For a full listing of courses, see the university schedule of courses.
- SME 842: Critical Content in School Mathematics: Geometry and Measurement
- TE 918: Disciplinary Knowledge and School Subjects
- TE 920: Social Analysis of Educational Policy
- TE 923: Comparative Perspectives on Teaching, Curriculum and Teacher Education
- TE 931: Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods
- TE 934: Introduction to Quantitative Research
- TE 944: Seminar in English Education
- TE 946: Current Perspectives in Literacy Research and Instruction
- TE 950: Mathematical Ways of Knowing
- TE/CEP 959: Acquisition and Development of Language and Literacy
- CEP/TE 981: Research on Literacy and Technology
- TE 982: The Achievement Gaps: Examining Multiple Causes and Possible Policy Solutions
- TE 982: Examining Critical Race Theory in Education
- TE 991: Re-thinking Teacher Preparation: The Role of Research in Design, Assessment and Sustainability
- TE 991: Global and Peace Education: Discourses, Dilemmas and Practices
SME 842: Critical Content in School Mathematics: Geometry and Measurement
Thursday, 12:40PM-3:30PM, Erickson Hall, 132
Instructor: Michael D. Steele
This course offers students interested in mathematics and mathematics education a unique opportunity to explore the nature of geometry and measurement teaching and learning across the K-12 spectrum. We will engage in rich explorations of geometry and measurement mathematics content as students in elementary and secondary schools experience it, including the use traditional geometry tools as well as technological innovations like Geometer’s Sketchpad and Geogebra. We will also explore the body of research related to the teaching and learning of geometry and measurement, including investigating student learning, curriculum development, teacher knowledge, and teacher professional development.
Course participants will also have the opportunity to design and implement a small-scale research project related to geometry and measurement using the core ideas of the course as a starting point. This course is open to all students in doctoral programs related to teacher education, educational technology, educational administration, mathematics, and the sciences. Contact Mike for more information: mdsteele@msu.edu or stop by 349 Erickson Hall.
TE 918: Disciplinary Knowledge and School Subjects
Friday, 4:10PM-7:00PM, Erickson Hall, 224
Instructor: Sandra Crespo
Educators, school critics, and the public at large, worry a great deal about the quality of schools, teachers, and curriculum. They worry that: Schools offer a piecemeal curriculum. The core curriculum regularly offered in schools does not adequately represent all disciplinary fields. Teachers do not know their subject area deeply or well enough. School subjects should be more relevant to students’ lives. Schools are not preparing students to compete in a global economy. These statements represent current and longstanding concerns about teacher and school quality. At the root of these concerns lay fundamental questions about what/how and whose knowledge is studied in school.
This course examines representations of knowledge and knowing within and across disciplines and school subjects. We will consider the space of disciplinary knowledge broadly, assuming that the study of school subjects reflects and refracts the ways disciplinary knowledge is understood, produced, and performed across various communities (academic disciplines, community, work place).
This course offers a cross-disciplinary investigation of two basic questions—What counts as knowledge? and Whose knowledge counts?—within and across academic disciplines, contexts, and communities of practice. We begin by examining the birthing of the academic disciplines historically, looking in particular at the boundaries drawn and the mechanisms used to distinguish among the humanities, the sciences, and the arts as separate areas of study. We will contrast the methods, tools, and practices by which disciplines claim to come to know, produce and discard knowledge (and how they account for such things as human imagination, aesthetics, and intuition). We then move to consider contemporary perspectives on knowledge and knowing, in particular exploring domains of knowledge considered at the ‘fringe’ that push the boundaries of what is typically considered ‘official knowledge.’ All throughout we will draw connections and implications for how disciplinary knowledge is represented, organized, and experienced in school contexts. We will use genre analysis as a tool to explore disciplinary objects that cross, as well as those that resist crossing, disciplinary boundaries.
TE 920: Social Analysis of Educational Policy
Thursday, 4:10PM-7:00PM, Bessey Hall, 112
Instructor: Gary Sykes
This course will examine the core values that underlie educational policy, drawing on literature in the fields of political philosophy, economics, and sociology. The premise of the course follows the dictum laid down by Tom Green, that to understand a policy question requires that you understand the contending values that are at stake. What values? Democracy, equity and equality, liberty, human rights, individualism, and others. Applications to contemporary education policy questions will be explored. Students will be encouraged to select a policy question of interest to them, then shape an analysis based on the contending values in play around that question.
TE 923: Comparative Perspectives on Teaching, Curriculum and Teacher Education
Wednesday, 4:10PM-7:00PM, Erickson Hall, 222
Instructor: Lynn Paine
TE 931: Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods
Thursday, 4:10 to 7:00 pm, Erickson Hall, 111
Instructor: Dorothea Anagnostopoulos
TE 934: Introduction to Quantitative Research
Monday, 4:10PM-7:00PM, Erickson Hall, 132
Instructor: Anne-Lise Halvorsen
TE934 is an introductory course in quantitative methods, data analysis, and research design. The course emphasizes the application of statistical concepts to practical questions in social science, policy, and evaluation, while also including instruction in appropriate statistical theory. Students will study issues and problems social science researchers face, focusing on topics such as experimental and quasi-experimental design, data collection procedures, validity, generalizability, ethics, and conducting mixed-methods research. Students will be introduced to nationally representative, longitudinal datasets available to the public by the National Center for Educational Statistics, and they will analyze one dataset in particular, the Early Childhood Longitudinal Dataset. They will learn how to run their own analyses using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics (t-test, ANOVA, and regression analysis). There is both a consumer and a producer component to the course; students will learn to evaluate quantitative studies as well as begin to conduct their own analyses. Students produce a final project using the class-provided dataset, another NCES dataset, or data they have collected themselves.
TE 944: Seminar in English Education
Monday, 12:40 to 3:30 pm, Wells Hall, C215
Instructor: Samantha Caughlan
TE 946: Current Perspectives in Literacy Research and Instruction
Thursday, 12:40PM-3:30PM, Wonders Hall, C102
Instructor: Guofang Li
This course is required for doctoral students in EPET and CTEP/CITE
pursuing the Specialization in Language and Literacy. It is encouraged
for other doctoral students with a strong interest in literacy
research. The purpose of this proseminar is to explore the policy,
theoretical, pedagogical, and research issues pertaining to literacy
learning and teaching in a pluralist society. Students will read
articles and books related to these topics and will be expected to
critically think about texts and class discussions in order to
analyze, synthesize, and build texts, and to begin to identify his/her
own areas of research. It is expected that each student will begin to
formulate his/her research questions, conduct a literature review, and
give a presentation on his/her research area through this course.
Specifically, through the proseminar students will gain: 1) knowledge of major areas of research in literacy, teaching, and learning; 2) knowledge of some key readings within their subfield of their interest; 3) knowledge of professional arena concerns such as writing for publication, key journals, conferences in literacy and their subfield of interest; 4) skills in formulating research questions, conducting a literature research, and writing a literature review; 5) skills in giving conference style presentations; and 6) knowledge of faculty and students within the University who conduct research in literacy and/or their subfield of interest.
TE 950: Mathematical Ways of Knowing
Monday, 4:10 to 7:00 pm, Ernst Bessey Hall, 314
Instructor: Beth Herbel-Eisenmann
TE/CEP 959: Acquisition and Development of Language and Literacy
Wednesday, 12:40PM-3:30PM, Erickson Hall, 132
Instructor: Doug Hartman
The purpose of this course is to study the research, issues, policies, and scholars central to research on adolescent and adult language & literacy. Using a seminar format, discussions will focus on language and literacy during the adolescent & adult years across institutions (e.g., school, church, clinic, work), disciplines (e.g., English, science, history, mathematics), and communities (e.g., family, neighborhood, gang, club).
CEP/TE 981: Research on Literacy and Technology
Tuesday, 12:40PM-3:30PM, Erickson Hall, 130
Instructor: Doug Hartman
The purpose of this course is to examine research at the nexus of literacy and technology. Seminar discussions will focus on ideas, issues, methods, and evidence from recent scholarship. A research project will be designed and carried out.
TE 982: The Achievement Gaps: Examining Multiple Causes and Possible Policy Solutions
Wednesday, 6:10PM-9:00PM, Erickson Hall, 132
Instructor: Rebecca Jacobsen
TE 982: Examining Critical Race Theory in Education
Monday, 4:10PM-7:00PM, Erickson Hall, 133D
Instructor: Dorinda Carter
In this course, students explore Critical Race Theory as an analytical framework that provides race-based epistemological, methodological, and pedagogical approaches to the study of everyday inequalities in K-20 education. Key foci of this seminar are to help students understand CRT as a theoretical framework, examine its utility and limitations, and consider its application to students' own research and practice. We will begin by exploring the historical development of CRT from Critical Legal Studies (CLS) and move through its contemporary nuances. In addition, we will work to expose the ideological construction of race and education in the U.S. As such, we will also work through the oppressive nature of education and boldly confront notions of colorblindness. Throughout this course, we will grapple with the challenges surrounding the inclusion of multiple voices and perspectives in the complex intersections among race, gender, class, and sexual orientation. This course is open to all Masters and Doctoral-level students and counts toward the Urban Specialization in the College of Education. Questions can be directed to Dr. Carter at dcarter@msu.edu.
TE 991: Re-thinking Teacher Preparation: The Role of Research in Design, Assessment and Sustainability
Wednesday, 4:10PM-7:00PM, Erickson Hall, 111
Instructor: Gail Richmond
This course is designed to examine the extent to which our growing understanding of teacher development has or could have an impact on the design, implementation, and sustainability of effective teacher education programs—both traditional and alternative. We will examine in particular how research on teacher knowledge, beliefs, and professional identity, as well as the impact of contextual variables such as school- and community-based experiences can inform program design. Course participants will be supported in carrying out investigations which will take as their starting points one or more of the core ideas addressed in the course and will result in products such as research, grant, or conference proposals.
TE 991: Global and Peace Education: Discourses, Dilemmas, and Practices
Friday, 9:00AM-12:00PM, Erickson Hall, 226
Instructor: Elizabeth Heilman
This course will explore global issues and global education through multiple theoretical and epistemological lenses. This approach will help doctoral students better understand how to ask questions and conduct research that ranges from macro structural levels on issues such as national and regional level global poverty to micro and interpersonal levels such as phenomenological inquiry into nonviolence and conflict resolution in peace education. There are Four Major Foci and Goals of Learning including: 1. Globalization as a Policy Environment: Particular focus on de-industrialization, structural adjustment, neoliberalism, the recent global economic crisis as well as new paradigms such as the Millennium Development goals and Nobel prize economist Amartya Sen's Human Development Theory. 2. Globalization as an Interpersonal Environment: What are the root causes of poverty, oppression, fear and violence? How do religious, ethnic, gender and class differences become entrenched or ameliorated? How do people develop a sense of power, political efficacy, human connection and responsibility to others? How have nonviolent social movements have worked in countries around the world? What is peace education? 3. Globalization as a Phenomenon including current historical thinking on patterns of colonialism and post colonialism across regions; current economic thinking on the incorporation of local, regional, and national economies into a worldwide global economy coupled with profound and deepening inequality; current anthropological thinking on the increasing in interaction between societies, resulting in global culture, which exists along with an array of distinctive local, national, and regional cultures; etc. 4. Global Education as K-16 Curriculum.
