Thomas College

ED551 Seminar in American Schools

This class will provide a broad background for thinking about issues of education in a historical and philosophical context. As the introductory course in the program, the seminar will help prepare students for subsequent courses in the areas of curriculum, instruction, and assessment of learning. Students will have the opportunity to begin to identify questions about teaching and learning that will focus their research throughout the remainder of the program.

ED552 Students and Families at Risk

This course examines the educators’ roles and duties in addressing the needs of students at risk. Various “at risk” categories are identified and explored. Focus areas include implications for school improvement programs, individual intervention, and referrals to community services.

ED553 Educational Assessment

This course provides an introduction to the concepts, principles, and practices related to designing and administering effective assessments in education. Teacher-designed assessments and standardized achievement tests are examined.

ED554 Trends in Curriculum Development

This course examines problems and issues of curriculum development common to all content areas and educational levels. It is designed to provide opportunities to acquire concepts and skills that may be applied to the curriculum development process in local schools.

ED555 Trends in Instruction and Instructional Leadership

This course examines specific teaching strategies to ensure that instructional materials meet appropriate mandates for content and learning goals, and which also address students' diverse needs, abilities, and experiences. Learning theories and styles are included, as are topics relating to instructional leadership and peer coaching. Field work required.

Prerequisite: Experience as an educator in the K-12 environment.

ED598 Practicum in Education

This capstone course provides supervised practice in applying professional skills and knowledge to individual areas of teaching and/or school administration. Students develop personalized proposals and activities are selected by the individual student and his or her advisor.

ED557 Theories of Learning

An exploration of human learning, this course will address the behavioral, cognitive, social, and physiological bases of learning. Through individual and group projects, students will apply course content to everyday experiences.

Prerequisite: PY111

ED558 Educational Statistics

This is a technologically intensive course requiring student familiarity with the Microsoft Windows system and Excel Spreadsheets. Students will learn how to use The Minitab System (a professional level statistical software package) and discover how its use compares and contrasts with the use of Excel spreadsheets. In this course, students will learn the difference between description and inference; between accuracy and precision; between calculating statistics and the “management interpretations” for those statistics; discover the role of technology in introductory courses in statistics and how important the emphasis on technology and applied data is for changing student attitudes.

ED559 Literacy Across the Curriculum

This course will explore how literacy – broadly defined as reading, writing, talking, and listening – can be a tool for thinking and learning across the curriculum. The course is built on the belief that teachers of different disciplines and grade levels can learn a great deal from one another about these interrelated processes. A second premise of the course is that teachers who experience as learners some of the strategies they hope to share with their students will understand those strategies more thoroughly and use them more effectively than teachers who merely read and discuss them. For these reasons, the format of the course will be that of a workshop/seminar. Class participants will serve as resources for, collaborators with, and teachers of each other.

ED561 Trends in Instructional Practices

This course examines specific teaching strategies and approaches that history and research have shown to be effective.

ED562 Using Robotics to Learn Science & Math

This course is built on the foundation established by Seymour Papert to use science and mathematics through hands-on technology. The graduate students work with the instructor participate on location in an-after school program for grades 4 through 8 as they explore the question: how can LEGO™ Mindstorms ROBO technology sets being used to bring science, math, and engineering to life in the classroom setting? At the end of the course, students submit a report explaining how to implement a similar LEGO™ Robotics program as an after-school program.

CT552 Computers Across the Curriculum

As individuals responsible for technology in schools, teachers must be able to educate both staff and students. This course is intended to assist teachers in developing computer-integrated curricula for students and/or training units for school staff. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss, prepare, and present curricula in their own as well as alternate subject areas. Participants will accumulate lesson plans and resources and develop teaching strategies to accommodate a variety of learning styles and situations.

Prerequisite: CT558

CT558 Evaluating Instructional Media and Technologies

This course is designed to assist teachers in the creation, evaluation, and use of audiovisual media, computer-based media, and process technologies. This course enables teachers to use the technology to complete assignments that will enhance their teaching.

Prerequisite: CT550 or computer background

CT556 Emerging Technologies

The objective of this course is to help teachers foresee, identify, and evaluate changing technologies and adopt appropriate technologies to respond to school, district, and community needs.

Prerequisite: CT559

CT567 Gender, Technology, and Education

The objective of this course is to help educators identify, evaluate and address the ways education and society contributes to the advantages/disadvantages between the genders in science, math, and technology.

CT/ED580 Teaching Using Technology: Exploring Quantitative Concepts Using Excel

This course explores how the principles of spreadsheet modeling can provide a platform for teaching students about quantitative relationships. Students in this course will learn how spreadsheet models can be used successfully in the classroom as a complement to traditional pedagogy. A major focus will be on understanding how engineers and scientists use spreadsheet applications to model real systems and how these concepts can enhance the teaching and learning of quantitative models in the classroom.

Prerequisite: An understanding of basic algebra, finite math, and statistics

For more information, contact:

Suzanne Pooler, Director, Graduate School,

at 859-1102 or via email at poolers@thomas.edu