally, we'll compare classics and award-winning books in on-line literature discussion groups, identifying similarities and differences between select pairs of books and asking questions about the roles these books can play in children's lives and in the elementary and secondary literature curriculum.

This online course explores the connections between children's literature and film.   In the course we will "read" film as an interpretation (rather than translation) of a text, as well as talk about the complexities of understanding these versions as films in their own right-using language and critical perspectives drawn from media and film studies.  Assignments will include individual and group responses (through writing and discussion) designed to encourage dialogue and an exchange of views as well as to allow for well-developed and thoughtful responses to film versions of children's literature.  All films and books should be available through local libraries, bookstores, video rental stores, or online sources.

Credits: 3
Section: 730 - 5/13/2013 - 6/27/2013
Instructor: Dr. Tanya Wright

Section 733 - 7/1/2013 - 8/15/2013
Instructor: TBA

Characteristics of effective reading assessment and instruction as identified in research and described by respected reading researchers and practitioners.

This course is about how teachers can use content area literacy to help diverse students learn within multiple contexts. Recent research and critical reviews about literacy indicate the importance of knowing who students are - their personal histories, their cultures and gender, their aspirations for themselves and how they see themselves as learners. These things all influence what happens in the classroom and how students learn. Literacy is part of this puzzle, but not the only part. Research and authoritative reports indicate that students' learning is heavily influenced by context - subject matter, classroom, and school, community, state and national contexts. Content area literacy can be a great mediator among all these factors. In addition, we will also look at various pedagogies that can help inform our teaching and our integration of literacy into each of our classrooms.

This course can count toward the Literacy Education concentration. Acquisition of literacy in schools by and assessment of language minority students and other learners with diverse backgrounds.

Credits: 3
Sections: 730 - 5/13/2013 - 6/27/2013 - Katherine Cooke

                733 - 6/24/2013 - 8/2/2013 - Chad Waldron

               736 - 5/13/2013 - 6/27/2013 - Erin Wibbins

                739 - 6/24/2013 - 8/2/2013 - Jennifer Knight
                792 - 6/24/2013 8/2/2013 - Kari Richards
               
*State of Michigan Reading Requirement

There are very few classrooms in the United States today that do not have at least a few struggling readers and writers. More and more, teachers and schools are being held accountable for meeting these students’ literacy learning needs. To meet these needs in a diverse student population, it is vital to make sure every instructional staff member (a) understands how literacy is relevant to student success, regardless of content area, and (b) can successfully integrate evidence-based literacy instructional practices into their teaching. Accordingly, TE 846 is organized around five broad topical areas and associated literacy instruction and assessment practices: cultural and linguistic differences, individual motivation differences, neuropsychological differences, instructional arrangements to accommodate learning differences, and core components of effective literacy instruction. Students in the course learn about the principles of instruction and remediation in reading and writing, classroom assessment techniques for reading and writing, and materials and adaptations for reading and writing instruction. They also learn how to critically evaluate materials, curricula, programs, and practices used in literacy instruction, and how to select, modify, and design literacy materials, tasks, and teaching techniques to meet the specific needs of struggling readers and writers.

Writing theory, research, and pedagogy. Writing processes, strategies, assessments, and environments that address diverse writers (K-adult). Expository, narrative, and poetic genres. Prewriting, composing, revising, editing, and publishing

This course is intended as an advanced survey course in children's and adolescent literature. We will look together at genres of children's literature, as well as ongoing and contemporary issues associated with various genres. Our reading list includes picture books, novels, graphic novels, and film as we try to get a working sense of the "field."

The materials we use will be the children's books themselves. We will also use other materials: textbooks, articles, and online resources that will help us develop a language and perspective for evaluation and conversation about children's and adolescent literature.

The method of the course will involve an exploration of what we do with this literature. By do with this literature, I do not mean listing classroom activities that can accompany each text. Instead, we will explore the kinds of conversations that surround pieces of literature, whether those texts are written for children, adults, or both. We will read widely and closely, ask questions, make room for varying answers, and talk in general and in specific terms about how to involve children in literature.

Credits: 3
Section: 730 - 6/24/2013 - 8/2/2013
Instructor: Dawnmarie Ezzo

It is necessary to e-mail Dr. Amelia Gotwals at gotwals@msu.edu for an override to the prerequisite requirement. Philosophy and methods supporting action research in sciences and mathematics classrooms. Design and implementation of an action research project in student’s own setting. Analyzing, interpreting, and reporting project results. Reflection on study’s value.