• EDPE 704/706 – Professional Development Seminar  [PDF]

This professional development seminar provides an overview of the doctoral program experience and outlines effective strategies for conducting literature reviews, selecting a dissertation topic, and applying for doctoral funding. This course also offers insights into recent research developments in identifying questionable research practices, enhancing replicability of findings, and adopting open science protocols. Finally, this seminar outlines useful strategies for public engagement via social media, and explores the transferability of doctoral competencies to non-academic careers in the public and private sectors.

• EDPE 668 – Theories of Achievement Motivation  [PDF]

This graduate course provides an overview of current theories of achievement motivation as applied to educational settings in terms of their development, conceptual overlap, and empirical findings. The theories discussed address individual differences in self-relevant achievement motivation constructs among students (beliefs, emotions, self-regulation) and address the following questions:

• Who are you? The purpose for achievement striving (interest, values, goals)
• What can you achieve? Perceived capabilities and expectancy (competence, control)
• Why do you fail? Perceived causes of academic performance (attributions)
• Why do you feel this way? The role of affect in achievement settings (emotions)
• When does motivation happen? Temporal order (self-regulated learning, volition)
• How is motivation managed? Self-regulation (motivation/emotion regulation)

The theoretical perspectives addressed are outlined in sequence from global to specific, trait- to state-oriented, academic to lifespan in scope, cognitive to affective to behavioural, and from before to after achievement outcomes. The theories discussed also address relatively underexplored motivational concepts such as volition, motivational self-regulation, and adaptive disengagement. Each theoretical model is presented with a focus on the specific construct therein, accompanying methods of assessment, and corresponding empirical research that have most substantially contributed to motivation research in educational psychology.

• EDPE 636 – Motivation and Instruction  [Hybrid/Blended: PDF]

This seminar explores three aspects of motivation related to instruction in classroom settings. First, this course addresses research on various aspects of motivation in teachers (i.e., values, goals, self-efficacy, attributions, expectations, emotions) and their consequences for burnout, instruction, as well as student learning and engagement. Second, research on social processes in the classroom will be explored with respect to social learning (e.g., observation, collaboration), teacher-student relationships (e.g., emotional support), and help-seeking (i.e., “bottom-up” processes). Finally, research evaluating classroom-based motivational strategies that specifically target students’ values, goals, autonomy, attributions, and emotions will be discussed (i.e., “top-down” methods).

• EDPE 668 – Digital and Social Media in Higher Education  [PDF]

This course explores various facets of the role of digital and social media in higher education. With respect to research protocols, issues surrounding the use of publically accessible data, data mining, and analysis (e.g., archives, Facebook, Mechanical Turk), online recruitment of participants (e.g., methods, representativeness), as well as mobile devices are discussed (e.g., experience sampling methods). Academic engagement via the Internet and social media are also addressed as per research dissemination (e.g., open access journals, blogs), professional engagement via social media (e.g., digital literacy, communities of practice), as well as the use of digital/social media to facilitate learning in higher education (e.g., mobile devices, Twitter, MOOCs).

• EDPE 635 – Theories of Learning and Instruction  [PDF]

EDPE 635 is a graduate survey course examining theoretical and research traditions in the study of learning and instruction. Foundational and current theoretical perspectives, as well as implications for educational practice, are critically evaluated in the context of recent empirical research and personal epistomologies through in-class discussions, class presentations, and writing assignments.

• EDPE 575 – Educational Measurement  [PDF]

EDPE 575 provides an introduction to basic statistical principles as applied to educational psychology. Course topics include major concepts and methods of descriptive statistics including data structure, measures of central tendency and variability, and theoretical/sampling distributions. Concepts and procedures of inferential statistics to be addressed include correlation, regression, hypothesis testing, parameter estimation, t-tests, and ANOVAs. The emphasis in this course is not on the mathematical formulae underlying statistics, but on the appropriate use and critical interpretation of statistics with respect to research activities as well as problem solving in everyday life.

• EDHD 413-0201 – Adolescent Development  [PDF]

EDHD 413 is the study of adolescent development, including special problems encountered in contemporary culture. Course content addresses theoretical perspectives and empirical research on the processes of adolescent development, with a specific focus on implications for secondary and postsecondary education. Course requirements further aim to foster critical thinking and academic writing skills through class discussions and writing assignments focusing on current empirical research and media coverage of topical issues.

• EDHD 760-0101 – Advanced Educational Psychology  [PDF]

EDHD 760 is an advanced seminar in educational psychology required for EDHD doctoral students in the Educational Psychology specialization. The purpose of this seminar is to promote a depth of understanding about the topics central to the study of educational psychology including development, learning, individual differences, motivation, and assessment. The seminar also aims to further critical professional competencies including critical reading, academic writing, and public presentation skills through readings, writing assignments, group discussions, and class presentations of empirical research.