Courses at Bryn Mawr
Education courses serve as sites for bringing together students to build and interrogate knowledge. The introductory and culminating courses offer a foundation and a capstone set of supports as students complete their respective programs of study, and the electives offer students the opportunity to pursue and prepare themselves in certain areas of interest, such as urban education, literacy, and populations with special needs. Most courses include a field component through which students are taught to integrate academic and experiential knowledge, theory and practice, in the classroom and beyond it.
This page displays the schedule of Bryn Mawr courses in this department for this academic year. It also displays descriptions of courses offered by the department during the last four academic years.
For information about courses offered by other Bryn Mawr departments and programs or about courses offered by Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges, please consult the Course Guides page.
For information about the Academic Calendar, including the dates of first and second quarter courses, please visit the College's master calendar.
Spring 2013
Fall 2013
Spring 2014
Courses at Haverford
Fall 2012
Spring 2013
Courses at Bryn Mawr
2013-14 Catalog Data
EDUC
B200
Critical Issues in Education
Spring 2014
Designed to be the first course for students interested in pursuing one of the options offered through the Education Program, this course is also open to students who are not yet certain about their career aspirations but are interested in educational issues. The course examines major issues in education in the United States within the conceptual framework of educational reform. Fieldwork in an area school required (eight visits, 1.5-2 hours per visit). Writing intensive.
Division I: Social Science
Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)
Counts toward Africana Studies
Counts toward Child and Family Studies
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EDUC
B210
Perspectives on Special Education
Fall 2013
The goal of this course is to introduce students to a range of topics, challenges, dilemmas, and strategies in understanding and educating all learners--those considered typical learners as well as those considered "special" learners. Students will learn more about: how students' learning profiles affect their learning in school from a functional perspective; how and why students' educational experience is affected by special education law; major issues in the field of special education; and a-typical learners, students with disabilities, and how to meet diverse student needs in a classroom. Two hours of fieldwork per week required.
Division I: Social Science
Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)
Counts toward Child and Family Studies
Counts toward Praxis Program
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EDUC
B219
Writing in Theory/Writing in Practice
Fall 2013
This Praxis course is designed for students interested in teaching or tutoring writing at the high-school or college level. The course focuses on understanding the relationship between high school and college-level writing. Readings focus on the theory and pedagogy of writing, on literacy issues, and on writing culture.
Division III: Humanities
Critical Interpretation (CI)
Cross-listed as ENGL B220
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EDUC
B220
Changing Pedagogies in Mathematics and Science
Fall 2013
This Praxis course will examine research-based approaches to teaching mathematics and science. What does research tell us about how people learn? How can one translate this learning theory into teaching approaches that will help all students learn mathematics and science? How are these new approaches, that often involve active, hands-on, inquiry based learning, being implemented in the classroom? What challenges arise when one tries to bring about these types of changes in education? How do issues of equity, discrimination, and social justice impact math and science education? The Praxis component of the course usually involves two visits per week each of two hours to a local math or science classroom.
Division I: Social Science
Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)
Counts toward Praxis Program
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EDUC
B225
Empowering Learners: Theory and Practice of Extra-Classroom Teaching
Spring 2014
This Praxis course asks, "What are the challenges of education aiming to support learners' self-empowerment with respect to their health and well being? What knowledge and skills are necessary for educators seeking to take a strengths-based approach to the struggles and aspirations of learners and communities?" Students will explore the intersections of education and health and learn ways to move beyond a narrow "delivery model" in a range of community-based field placements. Focus is on learning to facilitate and assess learners' growth within cultural contexts, challenging prescribed roles and identifying structural barriers and opportunities.
Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)
Counts toward Praxis Program
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EDUC
B250
Literacies and Education
Not offered 2013-14
A critical exploration of what counts as literacy, who decides, and what the implications are for teaching and learning. Students explore both their own and others experiences of literacy through reading and writing about power, privilege, access and responsibility around issues of adult, ESL, cultural, multicultural, gendered, academic and critical literacies. Fieldwork required. (Writing Intensive Praxis I). Priority given first to those pursuing certification or a minor in educational studies.
Division I: Social Science
Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)
Counts toward Child and Family Studies
Counts toward Praxis Program
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EDUC
B251
Arts Teaching in Educational and Community Settings
Fall 2013
This is a Praxis II course intended for students who have substantial experience in an art form and are interested in extending that experience into teaching and learning at educational and community sites. Following an overview of the history of the arts in education, the course will investigate underlying theories. The praxis component will allow students to create a fluid relationship between theory and practice through observing, teaching and reflecting on arts practices in education contexts. School or community placement 4-6 hours a week. Prerequisite: at least an intermediate level of experience in an art form.
Division III: Humanities
Cross-listed as ARTA B251
Counts toward Praxis Program
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EDUC
B255
Technology, Education and Society Altering Environments
Fall 2013
This course will examine technology in education and consider its complex impact on teaching, learning, and social organization in a global context. In order to develop agency in using, creating and evaluating technology, students will learn via experience, critical examination, collaboration, and exploration of associated issues of power, knowledge, culture, access, and identity.
Division I: Social Science
Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)
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EDUC
B258
Finding Knowledge Between the Leaves: 19th-Century Literature of Education
Not offered 2013-14
This class will examine innovative extra-institutional methods and spaces of learning. We will explore a genealogy of unconventional and progressive models of instruction found in imaginative literature, in personal letters, and in material culture. Our readings will range from novels by Catharine Maria Sedgwick and Louisa May Alcott to poetry and letters by Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson to personal narratives by Henry David Thoreau and Booker T. Washington.
Division I or Division III
Critical Interpretation (CI)
Cross-listed as ENGL B258
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EDUC
B260
Multicultural Education
Spring 2014
An investigation of education as a cultural event that engages issues of identity, difference, and power. The course explores a set of key tensions in the contested areas of multiculturalism and multicultural education: identity and difference; peace and conflict; dialogue and silence; and culture and the individual psyche. Students will apply theory and practice to global as well as specific, localized situations -- communities and schools that contend with significant challenges in terms of equity and places where educators, students, and parents are trying out ways of educating for diversity and social justice. Fieldwork of two to three hours per week.
Division I: Social Science
Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)
Counts toward Praxis Program
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EDUC
B266
Schools in American Cities
Fall 2013
This course examines issues, challenges, and possibilities of urban education in contemporary America. We use as critical lenses issues of race, class, and culture; urban learners, teachers, and school systems; and restructuring and reform. While we look at urban education nationally over several decades, we use Philadelphia as a focal "case" that students investigate through documents and school placements. This is a Praxis II course (weekly fieldwork in a school required)
Division I: Social Science
Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)
Cross-listed as SOCL B266
Cross-listed as CITY B266
Counts toward Africana Studies
Counts toward Child and Family Studies
Counts toward Praxis Program
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EDUC
B270
Identity, Access, and Innovation in Education
Not offered 2013-14
This course explores formal policies that attempt to address race, gender, and language in education and the informal ways that such policies play out in access to education and in knowledge construction and production. Participatory action research involves students in working with an urban high school.
Division I: Social Science
Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)
Counts toward Praxis Program
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EDUC
B275
English Learners in U.S. Schools: Policies and Practices
Fall 2013
This course focuses on educational policies and practices related to language minority students in the U. S. We examine English learners' diverse experiences, educators' approaches to working with linguistically diverse students, programs that address their strengths and needs, links between schools and communities, and issues of policy and advocacy. This is a Praxis II course (weekly fieldwork in a school or other educational setting).
Division I: Social Science
Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)
Counts toward Child and Family Studies
Counts toward Peace and Conflict Studies
Counts toward Praxis Program
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EDUC
B280
Gender, Sex and Education: Intersections and Conflict
Not offered 2013-14
This course explores the intersections and conflict between gender and education through focus on science/mathematics education and related academic domains. It investigates how gender complicates disciplinary knowledge (and vice-versa), the (de)constructing and reinforcing of genders (via science and schooling), and ways gender troubles negotiation of disciplines. Implications for teaching, society, and social justice, as well as relationships among different cultural categories, will be explored.
Division I: Social Science
Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)
Counts toward Gender and Sexuality Studies
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EDUC
B285
Ecologies of Minds and Communities
Spring 2014
This course will attend to students' distinctive ways of seeing and being in the world, in the context of communitarian questions of identity, access, and power. How can we re-imagine ecological literacy more deeply and fruitfully with and for diverse students and communities?
Division I: Social Science
Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)
Counts toward Environmental Studies
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EDUC
B290
Learning in Institutional Spaces: Education in Dialogue
Not offered 2013-14
This course considers how two "walled communities," the institutions of schools and prisons, operate as sites of learning. Beginning with an examination of the origins of educational and penitential institutions, we examine how these institutions both constrain and propel learning, and how human beings challenge and change their soundings.
Division I: Social Science
Counts toward Gender and Sexuality Studies
Counts toward Praxis Program
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EDUC
B301
Curriculum and Pedagogy Seminar
Not offered 2013-14
A consideration of theoretical and applied issues related to effective curriculum design, pedagogical approaches and related issues of teaching and learning. Fieldwork is required. Enrollment is limited to 15 with priority given first to students pursuing certification and second to seniors planning to teach.
Division I: Social Science
Counts toward Child and Family Studies
Counts toward Praxis Program
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EDUC
B302
Practice Teaching Seminar
Not offered 2013-14
Drawing on participants' diverse student teaching placements, this seminar invites exploration and analysis of ideas, perspectives and approaches to teaching at the middle and secondary levels. Taken concurrently with Practice Teaching. Open only to students engaged in practice teaching.
Division I: Social Science
Counts toward Child and Family Studies
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EDUC
B303
Practice Teaching in Secondary Schools
Not offered 2013-14
Supervised teaching in secondary schools (12 weeks). Two units of credit are given for this course. Open only to students preparing for state certification.
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EDUC
B303
Practice Teaching in Secondary Schools
Not offered 2013-14
Supervised teaching in secondary schools (12 weeks). Two units of credit are given for this course. Open only to students preparing for state certification.
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EDUC
B311
Fieldwork Seminar
Not offered 2013-14
Drawing on the diverse contexts in which participants complete their fieldwork, this seminar invites exploration and analysis of ideas, perspectives and different ways of understanding his/her ongoing fieldwork and associated issues of educational practice, reform, and innovation. Five hours of fieldwork are required per week.
Counts toward Child and Family Studies
Counts toward Praxis Program
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EDUC
B320
Topics in German Literature and Culture
Not offered 2013-14
Division III: Humanities
Cross-listed as GERM B320
Counts toward Film Studies
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EDUC
B374
Education Politics & Policy in the U.S.
Fall 2013
This course will examine education policy through the lens of federalism and federalism through a case study of education policy. The dual aims are to enhance our understanding of this specific policy area and our understanding of the impact that our federal system of government has on policy effectiveness.
Division I: Social Science
Cross-listed as POLS B374
Cross-listed as SOCL B374
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EDUC
B403
Supervised Work
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EDUC
B403
Supervised Work
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EDUC
B425
Independent Study (Praxis III)
Counts toward Praxis Program
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EDUC
B433
Practice Teaching in Secondary Schools
Supervised teaching in secondary schools (12 weeks) - for students enrolled in the Post-baccalaureate Teacher Educatino Program. Two units of credit are given for this course. Open only to non-matriculating students preparing for state certification.
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Courses at Haverford
EDUC H200 Critical Issues in Education
Fall 2012 and Spring 2013
Designed to be the first course for students interested in pursuing one of the options offered through the Education Program, this course is also open to students who are not yet certain about their career aspirations but are interested in educational issues. The course examines major issues in education in the United States within the conceptual framework of educational reform. Fieldwork in an area school required (eight visits, 1.5-2 hours per visit). Enrollment is limited to 25 students with priority given to students pursuing certification or the minor in educational studies. Writing intensive. (Curl,H.)
EDUC H210 Perspectives on Special Education
Fall 2012
The goal of this course is to introduce students to a range of topics, challenges, dilemmas, and strategies in understanding and educating all learners—those considered typical learners as well as those considered “special” learners. Students will learn more about: how students’ learning profiles affect their learning in school from a functional perspective; how and why students’ educational experience is affected by special education law; major issues in the field of special education; and a-typical learners, students with disabilities, and how to meet diverse student needs in a classroom. Fieldwork in an area school required (eight visits, 1.5-2 hours per visit). Enrollment is limited to 25 students with priority given to students enrolled in the Education Program. (Flaks, D.)
EDUC H250 Literacies and Education
Spring 2013
A critical exploration of what counts as literacy, who decides, and what the implications are for teaching and learning. Students explore both their own and others’ experiences of literacy through reading and writing about power, privilege, access and responsibility around issues of adult, ESL, cultural, multicultural, gendered, academic and critical literacies. Two-three hours per week of fieldwork. Priority given to students enrolled in the Education Program. (Lesnick, A.)
EDUC H301 Curriculum and Pedagogy
Fall 2012
A consideration of theoretical and applied issues related to effective curriculum design, pedagogical approaches and related issues of teaching and learning. Weekly fieldwork is required. Enrollment is limited to 15 with priority given first to students pursuing certification and second to seniors planning to teach. (Curl, H.)
EDUC H302 Practice Teaching Seminar
Spring 2013
Drawing on participants’ diverse student teaching placements, this seminar invites exploration and analysis of ideas, perspectives and approaches to teaching at the middle and secondary levels. Taken concurrently with Practice Teaching. Open only to students engaged in practice teaching. (Curl, H)
EDUC/SPAN H360 Learning-Teaching a Foreign Language
Fall 2012
This course is designed for the advanced student of Spanish, who is interested in the processes involved in learning a foreign language, and/or contemplating teaching it. Prerequisites: A 200 level Spanish course or consent of the instructor.(Lopez-Sanchez, Ana)
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