Education Core

• WED ED 140: An Interdisciplinary Approach for Professions in Education and Human Development
  Introduces theoretical frameworks and explores systemic issues in Education and Human Development. Focuses on Teaching and Learning, Deaf Studies, Educational Design for Transformative Social Futures, Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Youth Development and Justice, and Child Life and Family-Centered Care.
• WED ED 200: Introduction to Justice-Based Education
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: First-Year Writing Seminar (WR 120 or equivalent) - This exploratory course introduces students to a critical history of schooling in America and the extent to which various philosophies of education can work (and have worked) in service of or in opposition to democratic and justice- oriented ends. Students will begin to cultivate a critically reflective stance toward classroom experiences, educational policies, their identities, and the intersection among them. This course requires 4 hours of field-based experience. Effective Fall 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, The Individual in Community, Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings.
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  • The Individual in Community
  • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
  • Writing-Intensive Course
• WED ED 201: Tutoring Struggling Readers and Writers
  This course is intended for those who are outside the profession of education (e.g., parents, community workers, non-SED students) to support children and adults who find learning to read and write difficult. The course will provide an introduction to the types of texts and teaching strategies that make a difference. 2 cr.
• WED ED 220: Language Development in Education and Society
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (WR120) - Prerequisite for this course: First Year Writing Seminar (WR120). Effective Spring 2023, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Critical Thinking, Ethical Reasoning, Writing-Intensive Course.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • Ethical Reasoning
  • Writing-Intensive Course
• WED ED 230: Introduction to Design as Educational Inquiry
  Students will learn how creating learning designs can facilitate understandings of participant learning. They will explore how a variety of learning settings have been designed and think critically about how to design future ones for care, dignity, and justice. Effective Spring 2026, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Creativity/Innovation, Digital/Multimedia Expression.
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  • Creativity/Innovation
  • Digital/Multimedia Expression
• WED ED 231: Tutoring Readers and Writers
  This course is intended for those who are outside the profession of education (e.g., parents, community workers, non-SED students) to support children and adults who find learning to read and write difficult. The course will provide an introduction to the types of texts and teaching strategies that make a difference. 2 cr.
• WED ED 245: Theory and Practice of Peer Counseling
  Examines the theory of peer counseling and the development of specific counseling skills. Students enrolled in this class will serve as peer advisors in the CAS First Year Seminar course. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Oral and/or Signed Communication.
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  • Oral and/or Signed Communication
• WED ED 246: Practicum in Peer Leadership and Mentoring
  Provides advanced mentoring training and leadership experience for selected students who have completed ED 245 (Theory and Practice or Peer Counseling). Students will mentor the students serving as peer mentors in FY101 (First Year Seminar) and enrolled in ED245. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Teamwork/Collaboration.
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  • Teamwork/Collaboration
• WED ED 260: Teaching Children's Literature Critically
  This course explores children's literature as an active and engaging part of education. We will focus on aesthetics in reading, multi-modal narratives, book design, and representation of marginalized communities. Effective Spring 2025, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Creativity/Innovation.
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  • Creativity/Innovation
• WED ED 300: Learning as a Cultural Process
  This course examines theoretical foundations of research on learning as a cultural process, including language as a central focus, and their implications for how we think about the design of forms of education that center justice, dignity and mutual flourishing.
• WED ED 308: Internship in Education and Human Development
  This course is for Wheelock juniors and seniors who are interested in gaining practical experience beyond that which is required for their specialization. Students spend at least 75 hours at their internship site and attend a biweekly seminar.
• WED ED 310: Critical Making/Creative Inquiry
  Critical Making/Creative Inquiry refers to the ways in which we ask questions about the world and disrupt inequitable relations of power through the creation of artifacts. We will learn to use some crafting and digital fabrication tools. Prerequisites include enrollment in the Educational Design for Transformative Social Futures specialization.
• WED ED 315: Gamifying Learning
  Games can be regarded as simply fun, but they help us interrogate ethical, political, and social questions fundamental to teaching and learning. This course invites students to decompose game rules, mechanics, and dynamics to better understand their facilities to learning.
• WED ED 320: Critical Media Literacy
  The course will advance critical media literacy through exploration of critical pedagogy, film, critical race, queer, and feminist theories and practices to better understand and produce works in the new technology and media environment in which we live.
• WED ED 330: Advanced Seminar: Ethical Foundations of Educational Design
  An advanced seminar where students co-design educational experiences with communities through qualitative, design-based research—integrating theory visualization, critical ethnography, multimodal analysis, and ethically attuned practice to create justice-oriented, transformative models of learning.
• WED ED 331: Approaches to Learning
  Examines research and theories of learning and their application to teaching and other education practices. Pays special attention to factors that influence learning, such as socio-cultural and linguistic. Provides opportunities for students to apply learning principles and theories to practice.
• WED ED 350: Sense-making in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
  This course will deepen students' understanding of "sense-making" in science, mathematics, and engineering. Students analyze the opportunities they have had to make sense of concepts, explore new phenomena and ideas, attend to others' sensemaking, and connect sense-making to social justice. Effective Fall 2026, this course fulfills a single requirement in each of the following BU Hub areas: Creativity/Innovation, Critical Thinking, Scientific Inquiry 1.
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  • Creativity/Innovation
  • Critical Thinking
  • Scientific Inquiry I
• WED ED 405: Designing Learning Experiences
  This course focuses on the application of research and theories of teaching and learning to plan learning experiences across a variety of settings. Through a teaching for justice lens, students will develop and apply knowledge of approaches to learning.
• WED ED 406: Family and Community Engagement
  Students will be invited to explore their own positionality towards and definitions of engagement, community, schools, and family, and learn how to best sustain and affirm the families and communities that they endeavor to serve. Effective Fall 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Ethical Reasoning, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy.
• WED ED 415: Practicum 1: Educational Design
  This practicum will provide students with a foundation in ethnographic inquiry essential to educational design that aims to disrupt inequitable, unjust systems, and to create alternative models of learning as lived arguments for the possible.