This introductory course is critically important to those aspiring to work in any pre-K - 12 related setting who have never actually taught. Students with teaching experience are also welcome. Key concepts and practical perspectives on teaching and learning are emphasized.
POLS students interested in pre-K - 12 are commonly focused on making change or addressing a problem in education. This course explains the context of past and present efforts to improve the quality of education and provides students an opportunity to test their own reform thinking against past experience. This course is foundational for students interested in PK-12 education. It provides a broad theoretical, historical, and sociological perspective on how the American school system works, treating historical efforts at school reform as experimental interventions that reveal the system's nature and functions.
This course explores the design of tools for learning, leveraging scholarship and real-world projects to create prototypes of new digital learning tools. A Cardinal Course. In this course, students will use design activities to facilitate the creation of impactful learning experiences for learners different from themselves, while focusing on the possibilities presented by digital technologies. Students will engage in a variety of design activities to come up with new learning tools for community partners. Designing these tools will require project groups to gather and apply knowledge, evaluating options and synthesizing ideas in order to create an effective (and elegant!) solution.
This course focuses on helping students to advance their knowledge about theory, design and research issues related to assessing student learning for accountability and learning purposes. The course explores assessment topics with a critical perspective in two contexts: large-scale and classroom assessment. The course will help students become critical test consumers, better-informed assessment evaluators, and advocator of reliable, valid and fair assessments for culturally and linguistically diverse populations.
This course emphasizes an understanding of contemporary configurations of higher education through studying its antecedents. EDUC 355 Higher Education & Society, and this course are strong complements for one another. This course is foundational for students interested in higher education. It provides a broad theoretical, historical, and sociological perspective on what is distinctive about the American system of higher education and how the system works.
Focus is on classrooms with students from diverse racial, ethnic and linguistic backgrounds. Studies, writing, and media representation of urban and diverse school settings; implications for transforming teaching and learning. Issues related to developing teachers with attitudes, dispositions, and skills necessary to teach diverse students.
This class is designed to introduce students to two biological system: the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis' that help children respond to and cope with daily challenges, stressors, and adversities. We will examine: (1) how the ANS and HPA systems respond to daily stressors, as well as experiences of poverty, maltreatment, and neglect; (2) how different indices of stress reactivity independently and jointly relate to various domains of competence and psychopathology; and (3) how stress reactivity moderates contextual influences on children's adaptation.
Examines the intersection of language, culture, and cognition, and the implications of this intersection in educational assessment. Knowledge from different disciplines is used to reason about assessment from the conceptual, methodological, and social perspectives.
Stanford graduates will play important roles in solving many of today's and tomorrow's major societal problems -- such as improving educational and health outcomes, conserving energy, and reducing global poverty -- which call for actions by nonprofit, business, and hybrid organizations as well as governments. This course teaches skills and bodies of knowledge relevant to these roles through problems and case studies drawn from nonprofit organizations, for-profit social enterprises, and governments. Topics include designing, implementing, scaling, and evaluating social strategies; systems thinking; decision making under risk; psychological biases that adversely affect people's decisions; methods for influencing individuals' and organizations' behavior, ranging from incentives and penalties to "nudges;" human-centered design; corporate social responsibility; and pay-for-success programs. We will apply these concepts and tools to address an actual social problem facing Stanford University. (With the exception of several classes on strategy and evaluation, there is no substantial overlap with Paul Brest’s and Mark Wolfson’s course, Strategic Philanthropy and Impact Investing (GSBGEN 319), which has a different focus from this one.)
In this course, students will investigate opportunities and challenges of entrepreneurial ventures trying to make a positive impact in public education. The course requires a basic level of understanding of the U.S. K-12 public school system. The first session will analyze the structure of the public education as an industry, with a special emphasis on understanding the achievement gap. Subsequent sessions will explore challenges in increasing efficacy, ensuring financial sustainability, and scaling for entrepreneurs who have sought to change student outcomes, solve pain points, and innovate. The course will feature a variety of ventures (including schools, education technology, training, and supplemental services) and organizational models (for-profit, not-for-profit, and benefit corporation). This course is suitable for students aspiring to be entrepreneurs, leaders in entrepreneurial organizations, leaders in educational organizations, Board members, donors or investors. (Note: this is not a "how-to" course on starting an entrepreneurial venture.)
Public education in America is at a crossroads. Does our education system have what it takes to produce graduates who are prepared for college, career, and citizenship in our increasingly digital and pluralistic world? Will income and ethnic achievement gaps continue to be pervasive and persistent in our nation’s largest urban cities? Will family zip code determine educational destiny for the next generation of students? Which strategies and reforms are truly demonstrating results and which are merely passing fads? As in all large-scale enterprises undergoing rapid, transformative change, leadership matters greatly. Fortunately, over the last decade, the reform of American public education has been led by a number of innovative and results-oriented leaders at the state, district and charter levels. These leaders are bringing additional urgency, strategies, and ideas designed to prepare America's schools and students for the century ahead. Some ideas are proving to be critical levers for change, others are facing significant political challenges, and others have not delivered on expected results. Many of them hold lessons for how future educational leaders can contribute to transforming public education for the next generation of K-12 students. This course will focus on school system leadership for education reform. The course will provide an overview of the critical issues facing K-12 public education in America today, and what is going on across the U.S. during this transformative period of change. Once this context is set, students will study education leaders and systems change strategies from the last 10-15 years at the state, district and charter levels. We will focus on leaders across five domains: Leadership in crisis situations, strategic leadership, “china-breaking” leadership, sustaining leadership, and next generation leadership. We will also look at leadership examples from outside K-12 education to broaden our thinking about what leadership styles and strategies could be successfully applied to education. Students will debate the strategies and efficacy of how different leaders approached systems-level change and will form their own working hypotheses of what is needed to help transform the American education system. Case studies in school system leadership will form the primary basis for classroom assignments and discussion. We will examine what went right and what went wrong in each case, focusing particularly on the decisions that school system leaders faced and the implications of their decisions. Most cases will be supplemented with research publications, technical notes, news clips, and/or videos to deepen students¿ understanding of the context or issues discussed in the cases. Dan Katzir worked for Bain & Company, Teach for America, Sylvan Learning Systems and the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation before joining Alliance College-Ready Public Schools as its CEO in 2015. He is an experienced case study teacher and the editor of The Redesign of Urban School Systems: Case Studies in District Governance
How to think philosophically about educational problems. Recent influential scholarship in philosophy of education. No previous study in philosophy required.
For students interested in learning about the actual process of policy making, this course offers a behind-the-scenes look at the political process of public policy making at the Federal level. Students will learn about the theory and literature behind policy formulation and will engage in debates over past and current efforts at policy reform.
For those interested in working with bilingual students and their families and/or carrying out research in bilingual settings, this course emphasizes the typologies of bilingualism, the acquisition of bilingual ability, and the nature of societal bilingualism.
This course is aimed at students interested in individual, family, school, and community risk and protective factors that influence children's development and adaptation. Adaptive systems that enable some children to achieve successful resilience despite high levels of adversity exposure are emphasized. Theoretical, methodological, and empirical issues are examined, including current technology and conceptual and measurement issues.
The landscape of schooling in the U.S. is dynamic and replete with ideologies, myths, and beliefs. Organizational theory, leadership theory, and empirical research are lenses through which students will develop a deeper and broader understanding of the similarities and differences among private schools, parochial schools, traditional K-12 schools, charter schools, and alternative schools. Students will connect theory and research to practice by visiting and learning about two or more schools of their choosing.
Theoretical perspectives and empirical studies on the structural and cultural sources of educational expansion and differentiation, and on the cultural and structural consequences of educational institutionalization. Research topics: education and nation building; education, mobility and equality; international organizations, and world culture.
This course uses theoretical approaches to learning to analyze learning environments and develop goals for designing resources and activities to support effective learning practices.
Focus is on classrooms with students from diverse racial, ethnic and linguistic backgrounds. Studies, writing, and media representation of urban and diverse school settings; implications for transforming teaching and learning. Issues related to developing teachers with attitudes, dispositions, and skills necessary to teach diverse students.
This class is designed to introduce students to two biological system: the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis' that help children respond to and cope with daily challenges, stressors, and adversities. We will examine: (1) how the ANS and HPA systems respond to daily stressors, as well as experiences of poverty, maltreatment, and neglect; (2) how different indices of stress reactivity independently and jointly relate to various domains of competence and psychopathology; and (3) how stress reactivity moderates contextual influences on children's adaptation.
The relationship between culture and psychological processes; how culture becomes an integral part of cognitive, social, and moral development. Both historical and contemporary treatments of cultural psychology, including deficit models, crosscultural psychology, ecological niches, culturally specific versus universal development, sociocultural frameworks, and minority child development. The role of race and power in research on cultural psychology.
Social life would be unimaginable without play and games. Students will be introduced to social theories of play and games; the history of games and their variation; readings concerned with how play and games affect interaction and socialization; how race and gender are enacted in and through play and games; how play and games relate to creativity and innovation; and how games can be designed for engrossment and the accomplishment of various tasks and learning goals. Course intended mainly for doctoral students, though master¿s and undergraduate students are welcome. This is a new course, so please expect collaboration with instructor and other students to shape the course content.
The transition from high school to college. K-16 course focusing on high school preparation, college choice, remediation, pathways to college, and first-year adjustment. The role of educational policy in postsecondary access. Service Learning Course (certified by Haas Center).
This experimental course facilitates the application of the methods, theories, and findings of behavioral science to students own lives and improvement projects. It does so by combining behavioral science with a design thinking approach. You will learn to identify your potential, navigate to achieve it, and stay resilient during the journey. Students will design their own action plans, define goals and prototype strategies to test them, in an iterative feedback cycle. Our course thus blends two intellectual streams that seldom intersect: behavioral science and design thinking.
Focus is on the ideal of a just society, and the place of liberty and equality in it, in light of contemporary theories of justice and political controversies. Topics include financing schools and elections, regulating markets, discriminating against people with disabilities, and enforcing sexual morality.
This course teaches students to read and critically interpret quantitative published research. The course is conceptual rather than formula driven. It requires no advanced math or prior statistics. It develops skills central to reading and understanding research.
Primarily for master's students: An introduction to the core concepts and methods of qualitative research. Through a variety of hands-on learning activities, readings, field experiences, class lectures, and discussions, students will explore the processes and products of qualitative inquiry. Course material and hands-on activities are likely to be directly applicable to the POLS Project/Talk.
This course explores the design of tools for learning, leveraging scholarship and real-world projects to create prototypes of new digital learning tools. A Cardinal Course. In this course, students will use design activities to facilitate the creation of impactful learning experiences for learners different from themselves, while focusing on the possibilities presented by digital technologies. Students will engage in a variety of design activities to come up with new learning tools for community partners. Designing these tools will require project groups to gather and apply knowledge, evaluating options and synthesizing ideas in order to create an effective (and elegant!) solution.
For those interested in the use of technology in education and how it may be used to improve learning. This course explores how technology may help make learning easier, faster, or accessible to more learners and considers a variety of different approaches to designing tools for learning, the theories behind them, and the research that tests their effectiveness. Topics include feedback, visualization, games, multimedia, tangible-digital interfaces, simulations, and more. Students will work on teams to identify a need, create a prototype, and design tests to understand its impact. Space is limited.
How do entrepreneurs, educators and VC¿s evaluate and grow successful edtech startups? Why do most startups fail and what are the key ingredients for success? This course will teach you the skills, and strategies necessary to effectively evaluate educational technology startups much like prospective employees, expert educators, entrepreneurs and venture capital investors do. Each week, we will invite an executive or entrepreneur from a successful edtech startup as a guest speaker and we'll evaluate all aspects of their invention. A fundamental question we'll explore in this course is how educators and technologists can collaborate to improve equity, and access to education by leveraging the massive impact technology solutions can provide.
This experimental course facilitates the application of the methods, theories, and findings of behavioral science to students own lives and improvement projects. It does so by combining behavioral science with a design thinking approach. You will learn to identify your potential, navigate to achieve it, and stay resilient during the journey. Students will design their own action plans, define goals and prototype strategies to test them, in an iterative feedback cycle. Our course thus blends two intellectual streams that seldom intersect: behavioral science and design thinking.
Stanford graduates will play important roles in solving many of today's and tomorrow's major societal problems -- such as improving educational and health outcomes, conserving energy, and reducing global poverty -- which call for actions by nonprofit, business, and hybrid organizations as well as governments. This course teaches skills and bodies of knowledge relevant to these roles through problems and case studies drawn from nonprofit organizations, for-profit social enterprises, and governments. Topics include designing, implementing, scaling, and evaluating social strategies; systems thinking; decision making under risk; psychological biases that adversely affect people's decisions; methods for influencing individuals' and organizations' behavior, ranging from incentives and penalties to "nudges;" human-centered design; corporate social responsibility; and pay-for-success programs. We will apply these concepts and tools to address an actual social problem facing Stanford University. (With the exception of several classes on strategy and evaluation, there is no substantial overlap with Paul Brest’s and Mark Wolfson’s course, Strategic Philanthropy and Impact Investing (GSBGEN 319), which has a different focus from this one.)
You have extraordinary potential to create social change, and Philanthropy: Strategy, Innovation and Social Change will empower you with the skills, experience and inspiration to actualize that potential. Regardless of your profession, industry, background, age, resource form or amount, this course will amplify your ability to make your giving, volunteering, service and leadership matter more. Through deep introspection you will develop your individual social change strategy and define and/or refine your social passions and philanthropic purpose. You will develop and apply skills essential to effective philanthropy, including creating a mission statement, mapping a social issue ecosystem, developing a philanthropic strategy and mitigating risk. You will create a theory of change that maps how you will transform your values and resources (including intellectual, human, network and financial capital) into measurable social change. You will also create a logic model, assess nonprofits and grant proposals, evaluate nonprofit programs and social change initiatives and develop strategies to share learning and increase impact. Case studies will illuminate diverse philanthropic models and approaches—private foundations, corporate giving vehicles, venture philanthropy and LLCs, as well as policy change, advocacy and impact investing. Class activities will include role-plays, debates and simulations such as creating personal giving strategies, exploring the power dynamics of grantor-grantee relationships, giving funding pitches and assessing foundation grant proposals. Each student will select and evaluate a local nonprofit and create a formal grant proposal. Students will peer-review grant proposals, participate in a multi-stage grantmaking process and allocate $20,000 of grants funded by The Learning by Giving Foundation and Andreessen Philanthropies. Students will also have the unique opportunity to directly connect and engage with globally renowned philanthropic leaders, including Laura Muñoz Arnold (Arnold Foundation), Dr. Priscilla Chan (Chan Zuckerberg Initiative), Dr. Sandra Hernández (California Health Care Foundation), Laurene Powell Jobs (Emerson Collective), Dr. Alex Karp (Palantir), Dr. Judith Rodin (Rockefeller Foundation) and Darren Walker (Ford Foundation), among others
Supervised experience with young children at Bing Nursery School. 3 units require 4 hours per week in Bing classrooms throughout the quarter; 4 units require 7 hours per week; 5 units require 10.5 hours per week. Seminar on developmental issues in the Bing teaching/learning environment. Recommended: 60 or 146, or consent of instructor.
