
Overview: Curriculum and Instruction
This concentration focuses on mastering curriculum design within a Christian framework and higher educational standards, focusing on both what and how students learn. You will develop leadership in curriculum and pedagogy and integrate faith and values into your educational practice. Key areas include education, justice, equity, and excellence.
Guided by a Christian vision for shalom, you will analyze issues influencing curricular decisions, promoting equitable practices. Through research and theory, you will examine various curricular and pedagogical perspectives and learn to design and evaluate transformative classroom practices that create learning communities for all learners.
Other Concentrations:
Each concentration features its own unique course structure and course list, with a total requirement of ten courses.
Click the buttons below to learn more about other concentrations.
COURSE LIST for Curriculum and Instruction
Required Core Course:
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Educational Research and Evaluation (3)
Flexible Core Courses: Choose Three in Four
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Framing Questions, Global Forces, Constraining Structures (3)
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Leading Educational Communities: Communication (3)
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Reshaping Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning (3)
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Pathways to Inclusion: Re-examining Beliefs about Learners (3)
Concentration Courses & Elective Courses:
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Three concentration-specific courses
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Three approved electives,
which include “Specialized Literature Survey (3)”
Students have to consult with their advisors, who will make suggestions to them for their selections of three concentration courses and three elective courses according to the levels and study purposes of their future professional development.
10 courses for Curriculum and Instruction (30 credits)
Required Core Course:
Educational Research and Evaluation (3)
This course engages students further in understanding and examining the theories, methods, and paradigmatic frames of educational research through a biblical lens. It prepares students to read and critique qualitative and quantitative educational research and learn how to use data appropriately to support educational and organizational decision-making.
Flexible Core Courses: Choose 3 from 4
Framing Questions, Global Forces, Constraining Structures (3)
This course will examine key issues surrounding the nature of a good society, the ways in which the global community affects education, and how schooling gets structured by politics and economics. It will use the faith-based frames of justice and hope in connection with shalom and the kingdom of God to investigate formal education in light of its political, economic, social, and religious contexts. Students will investigate foundational questions around teaching, learning, curriculum, and language as well as structural issues of social class, gender, ability, and race.
Leading Educational Communities: Communication (3)
This course prepares professional educators to understand and analyze discourse as it shapes educational activity. Teaching and learning communications are shaped and made meaningful by culture, language, mode and circumstance; as well as ideology and power. The ability to analyze communication as discursive prepares participants to examine educational activity settings, assess them for equitable participation, and design them for more effective and just educational practice.
Reshaping Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning (3)
The dynamic relationship between curriculum as content and as process, between what is to be learned and the instructional practices used to organize and mediate it for students, is at the heart of educational practice. This course focuses on the theory and practice of curriculum and pedagogy, examined in terms of both the perspectives that shape them and the ways in which they serve or fail to serve all learners. Issues addressed include the concept, purpose, and social context of curriculum; the historical perspectives that influence current and future directions; the relationship between curriculum and instruction; and the issues and practices related to assessment and instructional technology.
Pathways to Inclusion: Re-examining Beliefs about Learners (3)
In any learning community, educators must be prepared to create a learning community that meets the needs of students with a variety of differences in ability, gender, sexuality, race/ethnicity, language, socioeconomic status, and more. Through this course, participants will examine the needs of learners with differences in school contexts, and re-examine commonly held beliefs and practices about identity and difference with the goal of developing inclusive learning communities. The course will specifically focus on linguistic differences, language development, and literacy as they support or impede the inclusion of all learners in educational contexts.
Concentration-specific Courses:
Students are required to take three concentration-specific courses. They have to consult with their advisors, who will provide guidance on selecting three Curriculum Concentration Courses that begin with the code EDUC, tailored to the levels and study purposes of their future professional development. Each concentration course involves 45 to 60 hours of teaching and learning activities.
Free Elective Courses:
Students are required to take three approved elective courses, which include "Specialized Literature Survey." The purpose of these elective courses is to meet the diverse needs of students. They have to consult with their advisors, who will provide recommendations for selecting three elective courses that begin with the code EDUC, tailored to the levels and study purposes of their future professional development. Each elective course carries 45 to 60 hours of teaching and learning activities.
Specialized Literature Survey (3)
The purpose of this course is to provide students with the opportunity to deepen their understanding of their chosen area of study and to specialize their focus through an extended program of reading, guided by an instructor. Students will negotiate with their instructor a program of 2,000 pages of reading (or equivalent) in their chosen area and evidence of engagement with this literature through written and oral reports.
Remark
The course list will vary based on applicants' chosen concentrations, interests, levels of study, and future professional development goals. Upon admission, each applicant will have the opportunity to meet with their advisor to discuss a personalized course plan tailored to their specific needs and aspirations, while ensuring alignment with the overall course structure.
Please note that the course structure and offerings may be subject to revision by Lumina College and Calvin University without prior notice. For the most current information, we encourage you to contact us.