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Catalog 2012-2013
Department of Educational Foundations and Research
Graduate School and Professional Studies
Fowler Hall, Room 410
Graduate Faculty
Helen Thumann, Ph.D. (Chair); Thomas E. Allen, Ph.D. (Co-Principal Investigator, VL2); Mary Diane Clark, Ph.D.; Barbara Gerner de Garcia, Ed.D.; Donna Mertens, Ph.D.; Amy Wilson, Ph.D.
Offering foundations courses is the major role of the Department of Educational Foundations and Research (DEFR). In providing foundations courses in educational psychology, multicultural education, social science statistics, research methods, school law, and other areas, DEFR provides required and elective courses in areas that provide underpinning for various professional preparation programs.
Each of the courses offered by the department has a multi-disciplinary orientation and each speaks broadly to the needs of students who are training for professional roles in education and human services settings. Whether students are seeking to become teachers, counselors, or administrators, they will have to work collaboratively with professionals from other fields. In order to be effective, DEFR recognizes that its faculty must model what they teach by being leaders in their own fields. This leadership is evident in a number of ways: by the research and publication records of the faculty, by the number and scope of funded projects they have led, by their influence in professional organizations and on campus, and by their work with education and human services agencies. In all that they do, the faculty seek ways to apply scholarship so that it can make a difference in the lives of the members of the community Gallaudet seeks to serve.
DEFR is a pioneer department in the integration of technology in its own teaching practices. The faculty employ state-of-the-art instructional techniques involving multiple formats and delivery systems. The goal in doing so is to provide an intellectually stimulating interactive environment that challenges students to become active agents in their own professional development. Whether the formats involve the use of advanced communication systems in the DEFR laboratory classrooms or the creative use of on-line course delivery systems, the object is to promote student learning in an exciting way that points to the future.