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Students focusing in Educational Studies choose from a wide range of education courses. Students wishing to receive state certification obtain their content training (i.e., Life Science, Social Studies, English Language Arts) from faculty and classes in those areas.
Adapting Instruction for Students with Disabilities
Adolescent Development
Adventure Education
Changing Schools, Changing Society
Child Development
Children's Literature
Curriculum and Assessment
Education and the State: Comrade, Worker, Parent, Mensch
Exceptionalities
Integrated Methods I Reading/Writing
Integrated Methods II Math/Science/Social Studies
Environmental Education
Experiential Education
Femininity and Masculinity Go to School
Intercultural Education
Introduction to Counseling
Introduction to the Philosophy of Education
Language Diversity, Loss, and Revitalization
Learning Theory
Methods in Writing and Teaching Across the Curriculum
Secondary Methods
Student Teaching
Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
Teachings of U.S. History
Understanding and Managing Group Dynamics
The Educational Studies (ED) curriculum serves various objectives, interests, and constituencies. ED courses are designed on a guiding framework of orientation, knowledge synthesis, application, and generation. These components help students widen their perspectives on educational challenges and practices, tap experiential knowledge as well as relevant scholarship, critique and construct new meaning and skills as they apply theory to practice.
1) ORIENTATION. Introductory courses serve to provide students with new experiences of teaching and learning, introduce philosophical, historical, psychological, sociological, political, and anthropological concepts and theories relevant to the study of education, utilize extensive field observations and experiences, and facilitate student reflection and analysis. Student projects may include a personal educational philosophy, development of a case study, critique/evaluation of a specific educational theory, or an individual or group project presentation.
2) KNOWLEDGE SYNTHESIS. Intermediate courses continue to build on the knowledge and skills obtained in introductory courses. In addition, they hone the ability to synthesize knowledge gained in previous and concurrent courses. Active participation in the field (with teachers and learners in various educational settings) continue to sharpen teaching, research, and reflective skills. Student projects have included individual or group presentations, research, or creative projects (e.g., contrasting multiple educational theories; designing, implementing, and evaluating lesson plans).
3) APPLICATION AND GENERATION. Advanced courses guide students toward the application of knowledge, theory, and global awareness to educational practice. Student projects may include curriculum development, assessment construction, peer teaching or teaching in a classroom or facilitating learning in an informal educational setting. Internships and student teaching provide students experience as apprentices to master teachers. Senior projects integrate accumulated knowledge and skills in a capstone project that may involve-separately or in combination-research, curriculum or program design, teaching, integration of visual, dramatic, or musical arts.
The content of ED courses serve many different student interests. Below are some sample pathways that exist in Educational Studies.
Community-Based Educators
Frequently, students take ED courses who wish to teach because they feel teaching is a way to solve perennial environmental and social challenges by educating each new generation of youth or adults who make daily decisions that impact themselves, their communities, technological innovation, and the natural world. These students often begin their educational studies with a course in Experiential Education, which introduces students to a variety of programmatic as well as school-based learning experiences that foster self-efficacy, interpersonal skills, environmental stewardship, civic participation, job readiness, or knowledge of particular subject matter, or Learning Theory, which introduces students to theories of motivation, development, learning, achievement, and instruction, instructional design, and instructional technologies.
Other courses that deepen knowledge and skills in practicing education include:
- "Adolescent Development - (exposes prospective teachers to the social, physical, and psychological trends in adolescent development)
- "Understanding and Managing Group Dynamics - (helps prospective educators understand theory, research, and their personal experiences of group processes while honing leadership, facilitation, and collaborative decision-making skills)
- "Exceptionalities - (develops understanding of the legal context and effective methods for teaching students who have special needs such as a physical, emotional, behavioral, or learning disability or those who are identified as unusually gifted)
- "Femininity and Masculinity Go to School: Gender, Power, and Education - (investigates the complex gender dynamics in schools and other institutions that impact personal and social development, gender role socialization, academic learning, and career development)
Advanced courses that prepare students to apply understanding and skills and generate new knowledge or practices include Learning Theory, Curriculum Design and Assessment, Integrated Elementary Methods, and Secondary Methods.
In addition to ED courses, students are encouraged to enroll in relevant courses to attain the requisite subject matter knowledge they intend to teach. For example, environmental educators should take courses in organismal diversity, ecology, chemistry (of air and water), and environmental policy courses to both deepen and broaden their understanding of the science and policy behind environmental problems and proposed solutions (see Environmental Education).
School-based Educators
Students who are interested in classroom teaching benefit from beginning their ED coursework with Changing Schools, Changing Society, which introduces students to the historical relationships between schools and society and the special role that teachers play in the transformation of individuals as well as educational institutions. Introduction to the Philosophy of Education, which introduces students to diverse ways of thinking about educational aims, teaching, and knowledge and helps students articulate a personal philosophy of education, or Child or Adolescent Development, which introduces students to theories of motivation, development, learning, achievement, and instruction, instructional design, and instructional technologies.
Additional coursework to facilitate the understanding of effective classroom practices within diverse cultural and political contexts and the application of theory to practice include: Intercultural Education (for educators interested in teaching in culturally, linguistically, and/or socioeconomically diverse schools), Exceptionalities, Femininity and Masculinity Go to School, Group Dynamics, and "Comrade, Worker, Parent, Mensch":Education and the State (a comparative education course that takes a case-study approach to understanding the interactions between educational and political systems). Students interested in teaching in elementary schools should enroll in Child Development and Children's Literature. Secondary school teaching candidates must enroll in Adolescent Development.
Advanced studies for those ready to take on classroom teaching in a student-teaching or internship experience would benefit from: Elementary or Secondary Methods, Learning Theory, and Curriculum Design and Assessment.
Classroom teachers who intend to complete certification requirements should speak with a staff or faculty member in the ED program to determine what professional and content area requirements they will need to meet (see Teacher Certification).
In addition to the variety of pathways that students might take depending on their particular interests in Educational Studies, there may be other personal or professional reasons for enrolling in an ED course. A variety of constituencies enroll in ED courses for particular reasons.
Prospective college and university professors
Students (undergraduate or graduate) who complete advanced studies in a subject area who discover an interest and aptitude to teach in higher education may find the particular courses of particular interest: Child Development, Experiential Education, Group Dynamics, Learning Theory, Curriculum Design and Assessment.
Prospective counselors or social workers
Some students identify an interest to pursue a career or graduate education in social work or counseling. Several courses are particularly relevant to these areas: Adolescent Development, Exceptionalities, Intercultural Education, Femininity and Masculinity Go To School, Group Dynamics, and Introduction to Counseling.
Prospective school, educational program, or not-for-profit administrators
Those students interested in education who seek to effect change through organizational administration would find the following courses of interest: Experiential Education, Child Development, Group Dynamics, "Comrade, Worker, Parent, Mensch": Education and the State, Curriculum Design and Assessment.
Prospective Overseas Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages
A few students elect to teach English abroad as a way to gain both teaching and intercultural experience in a country or community culturally different from their own. Students would benefit from taking any of the ED courses listed under "Community-Based Educators" in addition to Intercultural Education, Methods of Teaching Writing, Language Diversity, Loss, and Revitalization, and the TESOL Tutorial. In addition, they should have near-native English speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills. Students gain additional experience tutoring in the COA Writing Center or volunteering to work with non-native English speakers at COA, in the local schools, or island community.
Continuing education or professional development
Occasionally, Hancock County educators who are already certified or who are conditionally certified to teach in the state of Maine enroll in an ED course at COA to further develop their knowledge and skills in a particular area, fill a gap in their own education to meet their current professional needs, and/or meet requirements for completing an additional endorsement, certification, or recertification. Courses that have been of particular interest to Union 98 teachers are: Exceptionalities, Secondary Methods, and Integrated Elementary Methods.
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