PEDU 9202: Classroom Adaptations Improvement Practicum

This course, designed for any educator who teaches in a diversified classroom, provides the opportunity to earn graduate-level professional development credit while enhancing their curriculum or students’ classroom learning experiences with their own learnings gleaned from personal travel experiences. Research has proven that every child learns and responds to situations differently; all children cannot be reached by using a one-size-fits-all cookie cutter approach. In this course, you will focus on developing or improving cultural, environmental, or social adaptations to implement in your classroom based on experiences and methods of dealing with diverse individuals, cultures, environments, and social mores that you have learned throughout your travel experiences. Improving the adaptations you use or provide to communicate with your students, teach your students, and engage your students will greatly improve your classroom environment and ability to reach your students on deeper levels. Review your travel experiences to discern what caused your interactions with local citizens and your surroundings to improve the longer you traveled: How did you communicate better? What clues did you use to find your way around? How did you gain people’s attention or respect? Was it easier to travel in groups–and if so, why? What made you feel comfortable/uncomfortable in an environment new or non-native to you? Apply your learnings, along with some research if needed, to find tangible cultural, environmental, or social adaptations to enhance your curriculum or classroom learning experiences.  To earn credit, you will then need to submit your travel journal, a 25-30 slide PowerPoint or Google presentation demonstrating the professional outcomes of your travel experience, and implement your selected adaptations into the learning process of your students. Finally, you will write and submit a 1-2 page reflection describing how you utilized or applied the adaptations you developed or improved upon in your classroom and the effectiveness of your adaptations on student learnings.

About University of the Pacific

University of the Pacific, established in 1851, is California’s oldest private chartered university and is fully accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC).

The credits offered are post-baccalaureate, graded, graduate-level semester units of credit, provided directly through University of the Pacific, Benerd College. They are specifically designed to meet the needs of educators for Salary Advancement and Recertification.  The credits/units are acceptable where local districts approve and applicable to state licensing where authorized. We always encourage you to check with your employer for acceptability of these credits/units. Course participants are responsible to determine acceptability of these credits for their intended use. Each graduate-level semester credit is equivalent to 15 hours of academic involvement.