Course Descriptions

EDOL 515: Instructional Leadership

The purpose of this course is to provide students with an understanding of effective leadership and its impact on schools. Effective techniques for instructional leaders to teach concepts, skills, and values will be presented and modeled. Specific techniques to guide, motivate, delegate and build consensus will be examined.

EDOL 520: Curriculum Design and Assessment

This course introduces graduate students to the process of curriculum design and assessment. Students will have the opportunity to develop a definition of curriculum and assessment that reflects their own personal philosophy of education. Various curriculum development models will be explored so students can compare models to their own personal philosophies of education. Students will develop their own model of curriculum development and assessment. Core Course

EDOL 524: Coping w/ Stress & Violence in Today’s Classroom

This course will address a variety of issues regarding stress and violence in students’ lives. We will discuss how the nature and content of culture are reflected in the symptoms and causes of stress and violence facing today’s children from birth through adolescence. Included in discussion will be the role of schools and teachers from preschool through high school in providing support for students experiencing stress and/or violence. We will also discuss how teachers can provide assistance to the larger family structure through broadened knowledge of cultural stressors, use of age appropriate and culturally sensitive coping skills, and how teachers can serve as active agents of social change leading to advocacy for children.

EDOL 540: Community of Learners

This course will enable students to work successfully with a variety of learning styles from diverse cultural backgrounds. Specific historical and recent definitions of multicultural education, multiculturalism, learning needs, learning styles, and special needs will be explored. Emphasis will be given to the anthropological, sociological, sociobiological, and psychological perspectives of learning, the learner, and the learning environment. Students will be able to integrate strategies into their teaching that will seamlessly incorporate multicultural perspectives, learning styles and multiple modalities into lesson planning and instructional design and implementation.

EDOL 545: School, Community and Family

This course will focus on equipping participants with skills that provide effective approaches in working with family and community members from culturally and social-economically diverse backgrounds within the larger political and social context of today’s world. The student will explore the relationship of schools to other community agencies and investigate approaches to provide socio-educational services to children and their families.

EDOL 547: Brain-based Teaching and Learning

Creating a learning environment, anchoring memory, facilitating natural learning processes, celebrating the uniqueness of each learner all have biological roots that pose stunning implications for the classrooms of today. The purpose of this course is to equip teachers to gain an understanding of these body-brain principles as they examine current strategies to aid them in creating their own brain compatible learning environment.

EDOL 550: Educational Diversity, Change and Reform

This course will examine the historical, legal, social, political, ethical, and economic perspectives that have impacted schools in the American society. Students will examine dynamics of curriculum changes and the key role leaders play in creating a learning community in the schools. Opportunity will be provided for students to debate the problems and possible approaches to deal with problems confronting schools. Special emphasis will be placed on the values and concerns of the many communities that constitute a democracy and the importance of involving communities in the life of the school. Persons and groups involved in establishing and developing policies and practices that will meet the diverse needs of the public will be explored. Core Course

EDOL 552: School as Diverse Organization

This course leads to an understanding of the organization of schools. The interrelationships among curricula, stakeholders and society are explored. Professional educators will develop a working understanding of the teacher in the activities of the school.

EDOL 576: Fostering Learning Through Health

This course is designed to expand beyond the health and healthy environment issues introduced in the preliminary credential program. Content includes prevention and intervention strategies to promote school safety, the relationship between student health and student learning, how to access local and community resources to support student health, adopted health curriculum K-12, instructional materials for teaching health, state and federal laws related to student health and safety, reporting requirements and parents’ rights.

EDOL 580: Research in Education

This course examines the field of educational research by exploring research models, analyzing research articles and applying measurement and statistical techniques to problems of educational research. Each student will learn the essentials needed to carry out the entire research process and develop a research proposal that will guide the action research project. Core Course

EDOL 584: Classroom Management

Provides instruction in designing a learning environment that meets the needs of students and teachers. Attention is given to routine procedures, student behavior, physical facilities, patterns of student and teacher interaction, and other factors that affect student learning.

EDOL 586: Educational Technology: Level II

This course equips teachers to be knowledgeable about educational technology standards as adopted by the state. It incorporates the California Technology Standards Level II and covers skills in using technology in the classroom. Upon successful completion, the student will have met the requirements for certification of Level II technology skills. Successful completion will be considered 84% or better as a final grade.

EDOL 595: Developing Character and Ethics

This course will incorporate the resources and skills necessary to integrate ethical themes and character development into a school setting. It will provide educators an arena in which to explore and develop their moral perspectives on the basis of generally accepted criteria. Focus will also be placed on putting into practice those skills and resources that integrate character themes and character development into their school setting.

EDOL 605: Action Research Project (Capstone)

To complete the action research, the student plans and implements a project that engages the student in applying research to practice at a local school site. Each student, under the supervision of his or her advisor, completes an action research paper in preparation for the oral presentation. The oral presentation involves a critique of the student's action research experience. Prerequisite: Successful completion of EDOL 580 and approval by the program director.