Educational Design and Inquiry

Who This Is For: The Disruptors

This isn’t a degree for teachers who are content with the status quo. It’s for the ones rewriting it.

This program is built for practicing educators who refuse to accept “the way it’s always been done.” It’s for the disruptors – the questioners, experimenters, and change–makers who are ready to rethink what isn’t working and design better ways forward for their students.

This is for you if you’re a teacher who…

• Has a questioning spirit and is already testing new ways to reach students
• Wants to lead change from within your classroom – without leaving teaching to do it
• Sees persistent classroom challenges as problems worth exploring, not barriers to accept
• Wants practical tools, structure, and community to strengthen your practice
• Is ready to bring bold, creative, evidence–based ideas to your students, school, or district

At every career stage. Early–career teachers find a stronger foundation, greater confidence, and new ways to support students. Veteran educators find renewal, fresh tools, and a community of peers who still believe teaching can evolve. Current cohorts include both – and describe the experience as practical, energizing, and unlike other courses they’ve taken.

What You’ll Learn

Every course is grounded in your own classroom. You design, test, and refine ideas with your actual students – turning coursework into immediate, tangible improvements in your practice. What you explore one week can shape what you do with students the next.

The program blends three powerful, practice–oriented approaches: Design Thinking, Teacher Inquiry, and Equity in Education – a focused M.Ed. experience, not a generic education degree. You’ll learn to empathize deeply, reframe problems, and ideate bold solutions, becoming an adaptive, reflective practitioner.

Coursework you can use Monday morning

You’ll explore the challenges that matter most in today’s classrooms:

• Design Thinking in the Curriculum – Move through the full design process to transform your curriculum, with an orientation to Gettysburg’s Innovation & Creativity Lab.
• Reflective Inquiry – Turn everyday classroom experiences into evidence–based improvements to your practice.
• Classroom Climate & Culture – Build trust, respect, and belonging – and use conflict to strengthen, not fracture, your classroom.
• Cognitive Science & Learning – Translate how students actually think, remember, and learn into practical strategies.
• Equity in Education – Examine systems of privilege and power and design fair, inclusive, empowering classrooms.
• Place–Based, Reimagining Education & Action Research – Connect learning to community, challenge the status quo, and run real action research – culminating in a capstone applied to a real problem of practice.

What it means for your classroom

• Redesign lessons, assessments, and classroom culture around what students actually need
• Test practical, evidence–informed strategies in real time
• Turn persistent challenges into problems of practice worth exploring
• Build more inclusive and engaging learning environments

What it means for your career

• Grow as a teacher–leader without leaving the classroom
• Build habits of inquiry, reflection, and design that strengthen long–term practice
• Earn a master’s that signals initiative, creativity, and applied problem–solving
• Prepare for future leadership, mentorship, curriculum, or instructional roles

Learn Live, with a Cohort That Moves with You

Online doesn’t have to mean alone.

You move through the program with the same small cohort of roughly ten working teachers – fellow disruptors – building a close–knit professional community over time. Live, synchronous sessions create space for real dialogue, shared problem–solving, and mentorship – the flexibility of online learning with the energy of a true cohort experience. No travel required.

How the online format works

• Fully online – you learn live and in real time with your cohort and instructors, not in self–paced isolation
• Live synchronous sessions are paired with independent work you complete on your own schedule between sessions
• Predictable pacing built around the school year: one course each fall, one each spring, and two over the summer
• About 3–5 hours per week during the school year; 15–20 hours per week in summer
• Synchronous sessions designed for discussion, reflection, and collaborative problem–solving

Learn From Faculty Who Are Still in the Classroom

You’ll partner closely with faculty who know you and challenge you – including practicing K–12 teachers recognized for their leadership and innovation, and school leaders who understand the realities of your classroom. They’re mentors and collaborators, not distant lecturers.

Still deciding? Before you apply, sit down with one of them. Ask about the workload, the cohort, tuition reimbursement, or whether the program fits your classroom – no pressure, no admissions pitch.

Built Around a Teaching Life

For many working teachers, the biggest barriers are time, cost, and confidence that a program will actually fit their lives. This M.Ed. is designed to make graduate study manageable while still offering the rigor, connection, and applied learning you expect from a meaningful master’s.

Cost, payment & reimbursement

• $850 per credit – $2,550 per 3–credit course
• A deferred–payment option supports educators using employer tuition reimbursement
• No travel costs – the program is fully online

Using employer tuition reimbursement? A deferred–payment option can help – see how deferred payment works.

In Their Own Words

“This was easily one of the most thoughtfully put together courses I have ever taken. I loved that it was so intentional – most certainly not busy work.”  – Current M.Ed. cohort member

“It made things feel more valuable when I was able to take what we were learning about in class and apply it in the classroom.”  – Current M.Ed. cohort member

“Hearing from others made me think about the issues I’m dealing with in a different light – and take different approaches to issues that arise in my own classes.”  – Current M.Ed. cohort member

Take the Next Step

Be the disruptor your classroom needs.

Applications for the Fall 2026 cohort close July 17. The next cohort won’t begin until next year, and seats are limited to about ten teachers – so don’t put your growth on hold.

Apply by July 17, or request more information.