Professional educators are called on to make responsible and creative decisions about how to help all of their students learn. In addition, the current emphasis on accountability for drawing on empirically supported instructional approaches challenges all educators to integrate lessons learned from research and practice. Educational psychologists have a history of over one hundred years of empirically identifying "what works." No professional educator can afford to be without this knowledge.

The master's degree in Educational Psychology is an applied degree designed for working educators with many courses offered in late afternoons, evenings, and summers. In addition to a common core of required courses, the program provides flexibility for students to select among alternatives that may be most beneficial for their own instructional environment. The capstone course requires students to integrate across courses within the program and with their own instructional experiences. This degree can be completed in 2-3 years (including summers) and includes a practical synthesis of learning gains for degree completion via a portfolio.

Course requirements: This program requires a minimum of 30 semester hours.
The degree does not require a thesis. The course requirements appear below. Within the structure of these requirements, students develop their programs in consultation with their faculty adviser. For many of the students in the program, a typical course load would include 3 or 6 credit hours (1 or 2 classes) per semester. For these students, the degree can be gained in two years, though three years will be typical if the student takes only one course per semester. For a full-time M.A. student, a typical course load would include at least 9 credit hours each in the fall and spring semesters, with the option of summer coursework. For a full-time student, four semesters should be more than sufficient to complete the program. Students may apply to have equivalent coursework from another institution or department substituted for required or recommended courses.

Required course work (30 total credit hours):

2 First-Year Courses (6 credit hours):

5 Content Courses in Educational Psychology (15 credit hours):

Choose 5 of the following (selection dependent on student's area of specialization)

2 Elective Courses (6 credit hours):

The student selects this pair of courses, based on personal interest and an-ongoing consultation with his or her advisor. The student has a wide latitude in selecting which two courses fulfill this requirement. Typically, these two courses are taken outside of the course offering in educational psychology.

1 Exit Course (3 credit hours):

7P:299 MA Project: The portfolio 3 s.h.

First-Year Courses and the Exit Course. The pair of first-year courses prepares the student for the M.A. program. In Educational Psychology for Effective Teaching (7P:221), students are introduced to a broad sampling of educational psychology (e.g., development, cognition, motivation). In addition, each student begins to create a portfolio of work that showcases how the student can use educational psychology to become a more effective educator. Throughout the program of courses, the student continues to work on individual entries to this portfolio. That is, at the end of each course, the student will author one entry to the portfolio. During the final semester of enrollment in the program, the student enrolls in the exit course MA Project: Portfolio (7P:299). In this course, the student revises and reflects on the contents of the portfolio and presents it as the culmination of his or her work throughout the program. The goal of the portfolio is to show how an understanding and practical application of educational psychology can help the student become a significantly better educational professional in the future.

The Portfolio. For the M.A. degree students are not required to write a Master's thesis. Instead, the capstone project for the M.A. degree is the presentation of a portfolio of work. Like teaching itself, the portfolio is a creative project. Each student's portfolio will reflect personal learning and synthesis and therefore will be different from other students' portfolios. For purposes of illustration, here are a number of ideas of what a possible portfolio entry might look like:

- In the technology course, the student might develop a website for his or her class.

- In the motivation course, the student might seek to promote greater classroom engagement in his or her students. To do so, the student might attempt to expand his or her existing motivating style. The portfolio entry might therefore include a videotape of an actual classroom session showing the student's revised motivating style.

- In the development course, the student might be deeply concerned over the problem of student aggression. The student might develop an intervention program that seeks to promote a more prosocial orientation in his or her students.

- In the instructional design course, the student may design and develop a comprehensive lesson or unit based on analysis of their learners and the content, and then apply and formatively evaluate it in their own teaching situation.