Individualized Studies
The master's specialization in Human Development, Culture, and Learning Sciences (formerly called Academic Educational Psycholgoy) has four areas of concentration: College Teaching, Cultural Perspectives on Schooling, Individualized Studies, and Psychology for Teachers.
The Individualized Studies concentration is intended for individuals who are interested in broadening and strengthening their appreciation of the research represented by our faculty with expertise in human development, learning and cognition, social psychology, cultural issues, and motivation and instruction, especially as these apply to education. Any student already pursuing other master’s or doctoral degree programs could obtain a master’s degree in educational psychology, tailoring the choices of courses and focus of the report or thesis to reflect their interests.
This concentration is for those for whom a master’s degree would be beneficial, either because of the job they already have or because they are aiming to teach in an institution of postsecondary education such as a community college, or because they plan to apply to doctoral programs related to the field of educational psychology.
Required Courses
A. Foundation courses: 18 hours
- EDP 380E Fundamental Statistics OR
EDP 371 Introduction to Statistics; - EDP 380P Measurement & Evaluation;
- EDP 385 Individual through the Life Cycle OR
EDP 385 Child and Adolescent Social and Cognitive Development; - EDP 381M Individual in Society OR
EDP 381M Seminar in Social Psychology; - EDP 382L Psychology of Learning OR
EDP 382L Instructional Psychology; - EDP 382L Motivation and Emotion
B. Electives: 9 hours (any 3 courses in EDP)
C. Out-of-department courses: 6 hours (chosen to reflect or supplement professional interest)
D. For students opting for the MA as opposed to the MEd degree: two additional courses from the Methods Core are required (7 hours): Experimental Design and Statistics (4 hours) AND either Correlation and Regression or an approved research design course (3 hours).
E. Students opting for an MEd or an MA with portfolio will complete the appropriate coursework (above), produce a portfolio, and graduate with no report/thesis.
F. Students opting for an MEd or an MA with report will complete 3 hours of Master’s Report. Students opting for an MA with thesis will complete 6 hours of Master’s Thesis (taken a 3 hours in two semesters)
Total hours:
MA with thesis: 46
MA with report: 43
MA with portfolio: 40
MEd with report: 36
MEd with portfolio: 33