BIRCHAM INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

Faculty of Arts & Humanities

MODULE: Education & Pedagogy

Program delivered by distance learning higher education up to a maximum of 45 credits. This module may be combined or completed with other online university courses from this faculty.

DESCRIPTION:

What is understanding and how does it differ from knowing? What do we want students to understand and be able to do? What enduring knowledge is worth understanding? How will we know that students truly understand and can apply knowledge in a meaningful way? How can we design our courses to emphasize understanding? Pedagogy explores these questions and provides practical solutions for the teacher. This program looks not only at the "how" of teaching, but the "what" and the "why". Pedagogy (literally, the science of teaching) is part of the essential understanding of all teachers: a sound conception of pedagogy is central to all good teaching and education.

Courses list (each subject accounts for 3 credits):

1 BIU Earned Credit = 1 USA Semester Credit (15 hours of learning) = 2 ECTS Credit (30 hours of study).

Child Observation & Guidance

Language Acquisition

Academic Supervisor: Samuel Murinda

More information about this supervisor and online university course instructors at BIU Human Network.

This module is applicable to Specialist, Expert, Bachelor's, Master's and Ph.D. (Doctor) Programs. This distance learning degree program is designed at the postgraduate level – Master’s or Doctoral. This module may be easily adapted to complete the Specialist, Expert or Bachelor’s adult degree program requirements. A further option is the enrollment into the online university courses listed in this module.

* University Course (3 credits): Select 1 subject from this module.

* Specialist Diploma (15 credits): First 5 subjects or select 5 subjects from this module.

* Expert Diploma (21 credits): First 7 subjects or select 7 subjects from this module.

* Bachelor's Degree (130 credits): The Admission certificate issued after submission of the application for admission will show the amount of credit transferred and validated from previous education and experience, and the amount of credits required to complete this undergraduate program's major. Additional courses from other modules of this faculty will be assigned in case that the credits displayed on this module are not enough to complete the bachelor's required credits.

* Master's Degree (35 credits): Select from 3 to 9 subjects from this module depending on the amount of credits transferred from previous education and experience. Add 13 credits corresponding to a final project to the selected subjects.

* Ph.D. (Doctor) (45 credits): Select from 3 to 9 subjects from this module depending on the amount of credits transferred from previous education and experience. Add 18 credits corresponding to a final thesis to the selected subjects.

BIU issues an admission certificate after receiving your complete application for admission. This document will show the amount of credits transferred and validated from previous education and experience, and the amount of credits required to complete the degree program's major. BIU can not perform this evaluation without the complete application for admission.

Courses Description (each subject accounts for 3 credits):

Child Observation & Guidance

This course guides about the observation of children in structured and unstructured situations, about how to record these observations and how to use them to assess the strengths and needs of individual children. Guidelines are provided for properly conducting observations, keeping records and using assessment data for curriculum planning.

Instructor: Catherine Wanjiru Gachutha

Language Acquisition

This course explores the question “How do children manage to learn language?” It introduces classic and contemporary theories of language acquisition. Topics include early speech perception; word learning; acquisition of phonology, morphology, and syntax; development of pragmatic and metalinguistic knowledge; and developmental change in language comprehension and production.

Instructor: Philomena Wavinya Ndambuki

Educational Psychology

This course discusses individual differences in intelligence, and the impact of parents, culture & the community on students learning capacity. It emphasizes the educational implications and applications of educational psychology on child development, cognitive science, learning, and teaching, while incorporating new insights and current trends.

Instructor: Philomena Wavinya Ndambuki

Education & Pedagogy

This course provides the theoretical and methodological basis for understanding pedagogy and its relationship to other disciplines. It covers all issues concerning teaching and learning activities, regardless of whether they take place at school or elsewhere (in the family, at work...), the rules governing the process of education, and the norms for didactic practice.

Instructor: Samuel Murinda

Educational Technologies

This course explores the social, cultural, economic and political dimensions of technology uses in education from a policy perspective. The focus is on education broadly, reflecting not only on technology uses in schools, but in homes, libraries, and the workplace.

Instructor: Thomas Bao - Shan Lin

Gifted & Talented Children

In this course students examine the various theories of intelligence in relation to talented students. Emphasis is on the following: service delivery models, student selection/special populations, curriculum development, program implementation, meeting the social and emotional needs of talented students, program evaluation, and creativity and talent development.

Instructor: Samuel Murinda

Design of Learning Systems

This course focuses on issues and problems related to the design of learning systems involving new pedagogical approaches and technologies. It provides know-how on a wide range of integrated learning systems and technologies, including both those that are widely used in educational settings and those that are state-of-the-art.

Instructor: Samuel Murinda

Classroom & Teaching Strategies

This course describes, explores, and shows how to implement effective teaching strategies and ideas. It applies theoretical knowledge to teaching practice, lesson plans design and classroom activities. It explains how to select didactic materials, and and how to monitor and assess students’ progress.

Instructor: Samuel Murinda

Methods of Evaluation

This course addresses various and evolving models of evaluation, emphasizes paradigmatic issues that emerge in different contexts, and analyzes the application of theory and methods in examples of actual evaluations conducted (or in progress) within each defined context. The course will teach the planning and design of evaluations in different contexts.

Instructor: Carmen Ramirez Hurtado

Applied Educational Technologies

This course conducts a review of learning and teaching issues in settings that involve new technologies and applies research findings and theories to technology-rich educational settings. It deals with the interaction of learning and teaching with new technologies.

Instructor: Carmen Ramirez Hurtado

Childhood Education

This course creates a bridge between the worlds of child care and early education, as well as between preprimary and primary programs. The effective ideas presented are designed to give students a cohesive view of the what, why, and how of developmentally appropriate practices. It addresses principles of age-appropriateness, individual appropriateness, and social and cultural appropriateness.

Instructor: Samuel Murinda

Learning & Memory Development

This course reviews the principles of learning and memory by examining various learning theories, memory research, perception, information processing, and problem-solving. How are memories stored and retrieved? How is sensory input converted to subjective percept? Is the brain a general-purpose learning machine or a toolbox of innate, specialized processors?

Instructor: Elena Lorente Rodríguez

Cognitive Development

This course will focus on the theories and models of learning as applicable to the fields of education, cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence. It reviews different theoretical orientations to learning and memory, metacognition, analogy, language acquisition, reading, writing, mathematics, concept learning, skill acquisition, and self regulated learning.

Instructor: Elena Lorente Rodríguez

Special Education

This course provides a framework for understanding current research in the area of curriculum and methods of teaching students with exceptionalities, with emphasis on portfolio assessment and learning styles. It examines curriculum models and teaching techniques for adapting lessons to students with exceptionalities.

Instructor: Samuel Murinda

Children Education Programs

This course shows the know-how required in the operation and management of an early care and education program. It deals with organizational management, financial, legal and ethical issues, establishing operational systems, and programming for children and families.

Instructor: Samuel Murinda

_________________________________________________________

Professionally recognized and validated degrees.

Accredited (Non USA CHEA). International legalization available.

Non formal and independent education.