Full Course Description List:

MSED Courses

(1 semester credit)

Teaching is among the most valuable and meaningful professions an individual can choose; yet, given the nature of the modern educational climate, it is also one of the most challenging. Educators in this course explore the definition of professionalism, examine the challenges of today's classrooms, and discuss what it means to be a professional in today's learning environment. This course is designed to reignite educators' passion for teaching and to support the development of skills for graduate-level online learning.

(1 semester credit)

Educators explore what it means to participate in a culture of scholarship and utilize the many resources that Walden provides to ensure academic success. Through the development of their own research-based philosophy of education, education professionals deepen their written communication skills, their confidence in expressing ideas in an effective manner, and their ability to distinguish popular from peer-reviewed resources. Educators also strengthen their knowledge of APA Style and formatting techniques. 

(1 semester credit)

Effective teachers are leaders who make a positive difference in classrooms, schools, and society. They are also lifelong learners who remain current in research-based educational resources, advancements, and practices. In this course, educators are introduced to the standards, dispositions, and proficiencies guiding the practices of teacher-leaders and engage in self-reflection of their own teaching experiences. By defining their professional identities and synthesizing resources, education professionals create individual learning and professional goal plans outlining what they want to know and be able to do at the conclusion of their master's degree journey.

(1 semester credit)

In today's learning environment, global awareness is increasingly important, and educators need to demonstrate leadership and cross-cultural skills to set a positive example for students, families, and colleagues. Educators in this course use scholarly resources to identify and critically think about issues related to diversity in classrooms, schools, and communities. They engage with interactive case scenarios and assess their own beliefs related to serving diverse student groups and their families.

(1 semester credit)

Education professionals in this course explore culturally responsive teaching practices; the value of adapting the learning environment for multiple diverse populations; and strategies for collaboration with colleagues, families, and communities. Dynamic teachers meld student background experiences with differentiation strategies in order to engage all learners in high-quality learning experiences. In this way, educators ensure more equitable access for all learners and promote positive social change. They analyze demographic data, identify an underserved population, assess their personal diversity proficiencies, and apply key concepts of diversity to develop a Diversity Project for their current school setting.

Pre-requisites

• MSED 6025

(1 semester credit)

In this course, educators examine the concept of positive social change and analyze the impact it has on local, state, and national learning environments. Advocating for positive social change can start in the classroom but should expand to the educational community and beyond. Therefore, educators work toward becoming a social change agent by aligning Walden University's mission with their own beliefs about student learning, investigating challenges in their current school setting, and developing a social change action plan for their local educational environment.

(1 semester credit)

Leadership and collaboration are core competencies for today's teachers and are skills educators must embrace and continually refine. Educators in this course assess their communication style and examine the benefits and challenges of leading and collaborating with others to maximize the learning potential of every student. By practicing their leadership and collaborative skills using interactive simulations, education professionals apply the skills and dispositions that foster leadership and produce collaborative relationships with colleagues and families.

(1 semester credit)

Teachers ensure continuous improvement for student learning through attention to the relationship among classroom curriculum, instruction, and assessment. In this course, educators build upon their skills in designing and differentiating instruction and add effective strategies for doing so to their professional library. They analyze a variety of learning theories, learner variables, and data-informed practices to design standard-based plans for P–12 classroom curricula that meet the diverse learning needs of their students.

(1 semester credit)

Technology is changing how individuals learn, work, and live faster than they have ever changed before. A technology that is new today will be obsolete in a few years. How do educators keep up with new technologies in order to enrich learning in their classrooms? In this course, education professionals examine the future of technology-based teaching and learning, discover promising trends, and explore instructional strategies and tools to facilitate content area literacy and learning. They investigate the technology-related challenges in their own school setting and develop grant proposals to change initiatives in their classroom.

(1 semester credit)

Multiple strategies are often needed to differentiate instruction for all learners. Strategies often need to be adjusted from lesson to lesson; and, as teachers today know, not all strategies work for every student, every time. In this course, educators explore the practice of differentiating instruction by content, process, and product as a way to meet students' diverse learning needs. Applying the concepts of universal design for learning and their classroom curriculum, education professionals plan and implement a lesson differentiated by content, process, and product with their students.

(1 semester credit)

To optimize student achievement, effective teachers create learning environments that are engaging, supportive, and respectful, and that foster positive relationships with P–12 students and their families. Educators explore and implement strategies to motivate and engage students at the individual level to optimize learning. By reflecting on their current skills, analyzing current educational theories, and creating tools to support classroom management, educators gather additional resources to support increased student engagement and motivation and to build positive relationships in their educational settings.

(1 semester credit)

Just as teachers must implement strategies for managing dynamic classroom systems to create clear and consistent expectations, so must they include strategies to address individual student behavior needs. Educators are called upon as professionals to observe and assess behaviors in order to create behavioral interventions for learners in any classroom setting. In this course, education professionals engage with case scenarios to analyze student behaviors and offer support to colleagues. Throughout the course, educators implement behavior strategies and interventions and create a customized behavior support system for one student that will serve as a model for learners in their current school setting. They develop professional development resources using evidence-based practices for improving behavior to share with colleagues and to add to their professional library. 

(1 semester credit)

When teachers are data literate, they inform their professional practice by providing a strong support for meaningful classroom change based on a school environment of data use. In this course, educators explore the meaning of data literacy, assess whether their educational settings are data literate, and examine how they currently use data to drive instruction. Education professionals investigate various methods and strategies for using data in their classrooms to plan and design instruction and to support student performance.

(1 semester credit)

Inquiry-based teaching strives to ignite student curiosity about the world. It is used to shift learning to be more student-focused and promotes student engagement. The development of stimulating questions plays a key role in this approach to teaching and learning. In this course, educators examine student-directed learning and inquiry-based teaching strategies.

(1 semester credit)

While the concept of STEM education is not new, the concept of integrating science, technology, engineering, and math principles as a part of daily practice continues to evolve and looks different in each classroom, school, and district. Foundationally, implementing a STEM approach requires a change in how teachers teach and learners learn; therefore, how educators apply STEM principles in the classroom depends on the educators themselves and the learning needs of their students. In this course, educational professionals explore STEM teaching and learning strategies and the shifts in pedagogy and attitude required to implement a STEM approach. Educators also explore pedagogical models designed to inspire innovative thinking and how STEM principles can be used to advocate for and affect social change in the classroom and community.

(1 semester credit)

Today's ever-changing and emerging technologies are transforming society: how people live, how business is conducted, and how digital natives learn. For students to be successful in the digital landscape, they will need to acquire proficiency in the digital literacies, or fluencies, of solution, information, creativity, media, and collaboration. In this course, educators redefine what it means to be literate in today's technology-rich world and explore how to implement strategies supporting each fluency for digital natives in their classrooms. Through the development of a Fluency Project, they explore the use and application of various technologies to enhance learning and support collaborative problem-solving.

(1 semester credit)

Students have always had diverse learning needs, but today's classrooms—with K–12 students from a wide array of linguistic and cultural backgrounds and experiences—are more diverse than ever before. Educational professionals examine concepts of culturally responsive teaching, language acquisition, and psychology to better support English language learners. They explore ways to create a learning environment that values all linguistic and cultural backgrounds, supports language development and acquisition, and ultimately enhances the learning of all students. Through an interactive case scenario, educators apply strategies to learn about a student's language, culture, and community, and add resources to their professional library on supporting linguistically diverse students.

(1 semester credit)

Making academic content accessible and comprehensible for English language learners requires K–12 teachers to know and be able to execute specific strategies. Educators in this course apply practical strategies to support English language learners' academic language development so they can achieve a high degree of proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, writing, and vocabulary in English-language learning environments. Through the development of professional development materials, education professionals examine current research and strategies to prepare lessons that integrate both content and literacy objectives to better enhance the English language development of English language learners in general classroom settings.

(1 semester credit)

In the ever-changing educational landscape, if teachers are not one of the voices in support of learners, who will be? In this course, educators explore the importance of speaking on behalf of students when educational needs are not being met. By examining research and collaborative dialogue, education professionals explore strategies for advocacy and what it means to be an advocate in the field. Educators challenge themselves to be innovative and transformative in how they think and act regarding how their students learn and the impact of advocacy on families and the school community at large.

(1 semester credit)

Educators not only teach, they lead. Developing teacher leadership skills is an important component of positively impacting student success, not only in an individual classroom but also in a school and in learning communities. In this course, education professionals engage in personal assessment to cultivate the dispositions and attitudes of a teacher–leader and explore avenues for improving professional practice to share strategies with colleagues. Through a simulated ethical dilemma, educators examine their core values and beliefs regarding ethics as a teacher and leader in their school community.

(1 semester credit)

In this course, educators examine the effects of trauma-causing events and situations on learners and families within schools and communities and what they can do to support students and their learning while recovering from trauma. Education professionals explore the cultural and ethical issues related to trauma within the school setting and startegies to support the phsycological needs of students who experience trauma.

(1 semester credit)

Building a strong foundation of literacy skills and experiences in young children is critical to their success in school and life. In this course, educators examine the characteristics and essential literacy concepts of emergent and beginning readers and writers and current tools to support the literacy development of learners in preschool through third grade. Education professionals analyze appropriate developmental, research-based methods for meeting student needs and apply them to their own classrooms to build an effective literacy environment for emergent and beginning literacy learners.

(1 semester credit)

Grades 4–6 can present unique challenges and opportunities for literacy learning. Education professionals evaluate research-based instructional and assessment practices to help actively engage students in further literacy growth and achieve literacy goals. In this course, educators focus on adding effective strategies to their professional library on supporting writing about texts, academic vocabulary, listening and speaking, and the use of technology for content-area reading. They consider how to incorporate different levels, types, and genres of text to support all students' learning and literacy development.

(1 semester credit)

Today's classrooms require teachers to become competent and confident in supporting both students who struggle with reading and writing and those who excel. Education professionals in this course focus on accelerating the literacy development of learners with reading difficulties—including students with exceptionalities—and on addressing the needs of gifted students. Throughout this course, educators examine informal and formal reading assessments, consider how to use data to inform reading instruction, and develop a plan to create positive changes in literacy instruction that will impact students' learning in school and at home.

(1 semester credit)

Preparing students to be mathematically literate in today's world is an important undertaking. To foster high levels of learning and achievement in mathematics, teachers must have a deep understanding of mathematical concepts and know how best to teach them. In this course, educators examine the characteristics of high-level, cognitively demanding mathematical tasks to meet the challenges of today's high standards and foster student learning. They explore authentic and engaging mathematic experiences, including mathematical modeling, representing mathematical ideas in multiple ways, and identifying and addressing student misconceptions.

(1 semester credit)

Today's headlines emphasize the need to prepare students for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers; yet preparing students to be mathematically literate in today's world is a heavy charge. Learners must know how to think mathematically, be critical consumers of information, collaborate with others to reach common goals, and apply mathematical skills and understanding to tackle atypical, real-world problems. Educators in this course explore practices to orchestrate meaningful mathematical discussions in the classroom that engage students' intellect, stretch their thinking, increase their mathematical understanding, and expand their toolkit for solving everyday problems.

(1 semester credit)

The ability to recover and endure when facing challenging situations is defined as resilience. In this course, educators examine the current literature and strategies for supporting students in developing resiliency and grit. They explore the impact they can have on increasing resiliency in students, including classroom strategies, interpersonal skills, and family outreach.

(1 semester credit)

Educators in this course explore the action research process as a meaningful and vital aspect of the teaching profession. When education professionals hear the word research, it often conjures images of endless statistical analysis and long hours poring through journals and books on a given topic. Not surprisingly, these images may deter education professionals from engaging in research. Here, teachers are presented with concepts needed to conduct research in their own classrooms or schools and to enact positive social change. They begin the action research process by identifying a current issue or problem in their classroom or school setting, writing a literature review, and refining research questions.

(1 semester credit)

Education professionals use action research to positively impact P–12 student learning in a variety of ways. They address relevant problems, become involved in collaborative inquiry, use data and research to inform their practice, improve P–12 student academic success, and contribute to positive social change in their classrooms and school environments. Educators in this course continue the action research process by drafting research plans, finalizing research questions, and planning for data collection.

Pre-requisites

• MSED 6901

Note: Capstone I and II cannot be taken concurrently.

(1 semester credit)

In this course, education professionals collect and analyze student data, implement data-informed decisions to guide instructional planning, and engage in reflective practices to ensure continuous improvement and enhance professional growth. They complete the action research process by finalizing their action research and literature reviews, interpreting data, and outlining the impact of action research on future practices in their classrooms and social change in their school community. They do so as part of an inquiry and recursive process, one where professionals continuously evaluate and validate their findings to improve action research plans.

Pre-requisites

• MSED 6901
• MSED 6902

Note: Prerequisites must be completed prior to enrollment in MSED 6903.