Education Sciences majors engage in an interdisciplinary exploration of the field of education beyond classroom teaching and student learning.  Majors will be introduced to and develop proficiency with the five core concepts and competencies guiding Education Sciences.

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Policymaking in Education

• Education policy choices and resource allocations involve both benefits and costs. Policy makers seek to maximize net benefits when considering policy options. Student and parent behaviors are also shaped (and can be predicted) by the benefits and costs they perceive to be associated with different courses of action. Freedom of choice among competing educational options (e.g., for preschool, K-12 and higher education) introduces a competitive element into educational markets.

Five Core Concepts of Education Sciences

Social Structures and Stratification

• Students will identify how social structures create and reproduce different forms of social inequality in educational processes, and interpret empirical patterns and effects of social inequality in communities, schools and classrooms.

Human Development

• Numerous sources interact with each other to influence children's development.  These include factors within the child, proximal systems, such as home, peers, social networks, schools, groups, and formal organizations, as well as more distal sources of influence, such as community - including local, state, and national policies. More distal sources of influence tend to operate through their influence on more proximal sources of influence.

Learning

• Numerous sources interact with each other to influence human learning. These include factors within the learner, the tools, the facilitators (teachers) and the features of the setting. Meaningful learning involves processes that may be domain-general or discipline-specific. Theories of learning allow us to analyze the affordances and constraints of the learning situation.

Schools as Organizations

• Governments and other organizations and institutions can regulate or influence economic activity in ways that affect the distribution of resources, individual well-being, and social welfare. Includes government regulations, diffusion of outcomes, finances, management approach and accountability systems.​​

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Five Core Competencies of Education Sciences

Application

• ​Students will apply theories from Education Sciences to understand educational decisions, processes, and outcomes.

Methodological Practices and Research Design

• ​Students will critically evaluate the quality of educational research

Quantitative and Qualitative Data Literacy

• ​Students will be proficient with the principles in the analysis of educational scientific data.

Public Skills and Citizenship

• ​Students will use knowledge from Education Sciences to inform debates surrounding educational practice and policy, and promote public understanding and effective community engagement.

Communication

• Students will effectively communicate theories, practices, policies and research from Education Sciences with a variety of audiences.