Online Master of Education (MEd) in Curriculum and Instruction

This course is designed to provide educators and non-educators with a broad understanding and better perspective of current issues that are faced by educators, trainers, and their learning institutions. The course will focus on a lively discourse and reflection related to contemporary topics and issues relevant to the specific student track. The course will serve as a platform for bridging the gap between goals, principles, theories, philosophies, and methodologies in the educational/training process and the realities of a variety of learning institutions (classrooms, schools, professional training, etc.). The goal of this process is to expand and enlighten the practitioner's outlook, thought processes, understanding, and repertoire of knowledge, attitudes, skills, and strategies when faced with those issues.

This course is designed for all emphasis majors in the M.Ed. It emphasizes knowledge of various issues and simple statistical procedures used in educational research and program evaluation. Equal emphasis is given to qualitative and quantitative techniques. Experimental, quasi-experimental and non-experimental designs will be used that include historical, naturalistic study and/or ethnography. Processes to determine and use basic statistical data through computations will also be introduced. May be repeated with different areas of focus (administration, curriculum and instruction, teaching and technology, athletic administration, STEM).

Students will utilize recent research on effective instruction and explore advanced classroom strategies and techniques designed to enhance their effectiveness in meeting the needs of diverse populations of learners. Students develop expert instructional skills and learn to diagnose and deliver the most appropriate instructional strategies for a variety of learning environments. Through a focus on the concepts of rigor and relevance, students will develop the ability to significantly enhance instructional opportunities for their learners. The students will design/enhance an instructional plan for implementation in her or his classroom, environment or program.

This course focuses on enabling teachers to implement a thoughtful, balanced approach to teaching reading and writing across the disciplines. Focus on current resources in the field of literacy will be an integral part of the teaching/learning experience. Public school classroom practice of these techniques is expected.

This course presents a dual focus on the philosophical and practical aspects of curriculum construction. Understanding of course content is developed through a variety of readings, presentations, projects, and class discussion. Key topics include developing curriculum aligned to Missouri's Show-Me Standards, the historical bases for traditional subject-area curricula, alternative curriculum structures, philosophical bases of curriculum development, social and cultural issues, and future trends.

This course is designed to provide prospective as well as practicing educational leaders, policymakers, and teachers with the legal knowledge that will enable them to conduct and operate school organizations effectively within the boundaries of constitutional, statutory, and case law. The course will focus on the law related to public education to create an equitable education for all students. Relevant constitutional, statutory and case law pertaining to various aspects of education and major legal issues and principles of law surrounding those aspects will be presented and discussed.

This course is designed to acquaint learners with the complex issues related to assessment and to provide first-hand experience in the development of high-quality assessments, including the incorporation of a variety of technology tools in the assessment process. The course will investigate the purposes and application of assessment; the relationship between instructional outcomes and assessment; the development and implementation process for various types of assessments; the collection, analysis, and use of assessment data; as well as various scoring and grading methodologies. Participants will investigate the uses and limitations formative assessment, summative assessment, and diagnostic assessment.