Applied Learning Sciences - M.S.Ed.

Mission

The MSEd program in the Applied Learning Sciences will provide people across a broad array of fields with the intellectual tools to (re)think about how they interact with subordinates, trainees, mentees, and students as learners and to (re)think their own roles as being that of a teacher where teachers design, implement, and evaluate the impacts of learning environments for their students.

Goals

As a result of the MSEd program, graduates will:

• Be able to assess learners' initial knowledge as regards to what said learners are supposed to understand;
• Be able to design and implement learning environments that will help learners to learn and to understand their intended outcomes; and,
• Be able to evaluate and modify learning environments against how well learners achieved their own learning outcomes.

Student Learning Outcomes

The program’s three specific foci, which students are expected to integrate in a culminating applied project, are:

• Learning: how people, as individuals, groups, or parts of an organization, learn;
• Design: the design, implementation, and revision of learning environments that enhance human learning; and
• Assessment: the assessment of learning and the evaluation of individual, social, technological, and design factors that advance or impede learning.

Application Requirements

Admission to all graduate-degree concentrations in the School of Education and Human Development is based on the recommendation of the faculty. Admissions decisions are based on faculty review of the following general requirements that apply to all Graduate Programs in the School as well as specific documents listed under each concentration.

Applicants must:

• Graduate Record Exam (GRE) requirements may be waived for applications to Spring 2021 and following, pending final approvals. However, if the GRE is required for admissions, applicants must achieve acceptable scores on the GRE taken within the past five years. International applicants whose native language is not English or applicants whose degrees are from a non-U.S. University must pass the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or International English Language Testing Systems (IELTS) and the GRE;
• provide official transcripts showing completion of a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution and an acceptable undergraduate grade point average. A minimum of 3.0 undergraduate GPA is required. Official transcripts from every institution attended by an applicant, whether or not the applicant completed a degree program at the institution, are required;
• provide three letters of recommendation that address the issues and meet the criteria established by the program being applied to;
• provide a personal statement that addresses the mission and purpose of the program being applied to;
• resume;
• take part in an admissions interview (required by some programs); and
• exhibit personal and professional experiences and characteristics that are relevant to the profession and/or field and/or degree program for which the application is being submitted.

Master of Science in Education (M.S.Ed.)

In addition to the factors listed as general requirements for all applications to the SEHD’s graduate programs, consideration for admission to the M.S.Ed. program will include the following:

• For some M.S.Ed. programs in TAL: Teachers with at least three years full-time teaching experience may apply for a GRE waiver for programs in the Department of Teaching and Learning. An application for waiver of the GRE requirement may be found on the SEHD web site. Teachers who apply for a GRE waiver must submit a 3-page essay on an important topic in education.

International Applications

All international applications must provide additional information and meet additional requirements as required by the UM Graduate School and the Office of International Student and Scholar Services. For an appropriate link to these requirements, please visit the Graduate School website.

Admission Decision

Once an applicant has been admitted to graduate study, that individual should meet with the faculty advisor who was appointed to serve in that capacity and whose name appears in the admissions letter. This advisor will help the student enroll in courses that are appropriate to the program; to develop and to refine a Course Sequence Plan that must be on file in the Office of Graduate Studies by the end of the first semester of enrollment.

Honor Code/Handbook of Policies and Procedures

The School of Education and Human Development follows the Graduate School’s Honor Code. All students are required to review the Graduate Student Honor Code and the School of Education and Human Development’s Handbook of Policies and Procedures for Graduate Students and submit the signed Acknowledgement of Receipt located on page 3 by the end of their first semester of enrollment.