CREATE faculty offer an array of courses for Curriculum Research, Early Childhood Education, Aesthetics, and Teacher Education. Examples of CREATE courses are listed below.
CI 501: Fundamentals of Curriculum Development
Examines a variety of definitions of curriculum developments; readings reflect current theories and research related to substantive issues in the field: how learning is influenced by stated goals of education, cultural background of the learners, structure of the school setting, competencies of teachers, psychological characteristics of the learners, and means of measuring student achievement.
CI 508: Urban Schools and Schooling
This course is for anyone interested in issues of education in urban settings. It provides an overview of sociopolitical perspectives on teaching and learning for Latina/o, African American, American Indian, English learners, and other marginalized youth. The course explores how issues of identity and power are negotiated by students, communities, and teachers. Participants in the course will develop an understanding on how racism, classism, and the politics of language operate within urban schools. An emphasis of the course is on solutions that address social justice.
Reviews the principal methodologies used in research on curriculum problems; emphasizes subject-analytical, large-scale survey, experimental, case methods, and clinical studies; emphasizes the conceptual and practical problems in such research.
CI 519: Methods of Child Study
Studies ways in which teachers can evaluate child behavior and development with an emphasis on classroom application; instruction and practice in the use and interpretation of observations, anecdotal records, rating scales, interviews, achievement tests, intelligence tests, questionnaires, and sociometric and projective techniques.
CI 520: History of Early Childhood Pedagogy and Programs
This course is an overview of historical influences of contemporary early childhood pedagogy and programs. Topics may include, but are not limited to, Enlightenment Era educational reforms, German kindergartens, the Progressive Era, and the War on Poverty.
CI 521: Current Problems and Trends in Early Childhood Education
Includes principles underlying education practices in day care centers, preschool/nursery and kindergarten settings derived from theory and research in developmental psychology, social psychology, anthropology, and other related disciplines.
CI 522: Arts in Early Childhood and Elementary
Role of dance, drama, music, literature, and the visual arts in early childhood and elementary education, focusing on production/performance, appreciation, history, and aesthetics. Interrelationships among curriculum, notions of child development, cultural contexts, and unique traditions of different arts disciplines. Current art education practices in the United States and other countries. Requires attendance at performances and visits to an art museum.
CI 557: Using Theory in Teacher Education Research
Students in this course will read a variety of theoretical viewpoints in order to frame and critically examine teacher education research. Students will be encouraged to use multiple theories to frame research questions and findings as a way to situate themselves as researchers and consider ways in which multiple theoretical perspectives can be used to examine and interpret different aspects of their research in teacher education.