The primary purpose of this course is to bring together students and faculty who are engaged in all kinds of community and public interest projects, to make connections between projects, to read and discuss social and political theory articles, and to meet interesting outside guests. Permission of instructor.

Education affects the lives of everyone in this country. As future professionals, voters, teachers, parents, and leaders, students at the University of Michigan will help shape the quality of life in the United States, and education will matter – a lot. This course will introduce students to the role of education in today’s world. Topics will include the implications for schooling our increasingly diverse population; principles of how kids learn; ways schools facilitate student achievement (or not); and the changing nature of literacy in the information age. In addition to readings and discussions, there will be opportunities for hands-on experience and interactions with K-12 students in schools.  

EDUC 118 is an approved course to satisfy the LSA Race and Ethnicity Requirement.

This class meets the Race & Ethnicity requirement.

Education Policy in a Multicultural Society explores policy and school improvement, and focuses in particular on the U.S. public school system, with an emphasis on both equity and access. In this course we begin by asking: what is public education for, and then consider how schools can be improved so that educational outcomes are ambitious and equitable. We build on students' understandings of the practice of teaching, developed in ED118, to investigate the dynamics of education reform.

We closely examine authentic texts – including artifacts from our own experiences in schools, as well as mandates and legislative texts, policies, data on school improvement, and other resources designed for the improvement of schools. We critically examine each of these, looking for assumptions about teaching and learning and their improvement, assessing the key levers for improvement that they provide, and extrapolating implications for the design and valuation of change. In so doing students will develop critical skills of analysis and interpretation that will enable them to (1) better understand and evaluate efforts to improve schooling in the United States, (2) collaborate substantively, (3) and write and speak about educational policy persuasively. Given the courses strong focus on equity and access, issues of inclusion, voice, and rigor will be consistent through-lines.

Service-Learning in Mathematics Tutoring

What role does technology play in high-performance learning and teaching environments? What are the most common mistakes schools, parents, and communities make when integrating technology into learning and teaching? How does policy at the federal, state, local, and institutional level affect what is possible with technology? We will explore the answers to these questions in this class as we examine ways technology has been used successfully (and not so successfully) in a variety of educational contexts. Students are encouraged to develop critical perspectives about the uses of technology for learning and teaching.

Prerequisites: None

Why are videogames fun?  Why do so many students think that school isn't fun?  The answers are not as obvious as you might think.  Good games draw you in, teach you how to succeed, and keep you engaged with a "just right" level of challenge.  Most importantly, players learn while playing a well-designed game.  Why isn't school like that?  This class takes a close look at videogames, a close look at education, and considers ways that each can be improved to maximize learning and performance.  Core topics include motivation, engagement, learning theories, and learning environment design.
 

Prerequisites: Permission of instructor.

EDUC 603 will examine different issues and methods involved in the evaluation of learning environments (including, but not limited to learning technology aspects of those environments). Specifically, the course will focus on assessment from a design-based research (DBR) approach, which involves methodological approaches in which instructional design and research are cyclical and interdependent to solve practical problems and to develop sharable theory that connect design features to valued outcomes. Students will review the components of learning environments and discuss the issues and goals for assessing those environments. Students will also discuss DBR, the motivations for this approach, and different case studies to see examples of how DBR is used for assessment. 
 

Using the State of Michigan as a focus example, this course explores general guidelines, issues, and other foundations for curriculum  development and evaluation at elementary, middle, and secondary school levels.  Included are the strands, objectives and evidence for their attainment, instructional strategies, and formative evaluation procedures for each subject.  Curriculum articulation and instructional improvement receive special attention.

Students enrolling in Internship in Learning Technologies will be paired with area educational institutions where they will focus on solutions to real, ongoing issues and challenges in the uses of technology to support learning. A University instructor and an on-site internship director/mentor will supervise interns. A reflective analytical paper must be completed.

Discusses developmental theories and psychological research and their application to educational problems at the classroom and school levels. Theories and research are presented from cognitive-developmental, cognitive science, social constructivist, and motivational perspectives.

Prerequisites: Graduate standing at the doctoral level.

In our current age of accountability, developing an appreciation and understanding of the complexities of the design, evaluation and interpretation of educational assessment is paramount. In this graduate seminar we will draw on contemporary research papers, a range of existing tests, and multi-media resources to examine, understand, discuss and evaluate current theory, practice, and instruments associated with assessment systems used to evaluate learning.

The course has three goals: 1) to acquaint students with essential concepts in educational measurement such as reliability, validity, error, and bias; 2) to provoke inquiry into a number of important issues in the field including (a) assessment and accountability, (b) classroom-based assessment, especially formative assessment, (c) assessing students with special needs, (d) standards for educational assessment, (e) technology-based approaches to assessment, and (f) assessing teachers and teaching; and 3) to examine contemporary educational assessment practices in the Unites States with reference to the practices in other countries.

This course is designed as a fundamental graduate seminar on the principles, analysis, interpretation and appropriate use of educational measurement approaches and test design and it is not intended for individuals interested in a statistics-based methods course.

For questions, please contact Ed Silver at [email protected].

Assessment is an integral part of teaching and learning. Teachers use informal and formal assessments on an ongoing basis to make decisions about their students, evaluate the success of their instruction, and to monitor classroom climate. The typical teacher spends about a third of his/her professional time engaged in assessment-related activities. Because classroom-based assessment is so critical to the instructional process, learning about assessment is essential to learning about teaching.

In this course, you will develop and evaluate formative and summative assessments of simple and complex student knowledge, beliefs, and/or attitudes associated with classroom activities associated with a subject-matter domain and a particular target audience. You will learn how to design assessments that are carefully aligned with educational objectives. This course will also include hands on activities to guide the creation, revision and use of quality assessment rubrics and coding schemes that work with the assessments of your design.

Learning Experience Design is a six credit hour course offered in two parts over the entire academic year. The course requires students complete a residency within the Center for Academic Innovation (CAI) where they will work under the guidance of the Learning Experience Design team. In addition to their placement in CAI, students will expand their knowledge of learning theory, digital pedagogy, assessment of learning, and curriculum design. Students will also develop practical skills in a variety of software tools used to develop materials for online learning.

Extended reality (XR) technologies—which encompass virtual, augmented, and mixed reality tools—are gaining increased attention within and beyond our campus. As can happen with new technologies, bold claims are being made about how advances in XR technologies have the potential to transform education, changing the way learners interact with instructional content, educators, and other learners. What is needed is a closer examination of XR and learning to better understand the ways in which these technologies might (or might not) support learning, how current literature about learning theory, psychology, and human-computer interaction inform the affordances and constraints of XR in learning contexts, and how thoughtful designers might go about creating XR experiences that are effective for different kinds of learning goals and environments. Through a close examination of relevant literature and contemporary XR technology, students will be able to critically examine the potential for “breakthrough” technologies to support learning. Students will engage in a range of experiential learning opportunities to explore the potential for XR to support learning. Special attention will be given to topics of representation, social learning, identity, and empathy.

Examines in depth factors related to the development and implementation of instructional programs in writing at the elementary and secondary levels; explores specific instructional techniques.