Graduate Courses (Design of Learning Environments 262)
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15:262:603
Design of Learning Environments (3)
This course is an introduction to the process of planning, designing, and user testing of learning environments in formal and informal settings. We will focus on both the theoretical and practical aspects of design. Students will work in small groups to design a learning environment of their choice. The process will be guided by various design frameworks, and informed by current research on the design and study of learning environments.
Prerequisite: Admission in the Ed.D. program.
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15:262:610
Design-Based Research (3)
Students will learn about design-based research and how to design and conduct this kind of inquiry. Students will use data to examine various design research principles and to consider how learning scientists approach the study of learning environments such as technology, curriculum units, and teaching strategies. We will take an action-oriented approach to the conduct of design-based research in the context of actual research projects.
Prerequisite: Admission in the Ed.D. program.
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15:262:612
Inquiry and the Design of Learning Environments (3)
In this course, we explore the idea of "inquiry" as both a pedagogical approach and a design feature. What does it mean to enact inquiry in a classroom? What features define inquiry? What does the research on the use of inquiry in classrooms tell us about effective teaching and learning? Are there specific design features to inquiry? If so, which work best? Under what circumstances is inquiry most effective? We will read, discuss, and critique primary and secondary source literature on the use of inquiry, especially, though not only, as it relates to the teaching and learning of science in K-12 science classrooms, the most commonly researched application of inquiry. Students will engage in a curriculum review project. Working in teams, they will identify, with the help of the instructor, current inquiry-based curricula and critique the curriculum as it relates to the research literature. This activity will help prepare both practitioners (teachers and administrators) and researchers by engaging them in the application of ideas of inquiry to real-world curricula.
Prerequisite: Enrollment in GSE or approval of instructor.
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15:262:620
Learning in Informal Contexts (3)
The seminar-style course focuses on theoretical components of learning in out-of-school contexts. Learning theory in this area draws heavily from sociocultural perspectives on knowing and learning. Students will read and discuss primary and secondary literature on learning sciences research focused on learning in out-of-school settings, including science centers, art museums, after-school programs, scouting and hobbiest groups, aquariums, and lifelong learning settings, among other out-of-school contexts.
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15:262:622
Cognition, Collaboration, and Technology (3)
This seminar will tackle these questions as we consider cognitive, constructivist, and sociocultural approaches to learning and teaching with technology. A myriad of educational technology has been developed over the last decade, much of it based on psychological research on how people think and learn. We will explore a number of technologies ranging from those that provide information such as hypermedia to technologies that support collaborative learning to those that provide expressive media for learners. We will discuss factors that are important to the success and failures of these approaches as well as explore the research issues inherent in these learning environments. We will examine the nature of knowledge construction, collaboration, and distributed cognition by discussing the relevant literature, and by demonstrations of different examples of these technologies. In addition, we will consider some of the Web 2.0 technologies and look to the future to see how these might be important to education.
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15:262:625
Design Research Practicum (3)
Provides students with an experiential opportunity
to begin conducting their own research. The primary goal will be for students to plan, implement, and analyze a
series of small-scale pilot studies. The
course is held in a workshop format in which students will present
regularly and get feedback from the instructor and their peers. Students will learn to justify their methodological choices by drawing from and citing prior published
research. These methodological choices
include the use of particular samples, measures, procedures, research designs,
and analysis plans. Students will also
get experience analyzing their data and presenting the results both in written
and oral form.
Prerequisite: Admission in the Ed.D. program.
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Courses 
