In this class, we will learn about performance improvement, an extension of instructional design in which practitioners assess needs and gaps in human performance in organizations using tools like root cause analysis, then design interventions to address the gaps and plan on-going evaluation for continuous improvement. These skills are commonly used in for-profit, government/military, and non-profit industries and is growing in education

The goal of this course is for students to understand and apply views on cognition, learning, and teaching to inform the design and research of technology-enhanced or STEM education learning activities and/or environments. This course is open to graduate students from any discipline that want to be able to understand and draw upon current perspectives of learning for technology-enhanced or STEM educational practice.

In Phaedrus, Socrates debated the value of a new technology, writing, in the Academy with his students under a plane tree near Athens. Designed to develop "reflective practitioners", this course is our virtual plane tree in which we will use systems theory and cultural studies to explore how context and technology shape each other and ethical considerations for the design, selection, and implemetation of educational innovations.

Overview of the field of gifted education including conceptions of giftedness, identification tools and processes, characteristics of gifted learners, programming options, curriculum and instruction, and evaluation for gifted learners- including historically under-represented students. Students will gain a foundation in the field of gifted education and appropriate educational responses to gifted learners to be built upon in subsequent courses.

Designed to introduce students to modifying and creating appropriate and effective curriculum for gifted learners. Course participants will understand how to choose appropriate content, process and product outcomes and develop meaningful learning experiences that are rigorous, concept-based, open-ended, and tied to gifted learners experiences. Participants will explore and understand the process of curriculum design through multiple lenses.

Students gain an understanding of models for delivering instruction and adapting teaching strategies for appropriately educating gifted students. Participants learn strategies that nurture the affective, creative, and cognitive needs of gifted learners; including those who are culturally and linguistically diverse, economically disadvantaged, highly gifted, or have special needs or disabilities (twice-exceptional learners).

This culminating course for the Ed.S. program will usher students through the process of designing and completing a final project that pulls together program course-work, personal context and professional goals. Students will have the opportunity reflect on the content learned throughout the program and apply leadership principles in the design of the final project. This course should be taken during the final semester of the program.

Interested in transforming education? This course explores a range of innovative efforts to improve education with the goal of preparing seminar students to envision and create innovations of their own that are grounded in theory, inspired by real-world examples, and infused with creativity. By the end of the seminar, you will have taken the first step by developing and pitching a transformative idea of your own.

In this course you become an educational entrepreneur by designing and implementing an educational innovation for a school or similar setting that you choose. You will help your partner site identify a challenge, design an innovative approach to address that challenge, and test and refine your approach. In short: in this course you will design an innovation that could impact learners immediately and for years to come.

Course permits students to work, under close faculty guidance, on an individual research project. Research done in this course may not be considered a part of thesis or dissertation work. Enrollment in this course should be limited to two three-credit registrations (six credits) at the doctorate level. Exceptions to this regulation should have the approval of the advisory committee and the dean of the School of Education.