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College of Education and Educational Technology

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Master's in Education (MEDU)
Master's Degree Programs

The Master's in Education (MEDU) Program is designed to be user-friendly, and to recruit a new population of educators and graduates of undergraduate programs holding a first Teacher Certification. The program emphasizes teaching and learning and provides a necessary emphasis on integrated learning. The program's integrated curriculum will prepare teachers as leaders and to be more effective and innovative in classrooms, in schools, and in communities. Instruction via technology is employed, where relevant, as one medium of instruction. Consequently, all students enrolled in this program are required to have Internet access. While students will participate in various modes of learning, evaluation, and research, a significant focus of this MED Program is that students will develop those characteristics necessary to be effective leaders in various educational arenas. This focus will be an element of each Thematic Unit and will highlight the recursive nature of teaching and learning. Students who successfully complete the MED Program may apply for the Principal’s Certification Program, but are still required to meet that program’s other requirements.

Various educational researchers consistently note that attention to integrated curriculum, diverse instructional strategies and assessment methods, reflective inquiry, and learning within a cohort structure is necessary for effective instruction in the 21st Century. Each of the six Thematic Units has been developed around these issues and, consequently, contributes to an innovative, high quality teacher education program.

The concept of integrated learning has important implications for the relationship of practice and research. Its emphasis is on centrality of knowledge in learning. While students will study the traditional disciplines and issues in public/private education, they will also explore the educational implications. The Masters in Education curriculum is more than a stringing together of unrelated courses or separate competencies. It is an integrated and sequential approach designed to engage students in organizing, structuring, integrating, and revising what is known about teaching and learning, the elementary, middle, junior-high, and high-school student, the family, and the community milieu from which students come.

The program consists of thirty-six semester hours divided into six Thematic Units of six-credits each taken over a two-year period. All students begin the program in the fall semester as a cohort. This format has the added benefit of encouraging graduate students to establish and maintain a supportive network and a more systematic process for scheduling classes and moving through the program together. In the first year, students will enroll in MEDU-661 in the fall, MEDU-662 during the succeeding spring semester, and MEDU-663 in Summer Session I*. In the second year, students will enroll in MEDU-664 in the fall, MEDU-665 in the spring, and MEDU-666 in Summer Session II.*  Attendance at a Program Information Session is required prior to admission.

* The main campus and off-campus sites follow IUP's Summer School Schedule. There is no provision for Transfer Credit, Individualized Instruction, Workshops, or taking these Thematic Units as electives. All Fall and Spring classes meet in the evening from 5:15 – 8:45. Summer classes meet Tues. and Thurs. or Monday and Wed. evenings.

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 regards 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.