Nov 23, 2024  
2019-2020 Graduate Catalog 
    
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2019-2020 Graduate Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Education (Teaching Field Majors) Ed.S. Overview

The program of study for the Specialist programs in Elementary and Early Childhood Education, Middle Grades Education, Secondary Education, or Special Education is planned to span approximately four semesters of consecutive enrollment for a total of 30 hours minimum. Some candidates, however, may progress at a faster rate having received some transfer credit for previous graduate work. After successful completion of 30 hours, candidates are awarded the Educational Specialist degree.

Specialist candidates with majors in Elementary and Early Childhood Education, Middle Grades Education, Secondary Education, or Special Education are prepared to gain a deep understanding of the cultural and contextual nature of the learner; the influence of individual learners’ funds of knowledge and variations among learners including abilities and learning styles; and instructional strategies for planning, implementation, differentiation and assessment of learner-centered instruction.

The Educational Specialist degree in Elementary and Early Childhood Education, Middle Grades Education, Secondary Education, and Special Education is organized around the goal of improving teacher ability to bring every learner to high levels of learning. By deepening the educator’s understanding of learners, particularly those with diverse characteristics in the context of families, schools, and culture, a greater majority of under- served student populations will realize higher achievement. Research plays a key function in candidates’ learning processes as they are required to investigate real P-12 issues in applied settings. Discussions in these settings are intended to lead to new understandings of the learner and the circumstances that improve his/her life chances.

The aim of this degree is to inspire and support the development of professional educators who possess a deep knowledge of learner-centered principles and who know how to teach and lead by them. The objective is to produce graduates who will not only deeply assimilate the principles of learner-centeredness, but deliver and foster them in the P-12 workplace.

The nine (9) Candidate Performance Outcomes for the Educational Specialist degree in Elementary and Early Childhood Education, Middle Grades Education, Secondary Education, and Special Education are:

  1. Candidates foster a responsive, learner-centered educational environment that promotes collaboration and democratic participation for student learning and may include co-teaching.
  2. Candidates demonstrate pedagogical approaches which incorporate contextual, theoretical/conceptual, and practical influences on the learner and learning.
  3. Candidates advance teaching and learning through the innovative use of technology based on sound educational theory and knowledge of the learner.
  4. Candidates demonstrate in-depth foundational knowledge of content-based research, scholarship, and socio-political influences in the teaching field and use this knowledge to analyze and interpret problems and implement solutions within their profession.
  5. Candidates demonstrate and apply various types of assessment to inform the learner’s ability to analyze, monitor, and improve their learning as well as interpret and use data to inform their own pedagogical effectiveness.
  6. Candidates engage in scholarly, applied research to advance knowledge of teaching, the learner, and/or learning.
  7. Candidates reflect on their professional, scholarly practice, and analyze how their thinking, beliefs, or behaviors toward improved learner-centered practices have changed.
  8. Candidates support academic and linguistic needs of the learner, enhance cultural understandings, and increase global awareness of all students.
  9. Candidates demonstrate professional dispositions, fluency of academic language in a variety of contexts, and ethical practice expected of an engaged scholar-practitioner.

The related Knowledge, Skills, and Dispositions (KSD) in this program are delineated in the performance outcomes and are embedded within all syllabi. Candidates for the Ed.S. complete a minimum of 30 hours of study in two areas. The areas are:

  • Education and Research Core (15 -18 hrs.)
  • Major (12 - 15hrs.)

Program Total: (Minimum) 30 Credit Hours for all Majors
 

Common Framework/Sequence/Courses for Ed.S. Education Programs in Teaching Majors

(Elementary and Early Childhood Education, Middle Grades Education, Secondary Education, and Special Education)

The Educational Specialist (Ed.S.) Programs in Elementary and Early Childhood Education, Middle Grades Education, Secondary Education, and Special Education in the Bagwell College of Education are aligned with the Professional Teacher Education Unit’s vision to remain at the forefront of educator preparation. These programs develop master teachers, teacher leaders, and scholars through innovative teaching, purposeful research, and engaged service within a collaborative teaching and learning community. Informed pedagogical approaches arise from teachers’ critical understandings of Contextual, Practical, and Conceptual/Theoretical influences on the learner. The belief that all students can learn when the learner is the pedagogical core—promoted by Weimer (2002)—is the foundation of this program. Within this learner-centered conceptual framework, learners are embodied as P-16 students, pre-service candidates, teachers, teacher-leaders, and school and district leaders and administrators, all of whom engage in a coherent, P-16 learner-centered approach (Copland & Knapp, 2006).

According to Lambert and McCombs (2000) and Alexander and Murphy (2000), the Practical (Applied), Contextual (Milieu), and Conceptual (Theoretical) Critical Understandings, taken together, form a lens for understanding Learner-Centered Psychological Principles in the following five domains:

  1. The knowledge base. The conclusive result of decades of research on knowledge base is that what a person already knows largely determines what new information he attends to, how he organizes and represents new information, how he filters new experiences, and even what he determines to be important or relevant (Alexander & Murphy, 2000; Mayer & Alexander, 2011).
  2. Strategic processing and executive control. The ability to reflect on and regulate one’s thoughts and behaviors is an essential aspect of learning. Successful students are actively involved in their own learning, monitor their thinking, think about their learning, and assume responsibility for their own learning (Lambert & McCombs, 2000; Veenman, 2011).
  3. Motivation and affect. The benefits of learner-centered education include increased motivation for learning and greater satisfaction with school; both of these outcomes lead to greater achievement (Johnson, 1991; Maxwell, 1998; Slavin, 1990). Research shows that personal involvement, intrinsic motivation, personal commitment, confidence in one’s abilities to succeed, and a perception of control over learning lead to more learning and higher achievement in school (Alexander & Murphy, 2000; Bonney & Sternberg, 2011; Veenman, 2011).
  4. Development and individual differences. Individuals progress through various common stages of development, influenced by both inherited and environmental factors. Depending on the context or task, changes in how people think, believe, or behave are dependent on a combination of one’s inherited abilities, stages of development, individual differences, capabilities, experiences, and environmental conditions (Alexander & Murphy, 2000; Arnett, 2012). Note that cultural influences are included in environmental factors and conditions in our program.
  5. Situation or context. Theories of learning that highlight the roles of active engagement and social interaction in the students’ own construction of knowledge (Bruner, 1966; Kafai & Resnick, 1996; Piaget, 1963; Vygotsky, 1978) strongly support a learner-centered paradigm. Learning is a social process. Many environmental factors, how the instructor teaches, and how actively engaged the student is in the learning process positively or negatively influence how much and what students learn (Lambert & McCombs, 2000; Slavin, 2011). Note that our program includes culture in environmental factors.

Source: http://www.usciences.edu/teaching/Learner-Centered/

Education and Research Core for Ed.S. Programs in Teaching Field Majors (27 Credit Hours)

Candidates take 15* - 18 hours within the Education and Research Core, which emphasizes Learner-Centered Pedagogy/Application & Theory. The courses are:

Major Teaching Field (12-15 Credit Hours)

Candidates take at least four courses with one (1) being from the area of Technology. Note: the Major for Middle Grades Education and Secondary Education are divided into two areas – teaching field pedagogy and teaching field content.

Ed.S. Majors