Education

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This is an archived copy of the 2013-2014 catalog. To access the most recent version of the catalog, please visit http://catalog.uchicago.edu.

Contacts | Urban Teacher Education Program (UChicago UTEP) | UChicago UTEP Courses | Education-Related Courses

Contacts

Undergraduate Primary Contact

Director, University of Chicago Urban Teacher Education Program
Kavita Kapadia-Matsko

834.1837
Email

Website

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Students interested in UChicago UTEP should consult with Ron Gorny, the BA/MA adviser, at 773.702.8615; and with Diane New Hardy and Melissa Tribue, UChicago UTEP's recruitment team. They can be reached at 773.702.6192 or recruit@utepchicago.org .

Education is an area of practice and policy that is subject to scholarly inquiry from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. A number of departments (e.g., comparative human development, psychology, public policy, sociology) offer courses relevant to education and teaching. Many education courses can be used to meet undergraduate program requirements in those departments and help students explore their interests within the field.

Urban Teacher Education Program (UChicago UTEP)

For students who are particularly interested in teaching children in grades K-12, the University offers a nationally acclaimed certification and master's degree program. The University of Chicago Urban Teacher Education Program (UChicago UTEP) prepares elementary school teachers (grades K–9) and secondary teachers in math and biology (grades 6–12) for work in Chicago Public Schools. UChicago UTEP is housed within the Urban Education Institute and Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies. Students who are interested in the program should consult with Ron Gorny in the Office of the Dean of Students in the College (702.8615, rlg2@uchicago.edu ) and with Diane New Hardy and Melissa Tribue, UChicago UTEP's recruitment team. They can be reached at 773.702.6192 or recruit@utepchicago.org .

Typically students apply to the program in their third year and take the foundations sequence in their fourth year. However, other students apply in their fourth year for participation in the program after graduation from the College.

Accepted College students must take a required three-quarter Foundations of Education sequence (SOSC 25501-25502-25503 Schools and Communities; Human Development and Learning; Teaching and Learning in Urban Schools) as well as additional content areas courses in their fourth year and then continue with a fifteen-month graduate program that includes a yearlong residency in local public schools, including the University of Chicago Charter School. A master of arts in teaching is awarded upon successful completion of the program.

UChicago UTEP Courses

SOSC 25501-25502-25503. Schools and Communities; Human Development and Learning; Teaching and Learning in Urban Schools.

This is a yearlong sequence on the foundations of education in urban contexts.

SOSC 25501. Schools and Communities. 100 Units.

This course focuses on communities, families, and the organization of schools. It emphasizes historical, anthropological, and sociological perspectives as students explore questions about why we have public schools, why they are organized as they are (especially in urban contexts), and how these institutions might be reformed. The topics covered represent essential intellectual perspectives for any professional who seeks to work in an urban school context. This course has been designed to afford students with multiple analytic lenses to complement and integrate students' field experiences, tutoring work, and "soul strand" reflections across the year. The course project requires students to use what they have learned to conduct an in-depth school study.

Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): UTEP 35501

SOSC 25502. Human Development and Learning. 100 Units.

The focus of this course is the child, and the course provides a variety of lenses through which to look at children. Using the rich professional resources of the Center for Urban School Improvement and the University of Chicago Charter School, students are introduced to approaches to observing children for different purposes; the prominent, and sometimes contradictory, theories of learning and child development; what we know about motivation and engagement and implication for the classroom; and the sociocultural contexts that influence both student performance and the way we look at children. Each section of the course includes an observation assignment that builds towards the final assignment of producing a study of a schoolchild that the student has tutored.

Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): UTEP 35502

SOSC 25503. Teaching and Learning in Urban Schools. 100 Units.

In this course, students not only survey philosophies of education but also participate in philosophy by engaging in the kind of questions to which philosophers seek answers. The guide is John Dewey, the philosopher who has left the deepest stamp on the University of Chicago in general and the Urban Teacher Education Program (UChicago UTEP) in particular. This course includes a look at the work of Dewey, his contemporary counterparts, and his critics. Students also explore the influence of philosophy on teaching and learning, especially as it pertains to curriculum. For the final assignment, students conduct a teacher study and revise their own philosophy in light of the course readings and discussions.

Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): UTEP 35503

Education-Related Courses

Comparative Human Development Courses

CHDV 20209. Adolescent Development. 100 Units.

Adolescence represents a period of unusually rapid growth and development. At the same time, under the best of social circumstances and contextual conditions, the teenage years represent a challenging period. The period also affords unparalleled opportunities with appropriate levels of support. Thus, the approach taken acknowledges the challenges and untoward outcomes, while also speculates about the predictors of resiliency and the sources of positive youth development. (B, D)

Instructor(s): M. Spencer Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): PSYC 20209

Economics Courses

ECON 26700. Economics of Education. 100 Units.

This course explores economic models of the demand for and supply of different forms of schooling. The course examines the markets for primary, secondary, and post-secondary schooling. The course examines numerous public policy questions, such as the role of government in funding or subsidizing education, the design of public accountability systems, the design of systems that deliver publicly funded (and possibly provided) education, and the relationship between education markets and housing markets.

Instructor(s): D. Neal Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): ECON 21000
Equivalent Course(s): PBPL 26700,ECON

Psychology Courses

PSYC 20500. Developmental Psychology. 100 Units.

This is an introductory course in developmental psychology, with a focus on cognitive and social development in infancy through early childhood. Example topics include children's early thinking about number, morality, and social relationships, as well as how early environments inform children's social and cognitive development. Where appropriate, we make links to both philosophical inquiries into the nature of the human mind, and to practical inquiries concerning education and public policy.

Instructor(s): K. Kinzler, L. Richland Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): CHDV 25900

PSYC 23200. Introduction to Language Development. 100 Units.

This course addresses the major issues involved in first-language acquisition. We deal with the child’s production and perception of speech sounds (phonology), the acquisition of the lexicon (semantics), the comprehension and production of structured word combinations (syntax), and the ability to use language to communicate (pragmatics).

Instructor(s): S. Goldin-Meadow Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): CHDV 23900,LING 21600

Public Policy Courses

PBPL 25405. Child Poverty and Chicago Schools. 100 Units.

This discussion- and debate-based course begins with a sociological and historical examination of child poverty, focusing on its origin, experience, and perpetuation in disadvantaged Chicago communities. Class meetings will involve debating school reform efforts, such as “turnaround” schools, charter schools, Promise Neighborhoods, and stepped-up teacher evaluations. Further, the barriers that have contributed to the failure of previous reform initiatives—barriers that include social isolation, violence, and the educational system itself—will be identified and analyzed in-depth.

Instructor(s): C. Broughton Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CRES 25405

Sociology Courses

SOCI 20004. Statistical Methods of Research. 100 Units.

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to widely used quantitative methods in sociology and related social sciences. Topics include analysis of variance and multiple regression, considered as they are used by practicing social scientists.

Instructor(s): S. Raudenbush Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Students are expected to attend two lectures and one lab per week. UG Sociology majors and Sociology PhD students only. Others by consent of instructor
Equivalent Course(s): SOCI 30004

SOCI 20108. The Institution of Education. 100 Units.

This course is a general survey of the properties of education considered as an institution of historical and contemporary societies. Particular attention is given to institutional formation and change in education and to education's role in processes of social control and social stratification.

Instructor(s): C. Bidwell Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): SOCI 30108

SOCI 20192. The Effects of Schooling. 100 Units.

From at least the Renaissance until some time around the middle of the twentieth century, social class was the pre-eminent, generalized determinant of life chances in European and, eventually, American societies. Social class had great effect on one's social standing; economic well-being; political power; access to knowledge; and even longevity, health, and height. In that time, there was hardly an aspect of life that was not profoundly influenced by social class. In the ensuing period, the effects of social class have receded greatly, and perhaps have even vanished. In their place formal schooling has become the great generalized influence over who gets access to the desiderata of social life, including food, shelter, political power, and medical care. So it is that schooling is sociologically interesting for reasons that go well beyond education. The purpose of this course is to review what is known about the long-term effects of schooling.

Instructor(s): R. Stolzenberg Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): SOCI 30192