Graduate

ADVANCED EXCEPTIONALITY THEORY AND PRACTICE ~ This course examines the philosophical, historical, legal and ethical foundations for individuals with special needs. The characteristics, etiology and sociopsychological implications of exceptional conditions, including specific disabilities, gifts and talents, are explored. Categorical and noncategorical classification systems; assessment; diagnosis and evaluation; and educational adaptations and assistive technologies, are included. Participants will explore the impact on families of disabilities at different life stages, from infancy and early childhood to adolescence and adulthood.

BASICS OF CHILDHOOD TRAUMA ~ This course introduces participants to the foundational concepts of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), childhood trauma and positive childhood experiences (PCEs). The primary age-group focus of this course is birth-18, but many concepts will apply to young adults. Short term and long term impacts will be introduced as they relate to physical, social and emotional well-being. Extensive discussion of possible precipitators of trauma, as well as its prevalence, and the mitigating impact of PCEs will be covered through extensive readings of professional literature.

CHILDHOOD TRAUMA:BRAIN AND DEVELOPMENT ~ This course will delve into the brain’s response to traumatic experiences birth-age 21 and the resulting developmental impacts. The course will begin with a review of child and adolescent development and then progress to brain-specific development. Participants will use this foundational knowledge to learn how traumatic experiences can impact brain development and have short and long term impacts cognitively, physically and emotionally. Discussion of how Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs) can mitigate brain and development impacts will be featured.

Prerequisite: EDUC 65000

RELATIONSHIPS & RESILIENCE ~ Safety, trust, and relationships are critical for supporting students who have experienced trauma. Extensive discussion of these concepts, as well as the developmental aspects of attachment, will provide the foundation for this course. Protective and promotive factors that contribute to resilience will be discussed and connected to the importance of both strong peer and student-adult relationships.

Prerequisite: EDUC 65000

TRAUMA RESPONSIVE:MANAGING BEHAVIORS ~ Learning and discussion in this course will focus on what it means to be trauma-informed and how to put that knowledge into action to create trauma-responsive environments. Participants will engage in readings from a range of authors whose work focuses on the importance of trusting and supportive relationships as a means to manage classroom behaviors. Additionally, discussions will emphasize the need to look beyond behaviors to recognize the safety and relational needs of students, especially those who have experienced trauma. Discussion of Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports (PBIS) will be included, but not the primary focus.

Prerequisite: EDUC 65000

LEADERSHIP & MOTIVATION ~ This course offers a broad framework for understanding leadership in a variety of contexts. Evolutionary, biological, and social perspectives on leadership, what it means to be an effective leader, and how motivation plays a role in leadership will be explored. Contemporary issues and perspectives as well as classic theory will be examined in relation to theories of motivation and how these intersect with leadership styles.

POSITIVE LEADERSHIP ~ This course explores the nature of effective leadership within the modern organizational context. The central questions to be addressed include: What is “Positive Leadership”? How does it differ from traditional approaches to leadership? What is the relationship between “Positive Leadership” and the emerging field of “Positive Psychology”? Why is such an approach needed? What, exactly, is involved in the practice of “Positive Leadership”? This course is primarily directed at those MAIS students and upper division management majors who wish to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to function as “Positive Leaders” in professional and personal contexts.

SEIZING THE MOMENT: GENDERED PERSPECTIVES ON SUCCESS AND LEADERSHIP IN THE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURY US ~ This interdisciplinary course analyzes two special “moments” in the past that appeared uniquely poised to offer special opportunities to one gender. The first occurred in the early 19th century, the era of the “self-made man” mythology, when the new United States was experiencing unprecedented expansion and development. The second “moment,” during and following WWII, saw women taking on so-called male roles as builders, doers, and providers. Each “moment” resulted from a unique convergence of economic, political, and social conditions, and beckoned the most ambitious to step forward and claim participation and leadership roles in it. The themes of success and leadership inform our examination of these two unique situations. The disciplines of history and organizational behavior provide the framework to help determine what individuals, organizations, and society deemed successes and failures within organizational or institutional settings, including the idea of home and housewifery considered a career for women. Through the lenses of history and organizational behavior disciplines, leadership theory and concepts of historical context, gender, culture and organizational behavior will be analyzed.

"What is man born for," asked Ralph Waldo Emerson, "but to be a Reformer?" The urge to remake society, to perfect democracy and humanity, has inspired people to take action throughout U.S. history. This course will examine the ideas, the efforts, and the social impact of various reform movements in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Students will explore the conditions and problems that gave rise to each movement as well as the reformers' strategies for change. Students will also examine what made these reform movements more or less effective, and what impact these movements had on the wider society. The reform movements will include antislavery, women's rights, labor and socialism, and religious fundamentalism.

INDEPENDENT STUDY~

PROPOSAL DEVELOPMENT ~ In this course, the student will work with individual faculty advisors and with the course instructor to plan, research, and write the capstone proposal. The course instructor and fellow students will provide support, feedback and guidance to each student during the writing process. The capstone proposal must be submitted to and approved by the MAIS Oversight Council before the student will be allowed to register for the capstone course. The capstone proposal development course is taken on a Pass/No Credit basis. Students must have approval from the associate dean of academic affairs prior to enrolling in the capstone proposal development course. For further details, see the Capstone Guidelines.

CAPSTONE ~ Students whose capstone proposals have been approved by the MOC will register for the capstone course. In this course, the student will continue to work with individual faculty advisors and with the course instructor to research and write the capstone. The course instructor and fellow students will provide support, feedback and guidance to each student during the writing process. Students will also reflect on and assess their experiences with interdisciplinary inquiry and research. This course is taken pass/no credit. Students will use research and interdisciplinary integration in writing the complete capstone paper, reflect on the cognitive and affective experience of doing interdisciplinary work, and interpret individual experience in the MAIS Program holistically and as it relates to individual goals. For further details, see the Capstone Guidelines.

CAPSTONE II ~ Students in this course will continue to work on the MAIS capstone, providing feedback to each other on capstone drafts, and preparing a final draft for approval by faculty advisors and the outside reader. Students will continue to use research and interdisciplinary integration in writing the complete capstone paper, reflect on the cognitive and affective experience of doing interdisciplinary work, interpret individual experience in the MAIS Program holistically and as it relates to individual goals. Additionally, students will prepare for the oral presentation of the capstone to the community. For further details, see the Capstone Guidelines.

INTERDISCIPLINARY INQUIRY, THEORY, AND PRACTICE ~ This course explores the interdisciplinary research process and the theory that informs it. A portion of the course focuses on the intellectual essence of interdisciplinary and, in general, lays the foundation for the MAIS program. Also emphasized, however, is the step-based interdisciplinary research model which seeks to unify and balance disciplinary influences and create a more comprehensive understanding of complex problems. Familiarity with this research process fosters cognitive capacities useful in all interdisciplinary inquiry as well as methodological tools which are necessary for the successful completion of the integrative capstone project. Students will explain the meaning and significance of interdisciplinary inquiry, describe the process of interdisciplinary inquiry, evaluate examples of interdisciplinary scholarship, develop an appropriate interdisciplinary research question of significance, do a literature search in two disciplines on the research question, write a critical literature review of sources in the two disciplines on the research question, and write a paper answering the research question that integrates supporting scholarly evidence from two disciplines.

INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH ~ Students in this course will plan and complete a research project that requires the analysis of scholarship in two disciplines and the integration of insights from these two disciplines to answer a significant question. Pre-requisite: MAIS 57100 INTERDISCIPLINARY INQUIRY

Prerequisite: MAIS 57100

METHODS AND APPROACHES OF DISCIPLINES ~ This course will expose students to a particular discipline or related disciplines and explore the particular disciplinary perspective and insights that the disciplinary perspective tends to produce. Students will examine the various assumptions and theories of the discipline, phenomena the discipline generally engages, and methods for producing and evaluating discipline-related insights. Students will discern the assumptions of scholars in different disciplines, describe the methodologies used by scholars in different disciplines, compare and contrast the methodologies used by scholars in different disciplines, prepare a literature search in two disciplines on a question or topic of significance, prepare an annotated bibliography of sources in two disciplines on the question or topic chosen, and prepare a critical literature review of sources in two disciplines on the question or topic chosen. Cross-listed with SPMT 57300

LEADERSHIP STUDIES ~ This course will provide students with an overview of historic and contemporary leadership theories and encourage students to consider how those perspectives inform our understanding of what makes a good leader, especially in a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary settings. The course will also include discussion of inclusion and diversity in leadership and what techniques or perspectives are most effective in embracing and sustaining diverse workplaces and environments. Students will reflect on their own experiences as a leader or in observing leadership and develop their own leadership philosophy.