M.A. in Theater Education
a closer look .....
The M.A. in Theatre Education requires the satisfactory completion of 33 course credit hours and passing a comprehensive exam.
The Head of the Program and the student’s adviser determine course choices in consultation with each student, keeping in mind his or her background and objectives. Each student must have a total of 30 credit hours of approved course work and complete a 3 credit supervised project (DR 951).
Requirements for M.A. in Theater Education:
To earn an M.A. in Theatre Education, students must successfully complete eight courses in the Drama Department (DR507, DR509, DR526, DR542, DR549, DR603, DR610, DR651 or DR851, and 951) and successfully complete two of the following courses in the Department of Education (EDUC522, EDUC525, EDUC536, EDUC554, EDUC570, EDUC576, EDUC581, EDUC582, EDUC584, EDUC586). Students must also chose one elective at the 500 level or above in the Drama Department and one elective at the 500 or 600 level in the Education Department.
The M.A. Program in Theatre Education is structured to allow teachers and artists to complete the degree in five semesters and two summer sessions at CUA, followed by one semester of supervised work (DR 951). M.A. students who work or teach full-time can take one course each semester during the academic year. Each course will meet for one night a week. Students may also choose to take their courses only during the summer session.
Students may add courses each semester to complete a Graduate Teacher Certification Program through the Education Department. The Education Department will accept two courses towards the certification from the following education courses offered in the M.A. Program in Theatre Education (EDUC525, EDUC582, EDUC586). For more details concerning the courses required to earn a teacher’s certification contact the Education Department.
In DR 951 (supervised project) the M.A. students develop their skills as educators and theatre practitioners by directing a performance at an elementary or secondary school or by creating and implementing an educational theatre project. All students must successfully complete 30 credits before they begin the supervised study. They must also submit a detailed proposal of the project for approval.
The proposal must be submitted to the student’s adviser and to the program committee the semester before the student plans to begin the project upon review. The student’s adviser chooses an appropriate site for the project with the student. The project may be completed by directing a full-length production at a school or community center with children or adults affiliated with the school or community center, or by creating and implementing a set of curriculum-based drama lesson plans in an approved educational setting.
Each project must include a written component.
This written part of the project is equivalent to a director’s casebook for a university production. However, the design of the written component will vary, as each will suit the needs and demands of the individual student. The student’s adviser supervises the project with on-site visits and provides a written evaluation of the M.A. candidate’s work. Finally, each student must successfully pass a comprehensive exam in the final semester of his or her study.
Supervised Project- 3 Credits
DR 951 (Supervised Project)
Drama Courses
DR 507 Drama Beyond the Theatre
Adaptation of acting and directing techniques, exercises, improvisations, and theatre games for use in a variety of settings and disciplines. Strategies in teaching and working with children and adolescents across the curriculum. Topics include creative drama, drama as a means for teaching about conflict resolution, peace, cultural diversity, and virtues consistent with the CUA mission. Same as EDUC 507.
DR 509 Drama in Education
This course offers an introduction to the philosophy, methodologies and practice of drama in education, a form of classroom learning that integrates creative drama, theater games, role-playing with academic curriculum content objectives. Students will complete readings and written assignments based on the works of leading British and American educational drama practitioners. The course includes a lab in which students in the M.A. Program in Theater Education work with young adults and children to practise and assess the drama in education techniques introduced in class sessions.
DR 526 Teaching Theatre
Consideration of appropriate methods for teaching theatre in the secondary school. In addition to an investigation of the curriculum and materials, students examine and experiment with a variety of techniques for instruction.
DR 542 Design Applications (3) Lecture This course is a participant based practicum lab on application methods for dramatic activities and presentations in a secondary and primary education. The course addresses issues of resource management, student involvement, and educational intent of a variety of activities. The issues will be discussed, developed, and evaluated as part of the on-going class process.
DR 545 Production Design and Management (3) Lecture This course is a study of the relationship of aethetics and real-life parameters in the design process and management styles for dramatic presesntationa. The student investigates how to define a production aesthetic that is relevant to the event participants. The course reviews the communication tools of production design and how those tools can be modified for various student and production levels. Management and organixational issues are also addressed.
DR 603 Western Theatre/Culture I Required Course
A study of theatrical production in selected major periods in Western nations such as ancient Greece and Elizabethan-Jacobean England (603) or eighteenth-century England and nineteenth-century America (608). Chief attention to the play in performance, to staging methods, theatre architecture, acting, audiences, production organization and finance, and all of these as they intersect with cultural processes. Also introduces historiographical issues such as periodization problems, and cultural studies in race, gender, power, and class.
DR 610 Twentieth Century Theatre
A study of selected major European and American innovators and innovative movements in theatre from the late 19th to the early 21st-century. The readings focus on those artists and movements that have influenced how contemporary practitioners and audiences produce and view live performance. By investigating the major innovators alongside readings in multicultural, feminist, and postmodern theatre practices as well as popular theatre and performance art, the course examines how alternative forms of performance have impacted mainstream and commercial theatre. The course's readings include but are not limited to the selected works of Maeterlink, Tzara, Appollinaire, Meyerhold, Artaud, Grotowski, Brook, Bogart, and Taymor.
DR 951 Supervised Theatre Education Project
The supervised project helps M.A. students develop their skills as educators and theatre practitioners by allowing the students to direct a performance at an elementary or secondary school or create and implement an educational theatre project. All students must successfully complete 27 credits before they begin the supervised study. They must also submit a proposal that details what he or she plans to do. The proposal must be submitted to the student’s advisor and to the Head of the Program the semester before the student plans to begin the supervised project. The student’s advisor chooses an appropriate site for the project after meeting with the student and reviewing his or her proposal. The supervised project may be completed by directing a full- length production at a school or community center with children or adults affiliated with the school or community center or by creating and implementing a set of curriculum-based drama lesson plans in an approved educational setting. The latter option is only possible if the student has taken DR509. The student’s advisor must approve the nature of the work and in what setting it will occur. Each supervised project must include a written component. This written part of the final project is equivalent to a director’s casebook for a university production. However, the design of the written component will very, as each must suit the needs and demands of an individual student’s supervised project. The student’s advisor supervises the project with on site visits and provides a written evaluation of the M.A. candidate’s work.
Education Courses
EDUC 522 Race, Class, Gender, Disability-Ed
Do schools create or perpetuate race, gender, and social class inequalities? Or do they accomplish their mandate to provide equal education for all? What is the role of schooling in relation to problems of racism, sexism, classism, and disability? Includes study of various theoretical perspectives, research, and everyday practice, with primary focus on contemporary American society. Examines methods for eliminating inequalities in schools and classrooms. Open to all upper-division undergraduates and graduate students interested in examining these issues.
EDUC 525 Psych of Learn-Diverse Populations
This course focuses on behavioral and cognitive science theories of learning and how these theories apply to diverse populations. Once students have been introduced to the theories, they spend considerable time applying the theoretical constructs to problems of curriculum and instruction in school settings. These applications occur through the use of case studies of real school-age children representative of diverse populations, and students with special needs.
EDUC 536 Impersonal Communication, Consultation & Change
A course covering intrapersonal and interpersonal issues in communication, the basics of group processes, the elements of change processes and consultation and collaboration in inclusive settings. Emphasizes the communication strategies employed by education, human resource, and therapeutic personnel. Structured experiences give candidates practice in responding in a manner that communicates respect and effects change.
EDUC 554 Instructional Design
An introduction to the process of instructional design. Candidates design, develop, and evaluate a set of instructional materials. Topics include needs assessment, constructing objectives, selecting instructional strategies, designing lessons, and formative and summative evaluation.
EDUC 555 Classroom Mgt/Regular &Special Needs Child
Candidates use understanding of individual and group motivation and behavior to create a learning environment that encourages positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation. Course emphasizes five principles: understanding students' psychological and learning needs; establishing positive interpersonal relations among the teacher, students, and parents; using organizational procedures which maximize on-task behavior; using instructional methods which encourage optimal learning; and using counseling and behavioral methods to examine and change behavior. Principles of formal and informal assessment are discussed. Prerequisite: 251, 261, 361. Acceptance into the Teacher Education Program. Concurrent: 561. An elective for the graduate Special Education Program.
EDUC 570 Curriculum & Instruction in Elementary School
Explores orientations to curriculum in the elementary school and examines theoretical and practical bases of approaches to instruction. Three domains of knowledge basic to the course are: organizational, executive, and interactive functions of teaching and schools. Candidates present and continuously reexamine their beliefs about teaching while they plan and implement instruction to meet their diverse PreK-6th grade students¿ needs. As part of the teaching-learning process, candidates use assessment and reflect upon how they impact their PreK-6th grade students¿ learning. Prerequisite: 251, 261, 361. Acceptance into the Teacher Education Program. Concurrent: 561.
EDUC 571 Teaching Early Child/Elementary Social Studies & Science
cquaints candidates with the theory and practice of teaching social studies to diverse PreK-6th grade students. Opportunities to develop a framework for integrated planning, implementing, and evaluating social studies with other subject matter areas, e.g. reading. Explores concept development, content background knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and democratic classrooms. Introduces the appropriate national and state standards for social studies education and gives candidates an opportunity to plan educational experiences for school settings that reflect knowledge of these standards. Emphasizes use of community resources and technology. Prerequisite: 251, 261, 361, 570 or permission of instructor. Concurrent: 562. Acceptance into the Teacher Education Program.
EDUC 576 Children's Lit in Curriculum
Introduces students to the field of children's literature. Students read and become familiar with major works in each of the genres, learn the characteristics that distinguish quality children's literature, and become familiar with reference materials that are useful for selecting literature for specific purposes. Helps students understand the way literature and children's librarians can support the school curriculum. Prerequisites: 251, 261, 361 or permission of instructor.
EDUC 577 Reading and Lang Arts in Elementary
Introduces candidates to the theory and practice of teaching reading and language skills necessary in the early and elementary school years. Stresses the interrelationship between oral and written language skills and the role of literature in developing these skills. Promotes concept and skill development, pedagogy based on cognitive and developmental theories. Gives candidates an opportunity to plan educational experiences for diverse early childhood and elementary students. For junior teacher education candidates only. Prerequisite: 251, 261, 361, 555, 570 or permission of instructor. Concurrent: 562. Acceptance into the Teacher Education Program.
EDUC 578 Internationall & Multicultural Education
Examines the historical, philosophical, educational, and sociological basis for the education of language minority students, including differences in learning styles. Study of cross-cultural communication skills using simulation exercises.
EDUC 580 Teaching Eng in Second Schools
Acquaints students with issues and research in the curriculum and methods of English education. Focuses on development of strategies for guiding diverse learners in the writing process and in response to a variety of literary texts. Students develop personal philosophies of language arts instruction and link content and pedagogical knowledge in planning and implementation of lessons and in assessments of learning. Field-based practicum required.
EDUC 581 Educating Diverse Learners
This interactive course provides an overview of the origins of special education, the laws governing special education, and current best practices in the education of diverse learners. Diverse learners include students with disabilities, gifted and talented as well as at-risk students, and students from diverse ethnic, linguistic, and racial backgrounds. Candidates learn state-of-the-art instructional practices grounded in research enabling them to include and successfully educate all students.
EDUC 582 Reading in the Content Areas
Focuses on theory and research related to reader-text interactions and strategies for enhancing text comprehension. Candidates consider multiple literacies and processes of reading and writing that enable learners to construct meaning from print and non-print texts. Candidates develop a unit of instruction that is responsive to learner needs in a case study approach.
EDUC 584 Curriculum & Strategies in Early Childhood Ed
Candidates learn about content areas and instructional strategies in early childhood education including language arts, science, mathematics, community studies, art, and music. Candidates use this knowledge to design and evaluate an integrated curriculum unit that promotes positive development as well as respectful relationships with families. Candidates develop a child portfolio to practice documenting and assessing behavior and using available resources to promote supportive interactions with children and their families. Attention is given to learning a continuum of teaching strategies for developmentally effective approaches and to identifying oneself as an early childhood professional. Field-based placement required in conjunction with this course or permission of instructor. Prerequisites for undergraduates: 251, 261, 361, or equivalent.
EDUC 586 Curriculum & Method in Adolescent Ed
Taken concurrently; this series involves both teaching and action research in the classroom. The teaching internship (587 and 588) consists of a full-day, fourteen-week semester spent in an early childhood, elementary, or secondary school where the intern has primary responsibility for the classroom. Teaching Internship Seminar (589) involves attending weekly seminar sessions at the university on teaching as well as completing an action research project related to the classroom experience. Only one other course may be taken with the student-teaching experience. Prerequisite: Permission of Director of Teacher Education.
EDUC 600 Supervised Teaching for Classroom Teachers, 4 credits
This course meets the requirements for supervised teaching for candidates currently teaching in K-12 classrooms. This supervised teaching experience involves (1) participation in weekly seminar for teachers/student teachers, (2) development of an action research project and electronic portfolio, (3) full-time teaching for a fourteen-week semester in the teacher's own classroom in an early childhood, elementary, or secondary school, (4) teaching evaluation by school personnel (two administrative observations required) and (5) supervision by university faculty (minimum two observations by a Department of Education supervisor).
Candidates meet admission requirements outlined by Department of Education (e.g. passing scores on Praxis I and II (Content) prior to student teaching), provide documentation of successful teaching experience from school administration, and take course sequence outlined for MA or GTCP program. Only one other course may be taken with the student-teaching experience. Prerequisite: Permission of Director of Teacher Education.