Courses for M.S.Ed. School Supervision, Curriculum and Instruction

Concentrates on collaboration in the planning, implementation and evaluation of school programs. Special emphasis is place on developing skills for interdisciplinary team building, collaborative analysis of schedules and facilities to facilitate program implementation, construction and use of alternative assessments and evaluations across subject areas.

Curriculum research; needs assessment; curriculum management; implementation; analysis of test data; curriculum models.

This course is intended to acquaint the perspective supervisor with principles and techniques of supervision as they evaluate and work with teachers in improving their ability to develop and deliver the curriculum.

Examination of the regulations and mandates from PDE that involve children in schools, including such issues as special education, child abuse, student assistance programs, community agencies, and pupil personnel services in Pennsylvania schools.

Principal provisions in school law affecting teachers, principals, and superintendents; constitutional, statutory, ruling case and common law bases for public education interpretations; legal procedures with emphasis on Pennsylvania school law.

This course provides an orientation to the structure and processes of administration and supervision leadership and to the program requirements. Solving real problems experienced by practicing leaders is a major part of this course and will help to inform candidates of what the job entails as well as giving them practical strategies for dealing with school based problems.

Competencies related to the thirteen program standards that form the programandrsquo;s conceptual framework are examined through a combination of class meetings, virtual learning and field experiences. A Reform Project specific to the area of concentration is the culminating project in this experience.

This course is the final course before applying for supervisory certification. It requires field experiences that are developed in consultation with a university advisor as well as field site personnel at all three levels (elementary, middle and secondary). Four group seminars are scheduled during this final course.

"Instructional Design is a ""hands-on"" course. As such, you will work on assignments to address some of the key issues confronting educators with respect to the design and implementation of technology-based lessons in the classroom. This course introduces the fundamental concepts of technology-based instruction by examining the pedagogy of teaching and the use of technology as a teaching tool. The instructional design theories that are introduced are equally applicable to education, training and learning in general. However, this course was designed specifically around the application of these theories and practices in the teaching of children. Blending these theories, participants design instructional materials that take full advantage of their target population's learning strengths, and help their learners master the material and identified learning objectives. The design activities are provided to guide you in the development of an overall unit of instruction and how the particular lesson you will create in this course fit into the grand scheme of the identified unit of instruction. "

Skills necessary for critical analysis of quantitative research in the behavioral sciences are emphasized. The major goal is to understand and interpret the statistical analyses used to describe distributions and test hypothesis that are commonly used in empirical studies employing quantitative data.

An overview of evaluation models, theory, and techniques for conducting program evaluations. Content includes: measuring variables; reporting evaluation findings; using the results; and relationships among policy, planning, and evaluation.