Course Description Learning is one of the four themes in the Rossier School of Education’s Ed.D. program, along with Diversity, Accountability and Leadership. This course offers useful strategies for identifying learning challenges and opportunities and an approach to solving them by understanding the research and theory foundations for developing instructional solutions. In pursuit of the Rossier mission, we are particularly focused on improving “learning opportunities and outcomes in urban settings and to address disparities that affect historically marginalized groups.” This course is based on the assumption that “education doctors” need to be able to fairly and accurately diagnose educational performance problems and solve them with effective, research-based interventions. In addition to drawing on learning and motivation theories to achieve this goal, the course will provide you with much experience applying “gap analysis” – a system for diagnosing and solving learning and motivation problems. This model is derived from the area known as “human performance technology.” The model is described in two texts required for the course, Turning Research Into Results: A Guide to Selecting the Right Performance Solutions (Clark & Estes, 2008) and The 3 Dimensions of Improving Student Performance (Rueda, 2011), and supported by a number of assigned activities. This model, used in the final paper, is one of the major tools that can be effectively used to apply learning and motivation theories and principles to address problems of equity, inclusion, and access for historically marginalized groups.
It is assumed that doctoral students taking this course will be working in diverse educational settings including K-12 education, community colleges and universities, and in business and government settings. All students will be asked to develop a case study (fully described later in this syllabus in and in class) that reflects the goals, current progress, knowledge, motivation, and organizational gaps and ways to close those gaps in a fictional urban education setting. This major case study will serve as a problem identification and problem-solving practice to bring about more equitable outcomes in their organizations and professional fields.
During the course, you will be provided with valuable information related to major learning and motivation theories that affect human learning and development. While you may have had courses in psychology or learning theories previously, it is likely that you did not have the opportunity to actually apply your knowledge to real work-based problems. Therefore, in this class, you will be asked to apply these theories to case studies, practice exercises, and collaborative in-class activities. You will also be asked to integrate what you have learned from the learning and motivation theories and apply this knowledge to a real-life case study related to your professional field using the gap analysis model as a framework.
Learning Outcomes By the end of this course, you will be able to:
Recognize, define, and apply key learning and motivation theories, concepts, processes, principles and procedures to diagnose causes of and plan instructional solutions to bring about more equitable outcomes for historically marginalized groups in urban settings. Analyze common learning problems in urban contexts, explain their causes, and suggest instructional solutions based on learning research and theory. Analyze the role of evidence in decision-making, including developing solutions for educational and learning problems in urban contexts. Create goals in educational settings, measure current progress towards those goals, and the gaps that must be closed to achieve equitable outcomes and learning goals for a variety of learners from different cultural backgrounds. Identify common learning, motivation, and organizational/cultural causes of gaps, and validate the causes in urban educational settings. Identify instructional, motivational, and organizational/cultural solutions for closing gaps that are based on learning research and theory. Create a gap analysis by developing a case study. Apply strategies for group collaborative problem solving, speaking in front of others, active listening, and evaluating problems. Apply the style and formatting conventions of American Psychological Association’s (APA) in academic writing.