M.Ed. Resource Guide - PREFACE

    This Resource Guide is intended to provide our candidates and faculty with an overview of the more significant elements of the M.Ed. program. Due to substantive feedback and dialogue between hundreds of our current candidates, degreed alumni, full- and part-time faculty, the Graduate Studies in Education Department has created this booklet in an effort to encourage a clearer understanding of key vocabulary, concepts, assignments, and assessments common to the Masters in Education degree.

The M.Ed. program is now being offered throughout the United States and in other countries through multiple media, through both on-site and on-line courses. Many of our candidates and faculty may never visit the home campus located in Marion, Indiana; however, it is essential that the implementation of this degree program remain consistent and true to its design. Toward that end, we hope that this Resource Guide will provide appropriate points of reference throughout the program and help to answer the most frequently asked questions regarding program components.

As noted in the Table of Contents, this Resource Guide is divided into several chapters, a glossary, bibliography, and multiple appendixes. The first chapter provides a brief, contextualized account of the history and background information on Indiana Wesleyan University and on the Graduate Studies in Education Department within the College of Adult and Professional Studies. Chapter Two contains a description of the Christian Worldview, which is a general framework for looking at ideas and events in the world through a specific perspective that is drawn from the Christian Bible. Chapter Three deals with the overall basis and structure of the M.Ed. program, while Chapter Four clarifies the alignment of course objectives with national standards from various state and national professional educational organizations.

Chapters Five and Six of this Resource Guide provide specific information on the required integrated program components for all ten of the core courses. Checklists and scoring guides are also provided for the major assessment instrument of the M.Ed. program known as the Applied Masters Portfolio (AMP). To support candidates' efforts when completing this degree, Chapter Seven provides descriptive examples and guidelines for the primary writing assignments in the M.Ed. program. The Resource Guide concludes with a supplemental reference guide for the APA writing style (Chapter 8 and Appendix B), a glossary of terms common to the M.Ed. program (Chapter 9), a bibliography of sources used in completing this booklet (Chapter 10), a position paper on multicultural education (Appendix A) and a guide for Mentor/Observers (Appendix C).

Welcome to Indiana Wesleyan University and the Masters in Education degree!