Four core courses are required of all students.

• “Research on Teaching” (ED 709, offered in the fall) examines the empirical and conceptual research on teaching and teacher education that has accumulated over the last 50 years
  
  
• “Historical and Political Contexts of Curriculum and Instruction” (ED 711, offered in the spring) examines the historical, political, and philosophical influences on curriculum and instruction
  
  
• “Dissertation Seminar” (ED 951) (taken after comprehensive examinations are completed or in the semester during which those examinations are taken; offered once a year; semester may change from year to year)
  
  
• “Reading and Research” (ED 859)

These courses, which provide a common core of understanding about broad issues in curriculum and teaching, require you to draw on a variety of theoretical and philosophical stances, sort out methodological and epistemological paradigms, and make connections among theory, research, policy and practice in curriculum and instruction.