500

This course aids in the development of intercultural communication skills and attitudes for adaptation to the cross-cultural context of the multi-national school community.

This course is designed to prepare teachers and administrators for working in multicultural schools in the international context. Topics covered include understanding third culture kids (TCKs), the school environment, and the educational and interpersonal skills necessary for effectiveness. Self-assessment and reflection are encouraged in order to become healthy, adjusted members of the host country culture, the mission subculture, and the body of Christ in the overseas school.

Research strongly supports the contention that students need to be actively involved in constructing their own knowledge and their own learning. For teachers, this finding has significant implications for the design of instructional strategies and classroom organization. This course is designed to provide a comprehensive overview of the theory and practice of creating an interactive classroom through the use of problem-based learning, interactive strategies, and collaborative group work.

This course builds on EDU-554 "Computers in Education" by extending the uses of computer technology to additional instructional and classroom management purposes. Teachers will be assisted in moving to more transforming uses of technology (as opposed to literacy uses, a term used by Porter, http://www.bjpconsulting.com/spectrum.html). This course will provide participants with more advanced methods for integrating technology into the learning process. Tools will also be explored that would save teachers time and help organize their craft.

Compelling research across a broad spectrum of educational arenas clearly indicates that students learn and achieve better in a positive and inviting learning environment that emphasizes mutual respect and caring. Building Communication and Teamwork in the Classroom is a Performance Learning Systems course that equips experienced and beginning P-12 educators with the essential knowledge and skills necessary to foster an emotionally engaging classroom. The selected strategies that participants will learn and practice are designed to improve teacher expertise in five specific areas: leadership, communication and listening, positive thinking, student support, and team building. Collectively, these skills are at the center of what makes excellent teachers successful and what allows students of all abilities and backgrounds to thrive. Not open to students who have received credit in EDU-500.

This course equips experienced and beginning P-12 educators with the essential knowledge and skills to implement differentiated instruction (DI) successfully in their own classrooms. In a highly interactive learning environment that models the DI principles and processes participants will learn, class members will gain expertise in understanding and implementing a broad range of strategies associated with three essential, distinguishing components of DI: first, the teachers role as guide and facilitator in a classroom environment specifically designed to support self-directed student learning and teacher-student collaboration; second, the interdependent nature of flexible grouping and assessment in a DI classroom; and third, the adaptation of curriculum content, processes (activities), and products to provide students with entry points to learning that match their readiness, interests, and/or learning profiles. Not open to students with credit in EDU-588.

This course provides research-based active reading comprehension strategies which participants can apply to their grade level or content area. By learning how to implement these metacognitive reading strategies, participants will be able to plan lessons more effectively. Participants will also discover how to engage students, deepen their understanding of content, and prepare them for success beyond the classroom. Emphasis is on learning styles, types of text, notation systems, content-area reading, assessments, fluency, motivations, and grade-level vocabulary.

This course will combine technology skills acquisition with strategies for integration of digital tools into differentiated instructional practices in P-12 learning environments. Candidates will design activities that demonstrate appropriate ways to use digital technology to meet existing curricular objectives, to expand curricular options and to facilitate meaningful learning experiences for all the students in their P-12 instructional settings.

This course takes a developmental approach to reading and literacy instruction in preschool and elementary school. Using the "five pillars" of reading (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension) as an organizational framework, teachers will explore the characteristics of emergent, beginning, and transitional readers and plan and implement developmentally appropriate assessments, materials, and strategies for instruction, including effective use of current technologies. Effective planning and organization in the literacy classroom are emphasized.

This course takes a developmental approach to reading and literacy instruction for the elementary grades. Using the "five pillars" of reading (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension) as an organizational framework, teachers explore the characteristics of intermediate and advanced readers and plan and implement developmentally appropriate assessments, materials, and strategies for instruction. The course addresses text structures, specialized vocabulary, content area and interdisciplinary reading, literature, the reading-writing connection, critical thinking, comprehension, research and study skills, multiple literacies, and effective use of current technologies.

This online course focuses on designing courses and activities for blended (part online and part face-to-face)and synchronous online learning environments. Participants will progress from defining these environments to designing course outlines and learning activities, and will conclude with considerations for implementation, assessment, and evaluation of each.

This course examines the learning styles, expectations, and technical acumen of the Net-Generation and explains their implications for classroom learning environments. During the course participants will learn the key differences between the generations and discover how to bridge those differences through sound instructional design techniques. Participants will also learn how to leverage the gadgets, games, and gizmos of these students to create pedagogy that meets Net-Generation needs and transfers knowledge from teacher to student.

This course explores the role of the arts in education. It introduces the elements inherent in the four art forms (music, dance, drama, and visual arts) and models infusion of the arts disciplines across the curriculum, specifically within language arts, math, social studies, and science. Arts-based teaching strategies are described and applied. Participants develop arts-infused lesson plans, and the course culminates with the design of an arts-infused unit of study.

This course provides a structured opportunity for P-12 educators to expand their knowledge and experiential base with respect to mapping state academic standards by grade level, content area, or across a school district (e.g., consensus mapping). Candidates will complete a field project that involves the planning, implementation, and evaluation of curriculum maps that contribute to the P-12 educator's ability to diagnose student learning. Candidates will use formative assessment tools in conjunction with curriculum maps to align instruction for P-12 learning.

This course provides a structured opportunity for P-12 educators to expand their knowledge and experiential base with respect to mapping state academic standards by grade level, content area, or across a school district (e.g., consensus mapping). Candidates will complete a field project that involves the planning, implementation, and evaluation of curriculum maps that contribute to the P-12 educator's ability to diagnose student learning. Candidates will use formative assessment tools in conjunction with curriculum maps to align instruction for P-12 learning. Candidates will design classroom implementation plans to support differentiated instruction.

This course provides educators with research-based interventions in the behavioral, academic, and social areas of student performance. Through a multi-tiered response to the intervention model, educators implement a solution seeking cycle for gathering information, identifying issues, and planning and assessing early and effective interventions. The course focuses on the teacher as the primary interventionist and includes universal and targeted interventions for the classroom that promote student resiliency and encourage students to reach for success. It emphasizes creating a learning alliance with students to demystify the learning experience, focus on strengths-based learning, collaboratively set goals, and monitor the progress of behavioral, academic, and social interventions.

Collaborative inquiry fosters the skills students need now and in the future to develop a deeper understanding and mastery of content knowledge and skills. Participants will experience and evaluate the collaborative inquiry models of problem-based learning, hypothesis-based learning, project-based learning, Appreciative Inquiry, performance-based learning, and live-event learning.

This course provides an opportunity for students to investigate the influence that contemporary social issues exert on systems of formal education. In particular, students will examine change processes as they occur in education and acquire the basic skills needed to serve as agents of change in the lives of individual students, the education profession, and society at large. They will examine the ways in which current issues and agendas for change require a stable, defensible set of core values. Not open to students with credit in EDU-545 or EDUE-545. Prerequisite: Master of Education or special permission.

Contemporary Issues in Christian Education provides an opportunity for students to accomplish four major objectives. First, students will examine the links between education and its interpersonal context. Second, students will explore the ways in which teachers can serve as agents of change in the lives of their individual students, the education profession, and society at large. Third, students will study the ways in which contemporary issues and agendas for change demand the formation of a critically examined yet stable and defensible foundation of core values. Graduate students examine the ways in which a core of Christian values addresses contemporary issues and agendas for change. Fourth, out of the foregoing discussions, students will write a working draft of a Professional Mission Statement. This mission statement will serve as foundation for developing the Applied Masters Portfolio throughout the rest of the M.Ed. course of graduate studies.

Christian Philosophy of Education provides an introduction to a biblical worldview and a Christian philosophy of education. It requires students to examine the presuppositions upon which they base their personal and professional actions and behaviors, and has them develop a coherent worldview by reflecting on and answering the metaphysical, epistemological, and axiological questions. Additionally, the course leads students to develop a philosophy of education based on their worldview, and uses that philosophy to address issues relative to teaching, including the nature and potential of the student, the role of the teacher, the content of the curriculum, teaching methodology, and the social function of the school. This course is open only to those seeking ACSI or other Christian School certification.

The course is designed to provide the M.Ed. candidate with the conceptual and analytical skills necessary to conduct professional literature-based research and professionally report research findings and apply them to curriculum, instruction, and assessment designs that elevate diverse students' learning.

This course will enable students to give leadership to the process of curriculum development in schools, kindergarten through high school level. Topics include the professional literature and theoretical foundations of curriculum, models for curriculum development, and curriculum processes and participants. The course is designed to assist teachers in translating theory into practice through development of a school-based project that will synthesize their learning. Credit is not available for this and EDU-550, EDUE-550 or EDU-569. Prerequisite: Master of Education or special permission by the Director, Master of Education Program.

This course explores a variety of accepted theories of instructional design as identified by key writers and researchers in this field. Several teaching models common to these theories are studied and practiced. Candidates will select, use, and evaluate their own use of these models in authentic teaching situations. Not open to students with credit in EDU-551 or EDU-532. Prerequisite: Master of Education or special permission by the Director, Master of Education Program.

This course is designed to provide a full-time culminating experience for candidates seeking licensure in special education. Candidates will engage in authentic activities focused on planning, conducting, and evaluating instruction in a variety of instructional settings while receiving professional feedback from a cooperating teacher. Course assessments include the development of research-based accommodations; alignment of integrated lessons to IEP goals and academic content standards; analysis of effect on student learning through regular data collection; and thoughtful instructional and behavioral management. Prerequisite: All courses in the Indiana Wesleyan University's Exceptional Learners program. (Credit/No Credit)

This course will explore current practices and research on effective models of traditional and non-traditional methods of P-12 classroom assessment. Differences between qualitative and quantitative assessment tools will be examined within the context of classroom learning, including references to action research data collected by classroom teachers. Emphasis is placed on measuring and recording P-12 student learning. Not open to students with credit in EDU-553 or EDU-539. Prerequisite: Master of Education or special permission by the Director, Master of Education Program.

An introduction to research strategies, with an emphasis on implementing, analyzing and reporting the action research process in the candidates P-12 classroom. Topics in the course include a survey of the common approaches to educational research, the development of research questions and hypotheses, the process of collecting and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data, and the development and compilation of the educational research report. Not open to students with credit in EDU-556 or EDUE-602. Prerequisite: Master of Education or special permission by the Director, Master of Education Program.

This course introduces the concept of teacher leadership and its value in the field of education today. Teachers will self-assess, analyze, and cultivate the dispositions and attitudes of a teacher leader for the purpose of effecting positive change in their learning communities. They will learn the critical importance of expanding their knowledge of educational research and theory to guide leadership decisions that will effectively address today's educational challenges. The primary emphasis in this course will be on teachers' self-examination and self-perceptions with regard to teacher leadership.