Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction

The University offers an online Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction. The program is designed to enhance teachers’ knowledge and skills with the goal of preparing educational leaders of the future. The program design uses best practices of online learning such as building a virtual learning community, active learning, both formative and summative assessments, a variety of assignments, and varied formats for sharing course content.

Program Objectives

The Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction program has been designed with the goal of enhancing the knowledge and skills of teachers in order to make them educators of excellence for the 21st century. Specifically, the program seeks to offer students the opportunity to engage in the following areas of academic and professional learning:

• exploration and application of current research on strategies that increase achievement in all students
• constructivist learning experiences
• experience reading, interpreting and conducting research
• interdisciplinary planning strategies
• increased fluency in technology
• differentiated instruction approaches
• responsive teaching and multicultural awareness
• broaden repertoire of approaches for student assessment and evaluation

Structure

The program is a part-time graduate program with courses offered in 11-week terms. Two courses are offered each fall, winter, spring, and summer term. All coursework is conducted online. The program requires the completion of 10 courses. All students take a common core of courses: Education Research, Principles of Differentiating Instruction, Contemporary Learning Theory, Mentoring and Professional Development, Multicultural Education, and Assessment Theory and Design. Upon admission to the program students select either the elementary track (Reading Strategies for Struggling Readers (K-6), Integrating Curriculum through Children’s Literature, Infusing Content Areas with Art-Elementary, Deepening Mathematical Content Knowledge), or the secondary track (Reading and Writing in the Content Areas, Ethics in Educational Practice, Adolescent Literacy and Young Adult Literature, Infusing Content Areas with Art-Secondary) to complete the required 10 courses. The program permits students to enroll in a limited number of courses without an interest in a degree.

Admission

The program is designed specifically for teachers or other educators. Students will need to have attained an overall grade point average of 2.8 in their undergraduate work to become a degree candidate. Nondegree participants are welcome to take courses to further personal interest or understanding; they must have a bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited college or university and a minimum 2.8 overall grade point average. Selection of participants will be made on the basis of previous academic records, present and potential performance in education, and supporting letters of reference, one of which must be from the candidate’s principal or supervisor.