Your Education at IUP
The M.Ed. in Education prepares you to be a “teacher leader” within your classroom, school, and community. Throughout your program, you will grow professionally and personally and impact the lives of those in your classroom and school by actively working to improve student achievement and confidence, by keeping abreast of the field of education, and by using your research skills to strengthen classroom instruction and management. By becoming a teacher leader, you are proactive in effecting change and supporting student efforts, and are a lifelong learner who encourages the same for your students. Ultimately, by becoming a teacher leader through your M.Ed. in Education program, you serve as a role model for teachers at all career phases and inspire and influence others to be leaders, too.
Your M.Ed. Program
The M.Ed. in Education is designed for teachers holding an Instructional I or II certificate (or the equivalent if certified to teach in a state other than Pennsylvania). Throughout the program, continued emphasis is placed on the examination of your own attitudes and values so that you can more effectively interface with a changing society.
Additionally, the program emphasizes the value of designing an integrated curriculum across the content areas enhanced by the effective use of instructional technology. Faculty members are knowledgeable and experienced in a multitude of areas, with expertise that includes educational leadership, curriculum development, assessment, and multiculturalism. Two faculty members team-teach every course, during which time you will experience various modes of teaching characterized by
- Active learning and higher order thinking
- Research-based, data-driven methods
- Active student engagement
- Reflection as a teaching and learning mode
- Exploration of societal and community perspectives
- Fair and ethical treatment of children
- Small- and large-group discussion
- Student-centered assignments
Format and Course Description
Take all courses with your classmates as a cohort, progressing through the entire sequence of classes together. You will take one six-credit course per semester for a total of six semesters, and complete your program in two years. Courses offered during the Fall and Spring semesters meet one night per week from 5:15 to 8:45 p.m. Summer classes meet two nights per week during a five-week period.
Students who successfully complete the M.Ed. program may apply for IUP’s Principal Certification Program (offered at IUP’s main campus in Indiana, Pa.) or for doctoral study.
Courses (36 credits total)
MEDU-761 Community and Culture
MEDU-762 Instruction and the Learner
MEDU-763 Teacher as Researcher
MEDU-764 Educational Change and Technology
MEDU-765 Curriculum and Instruction
MEDU-766 Teacher as Leader
MEDU 761 Community and Culture
(Offered in Fall semester only)
Prerequisite: Formal program acceptance
This team-taught thematic unit is designed to prepare graduate students with a strong theoretical and practical knowledge base of the community and the culture in which the school resides. The unit also emphasizes indirect educational variables such as community, cultural, and language diversity that directly affect all public school learners. Upon completion of this thematic unit, students will possess higher levels of self-efficacy and will be empowered to engage with the school, the community, and the culture in an educational and societal context.
MEDU 762 Instruction and the Learner
(Offered in Spring semester only)
Prerequisites: MEDU 761
This team-taught thematic unit is designed to prepare graduate students with a strong theoretical and practical knowledge base in regard to instruction and the learner. Cognitive, humanist, and behavioral views of instruction are analyzed and identified with their corresponding classroom practices. In addition, various aspects of the learner are examined developmentally and within the instructional context. Students will have an opportunity to use a model of reflective thinking and teaching to apply their knowledge of instructional technology to facilitate classroom learning. Students will also learn to apply constructivist perspectives on instruction to personal educational practices.
MEDU 763 Teacher as Researcher
(Offered in Summer Session I only)
Prerequisites: MEDU 761, MEDU 762
This team-taught thematic unit will provide educators with the ability to use various research methods that will help them obtain practical knowledge that can be incorporated into their daily educational practices. These research skills are intended to (a) improve educators’ awareness of and relationships to students’ lives and (b) stimulate the formation of relevant and sound educational strategies that incorporate their findings into the classroom in ways that recognize, validate, and build upon their students’ prior socialization, knowledge, and “meaning-making” strategies. This thematic unit will familiarize educators with the conceptual frameworks, methods, and research traditions from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives.
MEDU 764 Educational Change and Technology
(Offered in Fall semester only)
Prerequisites: MEDU 761, MEDU 762, MEDU 763
This team-taught thematic unit is designed to prepare graduate students with a strong theoretical and practical knowledge base focusing on a number of educational changes occurring in twenty-first century schools. Topics include (but are not limited to) the possibilities and challenges of technology and the information highway, school organization, program design, instructional strategies, assessment practices, and the roles and relationships of educators, families, and communities.
MEDU 765 Curriculum and Instruction
(Offered in Spring semester only)
Prerequisites: MEDU 761, MEDU 762, MEDU 763, MEDU 764
This team-taught thematic unit is designed to prepare graduate students with a strong theoretical and practical knowledge base of a variety of instructional design and delivery strategies. Through critical inquiry, students will explore the organizational, academic, political, and social issues of curriculum and instruction. This thematic unit fosters and supports the concept of the teacher as a reflective practitioner. Students will be encouraged to link theory and practice through the relationship of projects and actual day-to-day classroom practice. The many facets of instructional design and delivery will also invite and support development of various individual and group projects.
MEDU 766 Teacher as Leader
(Offered in Summer Session II only)
Prerequisites: MEDU 761, MEDU 762, MEDU 763, MEDU 764, and MEDU 765
What are the attributes of a teacher leader? What impact does adult development have on classroom teaching strategies? These two questions provide the overall focus for this team-taught thematic unit. It will present a variety of teacher leadership models as well as the theories related specifically to teachers and adult development. Where practical, students will plan and implement short-term projects in an educational setting that relate to these two variables and/or will develop simulations to enhance their understanding of these theories and models.
