2006-2007 UNK Graduate Catalog/ TE Courses

Offered by Department of Teacher Education
College of Education

TE Courses

TE 800 - Educational Research - 3 hours: This introductory web-based course in educational research focuses on evaluating and interpreting educational research and applying its findings to educational practice. The course will provide opportunities for students to (a) define and differentiate between and among basic, applied, and action research and explain how each contributes to practice; (b) conduct and interpret preliminary, primary, and secondary sources of research in both online and hard copy formats; (c) compare and contrast various research designs, and (d) analyze qualitative and quantitative research methodology. This will include the use of statistical techniques and conditions to describe educational phenomena and to determine the validity and reliability of research methods, case studies, critical-theory, historical, and ethnographical methodology.
TE 801 - Teachers in Classroom Research - 3 hours: A survey of the systematic framework of teacher action research with emphasis on qualitative design applied in field-based inquiry. Through readings, guided experience in research, and fieldwork, students will develop competencies in conducting, evaluating, and interpreting educational research.
TE 802 - Techniques of Research - 3 hours: A survey of the techniques of research with emphasis on educational applications. Students will develop competencies in conducting, evaluating and interpreting educational research.
TE 803 - Philosophy of Education - 3 hours: Survey of the philosophical foundations of western culture and their relation to the development of earlier and contemporary educational philosophies.
TE 804 - Curriculum Development in Multicultural Education - 3 hours: Students learn to evaluate, create, and implement multicultural lesson plans, unit plans, textbooks, curriculum guides, classroom rules and regulations, and school policies. In addition, students study diverse learning and teaching styles as well as explore the meaning and the reality of creating an environment that is conducive to and supportive of infused multicultural education.
TE 805 - Overview of Assistive Technology - 3 hours: This course examines the applications of assistive technology for individuals with disabilities as it relates to teaching and learning. Existing research with students with special needs will be reviewed and new applications of existing and developing technology will be explored.
TE 807P - Multiple Intelligences: Theories Into Practice - 3 hours: This course is focused on practical application of the use of multiple intelligences and "brain compatible" approaches in the design and development of instructional activities and assessment strategies in the K-12 curriculum.
TE 808P - Human Relations - 1-3 hours: This course meets the Nebraska Department of Education Human Relations requirement for certificate renewal. Participants will develop skills in guiding student learning in an environment of respect for diversity, personal values, and heritage.
TE 809 - Curriculum Implementation - 3 hours: This course addresses the curriculum implementation process, theoretical concepts associated with the implementation process, and related implementation issues, including the contested nature of the curriculum and the relationship between curriculum and equity issues. This information is used to critique current curriculum implementation efforts in the public school setting and to develop curriculum or curriculum for use in the classroom. The course includes a writing component.
TE 810 - Design and Development of Instruction - 3 hours: This course deals with the principles of instructional design and how to apply these principles in instructional development projects. The course utilizes a systems approach to the instructional design process by focusing on a series of interrelated procedures and techniques to design, develop, implement, and evaluate instruction.
TE 811 - The Activities Director - 3 hours: Contemporary trends in consolidating administration of athletics, music, speech, drama, journalism, and other intramural and extramural activities of the school under a single administrator.
TE 812P - Alternative Assessments of Student Performance: Theory Into Practice - 3 hours: Prereq: none
This course provides participants with an opportunity to learn about, create, and apply alternative (authentic) assessment strategies to the K-12 school setting. Key strategies to be explored include rubrics, portfolios, and the relationship/connections between alternative assessment and the Nebraska State Curriculum Standards.
TE 813P - TESA: Teacher Expectations and Student Achievement - 3 hours: This course is designed to develop specific teacher skills needed to enhance learning expectations. The skills are grouped into three strands: Response Opportunities, Feedback, and Personal Regard. Grouped into these strands are 15 specific teacher competencies.
TE 814P - Developing Capable People - 3 hours: This class will provide very useful and well researched strategies and concepts which will help educators assist children and teenagers to perceive themselves as more capable and significant as they improve their self-discipline, self-control, judgment, and their interpersonal skills. Improved results will be seen in classroom and/or family management, discipline, motivation, and achievement.
TE 815 - The Effective Teacher: Enhancing Classroom Instruction - 3 hours: This course is designed to provide participants with research and experience based information, strategies, techniques and "hands-on" activities they can use to improve and enrich the quality of their teaching and to increase the probability of learning and success of their students.
TE 816A - Practicum: Education - 1-6 hours: This practicum course requires, depending on the number of credit hours desired, between 40 and 240 clock hours of participation by the student in an educational setting. The specific experiences to be gained and the setting will be determined by the supervising professor and the student.
TE 816B - Practicum: Reading - 3 hours: Prereq: TE 846 and TE 856 must be completed
It involves supervised remedial tutoring of individual children or small groups of children having similar reading disabilities.
TE 816C - Practicum: Reading-Primary K-3 - 1 hour: Prereq: TE 845 and TE 846
This course focuses on the application of the newest innovations in reading and language arts instruction. This involves supervised remedial tutoring of individual children or small groups of children having similar reading disabilities. The course also provides opportunities for the student to evaluate and assess the reading problems of primary school children (K-3) and to select materials for remediation.
TE 816D - Practicum: Reading-Intermediate 4-6 - 1 hour: Prereq: TE 845 and TE 846
This course focuses on the application of the newest innovations in reading and language arts instruction. This involves supervised remedial tutoring of individual children or small groups of children having similar reading disabilities. The course also provides opportunities for the student to evaluate and assess the reading problems of intermediate school children (4-6) and to select materials for remediation
TE 816E - Practicum: Reading-Middle/Secondary 7-12 - 1 hour: Prereq: TE 845 and TE 846
This course focuses on the application of the newest innovations in reading and language arts instruction. This involves supervised remedial tutoring of individual children or small groups of children having similar reading disabilities. The course also provides opportunities for the student to evaluate and assess the reading problems of middle school/secondary students and to select materials for remediation
TE 817P - Basic Instructional Theory into Practice - 2-3 hours: Based on the work of Dr. Madeline Hunter, this course translates instructional theory into action. It will assist teachers as they expand their competency in teaching to an objective, selecting objectives that are appropriate to individual students, monitoring learning, and adjusting instruction and teaching for retention and transfer.
TE 818P - Teacher Development: Developing Independent Learners - 3 hours: Prereq: TE 817P
This course builds on a basic knowledge of the Instructional Theory into Practice Program to develop additional teaching skills in teaching for independent learning. The skills developed are appropriate for elementary and secondary teachers.
TE 819P - Teacher Development Training in Service Learning - 3 hours: Students enrolled in this online course will gain an in-depth understanding and appreciation for human service work and its importance as a teaching strategy by developing a service learning resource manual, designing curriculum instruction that integrates service learning, and by participating in online discussions about issues and topics related to service learning.
TE 825 - English Language Learners (ELL): Culture, Civil Rights, and Advocacy - 3 hours: The purpose of this course is to provide graduate students seeking the English as a Second Language Endorsement the opportunity to explore the changing demographics underlying the presence of language minority students in the public schools, the acculturation process, the terminology of second language education, immigration issues for English Language Learners students (ELLs), and the federal and state laws that impact ELLs and their families. Special attention is given to identifying the attitudes, skills, and behaviors which the teacher needs to develop a welcoming classroom and school climate in which ELLs can learn and become a part of the community. This course will hopefully transform graduate students to act as effective advocates for ELLs in K-12 schools.
TE 826 - Content Methods & Strategies for Teaching English as a Second Language: This course has been designed to present content methods and teaching strategies to promote inclusion of English Language Learners (ELLs) in regular K-12 classrooms. As a result of the No Child Left Behind Act (2001) and the school assessments which include English Language Learners, mainstream and ESL teachers face increasingly demanding accountability standards. In most cases, ELLs are tested on content areas after one year in school. In other words, ELLs can no longer be treated as "invisible" students. The issue of access to knowledge, one of the bedrocks in the renewed teacher education program at UNK, critical for schools facing these accountability standards. This course will also focus on the twin goals of helping ELLs learn social (BICS) and academic (CALPS) English while providing content instruction. These are daunting tasks and as any ESL teacher will tell you, these goals are not always achieved because of the many compromises forced upon students and teachers by an educational system that has traditionally not had to deal with linguistic diversity.
TE 845 - Contemporary Theory & Practice in Reading - 3 hours: This course will provide students with an opportunity to investigate the theoretical background of the reading process and analyze instructional practices in developmental reading at the elementary school level.
TE 846 - Diagnosis/Correction of Reading Difficulties - 3 hours: This course focuses on the development of an understanding of the relationship of the psychological factors and individual remedial instruction in reading. A comprehensive study is made of selected diagnostic tests and remedial procedures.
TE 847P - History and Philosophy of the Middle School - 3 hours: This course addresses the social, political, and economic forces which accompanied the development of middle schools, along with middle school philosophy and its implications for instructional programs and practices.
TE 848 - Assessment and Remediation in Elementary School Mathematics - 3 hours: This class will emphasize diagnosis of basic mathematics computation errors; types of errors will be illustrated, and suggested corrective procedures will be explored. Error patterns are based on incorrectly-learned mathematical concepts. The corrective procedures for developing or redeveloping those basic mathematical concepts and development of remediation materials will be taught.
TE 849P - Problem Solving in the Elementary and Middle School Classroom - 3 hours: Topics for curriculum development include activities with hand-held calculators, number theory, geometry, new looks at old geometry problems, problem solving as a process, probability, statistics, and mathematical systems.
TE 850 - Elementary School Curriculum - 3 hours: This class focuses on the principles and trends in elementary curriculum development and a study of the various types of curricula in the elementary school as related to organization patterns. Procedures for continuous evaluation and improvement of local elementary curricula are stressed, including administration and supervision factors and relationship to the affected areas of curriculum.
TE 851P - Home, School, and Community Relations in Early Childhood Education - 3 hours: Acquaints students with the knowledge and skills required to develop, administer and supervise early education and care programs serving children birth to age 8. (2 hours lecture/1 hour supervised field experience)
TE 852 - Trends in Early Childhood Education - 3 hours: Emphasizes the importance of the child's early years. A survey of model programs in Early Childhood Education is presented.
TE 853A - Improvement of Instruction in Early Childhood Education - 3 hours: This course is designed to present the most recent philosophy, literature and teaching strategies as they relate to the curriculum content advocated for young children.
TE 853B - Improvement of Instruction in Elementary School Mathematics - 3 hours: Designed to acquaint the student with the latest trends in content, method, materials, and philosophy of elementary mathematics.
TE 853C - Improvement of Instruction in Elementary School Language Arts - 3 hours: Attention is directed to the newest innovations in language arts instruction and to the selection of materials for diagnostic and instructional programs. Students will evaluate the various teaching techniques through a comparative study of current programs in elementary language arts.
TE 853D - Improvement of Instruction in Elementary School Science - 3 hours: An examination of current literature and practices is made relative to science content, methods, and materials in elementary school science.
TE 853E - Improvement of Instruction in Elementary School Social Studies - 3 hours: Students completing this course will have had an opportunity to examine current literature and programs in elementary social studies and to reevaluate their teaching of the social studies.
TE 854 - Reading in the Content Areas - 3 hours: Students completing this course will have had an opportunity to examine the nature of the reading process and the kinds of particular problems teachers in content areas of middle and secondary school face daily. It will also provide the teacher with the ability to apply specific methods in helping those students having difficulty reading the materials necessary for specific content areas.
TE 855P - Improving the Reading Program - 3 hours: The department will provide an inservice course upon the request of a school system for the purpose of assisting local staff in the evaluation and improvement of the school's reading program. The course is designed to develop an analytical approach to reading program evaluation and improvement. This course is not applicable to the program for endorsement as a special reading teacher. (Off-campus only during the regular term; On-campus summers only.)
TE 870 - Developing Web-based Portfolios: This course will focus on planning, revising, and developing web-based working and academic portfolios. Tools such as web editors and imagine editing software will be used. Student will create a working portfolio to use during their academic programs.
TE 871 - Selection of Educational Media Materials - 3 hours: Selection of media materials is designed to provide the student with the basic competencies needed for print and non-print collection selection, development and evaluation.
TE 872 - Organization of Media and Technology Resources - 3 hours: Students taking Organization of Media and Technology Resources will learn basic techniques of providing access to media and technology resources and how to create new bibliographic records in a standard, recognized format and analyze the quality of existing records.
TE 873 - Reference and Information Skills - 3 hours: This course will focus on the development of competencies in using, evaluating and citing a variety of traditional and electronic resources.
TE 874 - Production of Instructional Resources - 3 hours: Students taking Production of Media and Technology Resources will learn sound instructional design principles and develop competencies in applying them to specific learning objectives within the overall production process. Various audiovisual and technological mediums will be used for the actual production of the resources. Students will also develop skills in determining the appropriateness of producing local resources as opposed to selecting commercially produced resources.
TE 875 - Administration of Media Services - 3 hours: This course will focus on the administration of the media program; mission, budgeting, supervision of personnel, planning, resource needs, communication within the school and public communities, the role of the information specialist in the instructional process, and the interrelationships of information agencies.
TE 876 - Integration of Curriculum, Technology and Media Resources - 3 hours: This course will focus on the practical application of theories of instruction; models of teaching; curriculum design; utilization of print, non-print, electronic, and on-line resources; research paradigms; and, studies and findings related to curriculum integration of technology in teaching effectiveness for K-12 educators. Students are required to observe and analyze the teaching process and to conduct micro-teaching exercises.
TE 877 - Developing Computer-Mediated Educational Environments - 3 hours: This course is for teachers and instructional technologists who wish to design, implement and evaluate learner-based computer-mediated instructional environments. Students will use hypertext/multimedia programs to create, implement and evaluate nonlinear, student-centered interactive hypermedia projects, based upon their students' assessed learning needs.
TE 878 - Leadership in Instructional Technology - 3 hours: This seminar course will provide students with the skills and tools necessary to be an effective, innovative instructional leader in the field of instructional technology. The constructivist perspective of building community leadership will be examined. Staff/faculty development, planning and funding in instructional technology will be emphasized.
TE 879 - Seminar in Instructional Technology - 3 hours: This is a variable content course which focuses on advanced topics in instructional technology. Students will critically analyze issues and problems in the discipline. Empirically testable research questions related to the topics will be identified. This course may be repeated provided the topics differ, but no more than six hours may count towards a degree.
TE 880 - Management of Educational Technology - 3 hours: An in-depth study of the administration of technology in educational settings; primarily K-12. Management of school computing laboratories, local area networks, and classroom computing will be examined. At the conclusion of this course, the student will be able to manage a school computer laboratory and administer educational technology throughout the school.
TE 881 - Distance Education - 3 hours: This course will investigate a variety of distance education technologies and related teaching strategies. Emphasis will be on the historical, current, and future use of telecommunications, satellites, audiographics, fiber optics, and other distance education media.
TE 882 - Teacher Development Training in Instructional Technology - 3 hours: This course will produce teacher trainers in instructional technology. Students will work with contemporary instructional technology, in a transcurricular setting. Students will learn how to train classroom teachers to integrate technology into the teachers' disciplines. A variety of learning and teaching strategies will be examined. It is suggested that students should have completed or be concurrently enrolled in CSIS 840P.
TE 883 - Classroom Desktop Publishing - 3 hours: The focus of this course will be on learning desktop publishing skills and using them to create a variety of projects for use in a classroom setting. The course will consist of a mixture of theoretical and researched-based concepts and components and various hands-on activities. Design principles and elements will be included.
TE 884 - Educational Telecommunications - 3 hours: This course will examine the use of electronic on-line resources and other types of telecommunication in education. In addition to using resources such as the Internet, students will use and integrate into their teaching, tools such as web browsers, electronic conferencing, electronic mail, on-line library resources and similar tools. Curricular integration of these tools will be emphasized.
TE 885 - Instructional Video Production - 3 hours: This course will prepare the student to design, create, produce and edit instructional videos for use in their classrooms. The focus is on using currently available classroom equipment for production and editing. After creating a story outline, script, storyboard and performing other pre-production activities, students will use camcorders and VCRs to produce videos in their subject areas.
TE 886 - Technology Tools for Teachers - 3 hours: This course is a general introductory course for using computers and other technology in a classroom environment. Students will learn how to use electronic gradebooks, integrate computer-based instruction programs into their curriculum, be introduced to electronic library and other on-line resources, in addition to presentation software, page scanners, and presentation devices. Students will also evaluate educational software and multimedia programs for use in their classrooms.
TE 887 - Electronic Media Production - 3 hours: This course will cover the use of presentation software and multimedia authoring systems to produce effective electronic presentations. A variety of presentation software and multimedia programs will be introduced, examined and used. Topics will include: computer graphics; a brief examination of the psychology of color usage; hypertext linkages; integrating video, sound, clip art and animation into electronic presentations; linear video and multiscreen video.
TE 888 - Multimedia Production - 3 hours: This course will have two major foci: the first will be to enhance previously learned multimedia development skills which will advance the student to a higher level of expertise with those skills; and, to familiarize students with several professional multimedia authoring systems, thereby making the students highly proficient multimedia developers. Topics which include screen design, scripting, project time management and computer graphics will be covered. Students will be required to complete several multimedia projects.
TE 889 - Multimedia Development - 3 hours: This course is a continuation of TE 888. Students will plan, design, develop and manage a major multimedia project using the team concept. Student teams will work on a tangible, marketable product under the direction of a faculty mentor. Student teams receive a cooperative grade.
TE 890 - Administration of School Computer Networks - 3 hours: This course provides local area network (LAN) managers with networking fundamentals, router troubleshooting techniques, network-management configuration, Macintosh workstation configuration, technology planning, Internet addressing, PPP connections, cable and Ethernet installations, hardware and software troubleshooting guidelines, vendor-relationship techniques, upcoming technology trends, file-transfer and expansion procedures, web-page management, and other school-related networking issues.
TE 891 - Field Project - 3-6 hours: This course will provide independent field study for students pursuing the instructional technology program. Basis of the study will be decided upon between the student and the advisor.
TE 892 - Internship in Instructional Technology - 1-6 hours: This course is intended to allow students to participate in various "real-life" experiences in IT settings. Projects and internships will be selected and conducted under the guidance of a supervising professor. Focus areas will range from interning in technology centers in school districts and businesses to creating innovative classroom and/or hypermedia projects. Students, with the consent of the professor, can take one, two or three hours. This course may be repeated, but only six hours will be counted towards the degree.
TE 893 - Clinical Experiences in Educational Media - 3 hours: This course is the capstone experience for students in the MSED-Instructional Technology (Educational Media) or Educational Media Endorsement programs. Students will be supervised as they work in a school library media center for a minimum of 150 clock hours. This clinical experience will be divided between secondary and elementary levels. A daily journal will be maintained.
TE 895 - Seminar in Student Teaching Supervision - 3 hours: Prereq: The student must be an elementary or secondary school teacher approved by the department.
This class is designed to aid present and prospective supervisory teachers. The student will review current literature, become acquainted with techniques, plans and procedures for supervising student teachers, analyze current practices in supervision, and develop materials for use with student teachers.
TE 896 - Thesis - 3-6 hours: Student investigates a research problem related to special education, following APA style of reporting the research. The student enrolls with the faculty member directing the thesis. One to 6 credit hours per semester, with a total of 6 hours.
TE 897 - Seminar in Education - 3 hours: A course designed to specifically meet the content and program needs of a specific audience, institution, agency, or public school setting. The content is designed and developed to meet the in-depth needs of the participants involved in the area of special education and related fields.
TE 898 - Independent Study - 1-3 hours: An independent investigation into a topic selected by the student and approved by the instructor.
TE 899P - Special Topics - 1-3 hours: Offered to serve specific needs and interests of specific target groups. Content of the course, dates, and time arrangements are determined by the Department of Teacher Education.