Course Offerings
Year 1: Improvement of Classroom Teaching
Summer Courses - 1st Year
These initial summer courses are intended as an introduction to the graduate program, the nature of graduate coursework, and the scholarly study of education.
EDUC 511 Critical Issues in Education
This is an introductory course designed to provide students entering the MSE program with a firm grounding in graduate level scholarship. Emphasis is placed on comprehension, evaluation, and application of recent research pertaining to critical issues in education. Students will analyze research articles; hold discussions with peers on current research; complete a mini-literature review on a topic of interest; and write a professional quality paper with the information. Whole and small group discussions, short presentations, and peer editing assure active student engagement.
EDUC 512 Technology, Computers and Education
This course is one of the first courses of the St. Norbert College Master’s of Science in Education program and provides foundational knowledge for the concurrent courses in the program sequence. Attaining competency in procuring data, analysis of qualitative and quantitative statistical data, and the integration of effective uses of technology are imperative for educators to become positive change agents within their school community and beyond.
Teachers will employ online classroom applications of instructional technology while developing a facility with educational research methods.
Through discourse, projects, demonstrations, and field experiences students will:
- Be able to understand and calculate simple quantitative statistical formulas and concepts in order to critically analyze data and assessments.
- Be able to collect, analyze, and evaluate qualitative statistical data through one of the five forms of qualitative analysis: case study, phenomenology, ethnography, grounded theory, and biography.
- Be able to utilize technology to engage dialogue in the class, provide statistical analysis and graphing, and create resources for continued use throughout the program sequence.
- Create a reference document to use for the duration of graduate courses highlighting the statistical analysis of data.
Fall Course - 1st Year
EDUC 521 Dilemmas and Decision Making in the Classroom
The first fall semester of coursework will utilize the Wisconsin Standards for Teaching and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) as a framework for the investigation of classroom practices. Because teachers now have a common understanding of major issues in education, the teacher is better prepared to begin the systematic study of classrooms and teaching. This semester of coursework is intended to help teachers understand, develop and apply specific skills, informed by research and on-going assessment, to improve instruction and learning in the classroom.
Spring Course - 1st Year
EDUC 531 Transformative Self-Assessment
Through carefully guided reflections and mentoring, veteran teachers engage in self-assessment of their teaching expertise. Teachers will document the effectiveness of their teaching and learning environment with the development of a sample action research project based on the Wisconsin Standards. Through dialogue, readings, online discussions, and daily reflections participants will:
- Evaluate their strengths and challenges in regards to the Wisconsin Teacher Education Standards and make appropriate plans to address them.
- Reflect on their own goal of becoming an active change agent by analyzing the characteristics and dispositions needed to be a leader in education.
- Become an observer of the systems theory view of education and the implications it has on being a leader in education.
- Begin the transformation of becoming a proactive, reflective, and assessment-based change agent in their classroom, department, and school by evaluating the process of action research.
Year 2: Teachers as Agents of Change
Summer Courses - 2nd Year
Two courses of 3 credits each
The second summer of The Master of Science in Education Program is reserved for academic work focusing on each student’s area of professional interest. Two to four graduate level courses will be offered during this second summer. These courses are designed to provide guidance to students while they concentrate on course content or a topic of significance to their teaching.
Students may also transfer in approved course work from other graduate programs to meet the 6 credit summer course requirement. (Please note: All course work transferred in must be approved through SNC and the Master of Science in Education Program. All transfer credit requests must be submitted to the Director by the end of the first week of EDUC 511 Critical Issues in Education.)
Fall Course - 2nd Year
EDUC 621 Research and Inquiry for Educational Reform
Teachers will read and analyze research, including case studies, on recent reform initiatives and the change process in schools. Teachers will investigate the history of school reform in their school district and engage in stakeholder analysis in order to identify factors that may promote or inhibit systemic change. Finally, teachers will design an advocacy project and a comprehensive strategy for facilitating systemic change in their school or school district.
Spring Course - 2nd Year
EDUC 631 Advocacy in Education
Teachers will refine and implement the advocacy project developed in EDUC 621. This course has two goals: one, to meet the expectations of an advocacy project in design, scholarly merit, and impact on a researched critical issue in education; two, to plan the dissemination of the project, that is, demonstrate leadership through advocacy of an educational issue. The development of this project is a culmination of scholarly and experiential knowledge so as to influence reform in the schools.
Spring/Summer - 2nd Year
EDUC 690 Program Capstone Summative Assessment
This capstone course for the program provides the opportunity for students to advocate, or go public, with their research-based projects. The summative assessment requires a completed advocacy project report suitable for binding to be held at the St. Norbert College Miriam B. and James J. Mulva Library.
