Curriculum and Instruction (Curriculum Teaching and Teacher Education)

Description

Take courses related to teacher education, professional development, teacher leadership, and school reform. Apply your learning every semester in your own context. Develop expertise in curriculum and instruction and skills in research methodologies that will enable you to conduct research related to your context – classroom, school, district, or state. This program is not intended to prepare educators for positions in research-intensive universities. It is intended to prepare practicing educational professionals to draw on educational theory and research, and the expertise of colleagues and UF faculty to address the pressing problems of practice facing educational leaders today.

The following features are distinct:

• The program is cohort based with participants working together as a community of learners to tackle common and individual problems of practice.
• Courses specifically link theory and research to problems of professional practice with participants’ contexts.
• Course assignments support educators in application of and inquiry about their learning.
• Qualifying examinations are organized around reflective portfolio entries in which participants demonstrate conceptual understanding and application of learning.
• The dissertation is designed as a capstone experience in which participants work in research groups to design and implement complementary studies focused around context based problems of practice.

Each student in this online program will demonstrate conceptual and practical competence and critical stance in three core areas of expertise:

1. Theoretical expertise: apply historical and theoretical constructs to today’s problems of practice

2. Pedagogical expertise: demonstrate knowledge and skill in research based practice and applied research in the area of teacher learning and school reform

3. Research expertise: demonstrate the ability to read and understand research and generate knowledge through systematic study of problems of practice in specific contexts

This program is designed as a cohort experience with students beginning the program every other year. Because of the intensive cohort nature of this program, it is highly unlikely that graduate credits beyond the master’s degree will count toward this doctoral degree. Online sessions are either eight or sixteen weeks in length and there are required on-campus experiences every summer (always during UF summer break week) and one weekend institute each fall and spring. Courses will be scheduled so students can complete the program in a timely way, with standard time to completion being 4 years.

Qualifying exams are required for each student to advance to doctoral candidacy. Qualifying exams require each student to design, develop and present in a public forum a reflective portfolio around a series of job-embedded tasks in a manner commensurate with doctoral level work. These will be structured to align with each student’s specialization context and eventual capstone/dissertation topic.

Each student will culminate his/her capstone experience with a dissertation defense occurring in a public forum

Contents

Students are required to complete coursework in the following areas. Again, please note these are minimums in each area and will not total the number of credits needed in the doctoral degree.

• Courses in CTTE: 30 credits
• Research courses: 12 credits
• Dissertation: 18 credits (minimum)
• Elective (transferred in from masters degree): typically 30 hours

Students can expect to take the following course requirements:

Required Courses in CTTE:

• EDG 6226: Foundations of Research in Curriculum and Instruction
• EDG 7252: Perspectives in Curriculum, Teaching, and Teacher Education
• EDE 7359: Professional Development for Teacher Learning
• EDG 6047: Teacher Leadership for School Change (elective)
• EDF 6616: Education and American Culture
• EDG 7224: Critical Pedagogy
• EDG 7303: Teaching Learning and Socialization in Poverty Schools
• EEX 7787: Issues in School Reform
• EDG 6356: Teaching Learning, and Reframing Classroom Assessment
• EDG 6931: Critical Leadership for Equity
• EDG 7979: Advanced Research / Qualifying Exams (3-6 credits)
• EDG 7980: Dissertation/Capstone Research (15+ credits)

Research Courses:

• EDG 7982: Practitioner Research – Theory and Practice
• EDF 6938: Introduction to Statistics
• EDF 6938: Reading Statistical Research
• EDF 6938: Reading, Designing, and Conducting Qualitative Research

Requirements

Current entrance requirements include three or more years of practical experience, a full-time professional role in education, an upper division undergraduate GPA of 3.0, GRE scores that range between 450-600 each on the verbal and math sections, and an essay on an assigned topic. You should know that the GRE is only one criterion. The admissions committee reviews all application materials using all available evidence on a case-by-case.

English Language Requirements

Work Experience

At least 3 year(s) of work experience is required.

Funding

New doctoral students that begin in the fall term can be considered for a UF Graduate School doctoral fellowship. The purpose of the fellowships is to prepare the next generation of researchers in the area of Curriculum, Teaching, and Teacher Education. Funded at nationally competitive levels, these highly prestigious awards support students in earning a Ph.D. Doctoral students who earn a UF Graduate School fellowship receive four full years of funding in the form of a tuition waiver and a nationally competitive stipend. Most doctoral students with a UF Graduate School fellowship receive both research and teaching assignments throughout their doctoral program. The University expects fellowship recipients to demonstrate high standards of academic achievement and participation in university life. The fellowships are very competitive and the number of fellowships awarded varies from year to year.

All full-time doctoral students may apply each semester for a graduate teaching assistantship or a graduate research assistantship. Students with assistantships must take 9 credits of coursework and their tuition is covered along with receiving a small stipend. Again, assistantship positions are competitive.

To be considered for the fellowship and assistantships, you should complete the assistantship application form found in the admission packet.

We encourage all students to consult the UF Financial Aid Office to see what funding opportunities/sources are available.

More

Accreditation

The University of Florida is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and thus all UF degree programs carry this accreditation (and are held to very high peer-review and administrative/bureaucratic approval processes during the development of courses and programs).

College of Education’s Mission

The mission of the College of Education is to prepare exemplary practitioners and scholars; to generate, use and disseminate knowledge about teaching, learning and human development; and to collaborate with others to solve critical educational and human problems in a diverse global community.