Office: 1380 Lawrence Street Center, 701
Telephone: 303-315-6300
E-mail: sehdacademicservices@ucdenver.edu
Website: www.ucdenver.edu/education

Overview

The MA program in Learning, Developmental and Family Sciences (LDFS) prepares students to facilitate the teaching/learning process and to lead and work in community-based environments. Thus, many students pursue the degree to enhance their skills as professional classroom teachers or lead in the community. The degree also provides skills necessary for a variety of roles in educational and teaching settings or community environments where knowledge of learning, development, understanding family and community systems, motivation, and research is essential such as teaching at the community college and teaching-based colleges and universities levels, teaching adults, consulting, developing assessments, community-based leadership, and conducting program development and evaluation. Other students seek the MA as preparation for advanced study in educational psychology, psychology, learning sciences, family science and human development, research, or related fields.

Areas of Study

Two major areas of concentration are available: Learning and human development and family relations:

• Regardless of the concentration area selected, all students must demonstrate competence in Learning, Developmental and Family Sciences by successfully completing 30 semester hours of relevant course work;
• Students complete a capstone experience, either an applied project or a master’s thesis in consultation with their faculty advisor based on the students’ professional and academic goals. Please see culminating capstone experience section for more details.

Learning

Situated within the multidisciplinary fields of Learning Sciences and Educational Psychology, this concentration emphasizes the systematic study of psychological, social, and cultural processes in learning and development. It is committed to preparing students to design diverse learning experiences across formal and informal contexts that promote purposeful, agentic, and enjoyable learning and growth, with a strong commitment to diversity, equity, belonging, and inclusion.

Students will be prepared to design learning experiences in various formal and informal contexts (e.g., classrooms, schools, centers, communities, and homes), drawing on multiple perspectives (e.g., psychological, sociocultural, critical, design-based, and neuroscience approaches). Within professional and academic networks, students will develop adaptive learning environments that empower participants in diverse educational and community settings, with particular attention to our distinctive urban context. 

This concentration offers a comprehensive foundation in Learning Sciences or Educational Psychology, preparing you for applied settings or doctoral studies in fields such as Learning Sciences, Educational Psychology, Psychological Studies, or Education and Human Development. The Learning concentration offers courses such as:

• Human Learning
• Mind, Brain, and Education
• Motivation in Contexts
• Designing Environments for Learning and Development
• Human Development Over the Life Span
• Social Contexts of Adolescence and Schooling

Human Development and Family Relations (HDFR)

Students will engage in developing their skills to work in and lead community-based organizations including, but not limited to secular, faith-based, for profit, nonprofit, school-based, and local, state, federal and international organizations. The importance of family diversity and social justice is stressed throughout the HDFR curriculum through its courses and experiences. Students can also develop their knowledge in family relations in preparation for doctorate studies in family science and human development or related areas.

The LDFS program does provide a pathway for MA students (HDFR and Learning areas) to pursue their PhD in Education and Human Development with a Family Science and Human Development concentration. For more information, please visit our School of Education and Human Development.

The HDFR area also provides classes to all School of Education and Human Development (SEHD) graduate programs, offering courses in family theories, family dynamics, and diverse family systems, Latino family, school and community systems, family resource management, leadership and organizations, grant writing and fundraising, program development and  other family relations based courses.

Programs 

Faculty

Professor:

Ruben Anguiano, PhD, Michigan State University

Associate Professors:

Jorge Chavez, PhD, University at Albany, State University of New York | Program Chair

Cristina Gillanders, PhD, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | Early Childhood Education

Jung-In Kim, PhD, University of Texas Austin

Assistant Professor:

Diana Schaack, PhD, Erikson Institute/Loyola University Chicago

Human Development and Family Relations (HDFR) Courses

Learning, Developmental and Family Sciences (LDFS) Courses