An education like no other

UCI’s BA in Education Sciences program celebrates its 10th anniversary 

A decade ago, UCI’s School of Education faculty embarked on an ambitious and unprecedented mission — designing an undergraduate education degree that would take a broader view of “education” than any other school had ever attempted.
 
One that recognizes education happens as much outside of a school setting as it does within one.
 
That education extends far beyond childhood, across adulthood.
 
And that families and communities are as vital to any student’s success as are teachers and schools.

“The vision was that the major would draw on our strengths and insights from psychology, sociology, economics, informatics, and the learning sciences to study education across the lifespan, in and out of school,” says Deborah Vandell, founding dean emerita of the School of Education.
 
When this pioneering program launched in 2014, some 300 students immediately made it their major. Enthusiasm hasn’t waned since. ​

“Over the past decade, our Bachelor of Arts in Education Sciences program has become a premier model for similar programs across the state. We are proud to build on this legacy of empowering students to make a transformative impact in education and a myriad of other fields,” said Frances Contreras, UCI School of Education dean and professor.
 
This year, UCI’s Bachelor of Arts in Education Sciences celebrates its 10th anniversary. And the features that made it a groundbreaking program a decade ago are the elements that still appeal to students and faculty alike today.

Five Core Concepts of Education Sciences

Human development

• Numerous sources interact with each other to influence children's development.  These include factors within the child, proximal systems, such as home, peers, social networks, schools, groups, and formal organizations, as well as more distal sources of influence, such as community - including local, state, and national policies. More distal sources of influence tend to operate through their influence on more proximal sources of influence.

Learning

• Numerous sources interact with each other to influence human learning. These include factors within the learner, the tools, the facilitators (teachers) and the features of the setting. Meaningful learning involves processes that may be domain-general or discipline-specific. Theories of learning allow us to analyze the affordances and constraints of the learning situation.

Schools as organizations

• Governments and other organizations and institutions can regulate or influence economic activity in ways that affect the distribution of resources, individual well-being, and social welfare. Includes government regulations, diffusion of outcomes, finances, management approach and accountability systems.

Structures and stratification

• Students will identify how social structures create and reproduce different forms of social inequality in educational processes, and interpret empirical patterns and effects of social inequality in communities, schools and classrooms.

​Policymaking in education

• Education policy choices and resource allocations involve both benefits and costs. Policy makers seek to maximize net benefits when considering policy options. Student and parent behaviors are also shaped (and can be predicted) by the benefits and costs they perceive to be associated with different courses of action. Freedom of choice among competing educational options (e.g., for preschool, K-12 and higher education) introduces a competitive element into educational markets.

Five Core Competencies

Application of theories (to the real world)

• Students will apply theories from Education Sciences to understand educational decisions, processes, and outcomes.

Methodological practices and research design

• Students will critically evaluate the quality of educational research.

Quantitative and qualitative data literacy

• Students will be proficient with the principles in the analysis of educational scientific data.

Public skills and citizenship

• Students will use knowledge from Education Sciences to inform debates surrounding educational practice and policy, and promote public understanding and effective community engagement.

Communication

• Students will effectively communicate theories, practices, policies and research from Education Sciences with a variety of audiences

When Janice Hansen (Ph.D. ’13), current director of the School’s undergraduate programs, returned to her alma mater in 2020, she says it was this program’s holistic view of education that caught her attention. She appreciated that, in addition to looking at the very important aspects of teaching and learning, the program also examines schools as organizations, policies around education, and the role of education in society.
 
“When people think of education, they don’t think about all the ways it overlaps with our daily lives. This program is unique in that way,” Hansen says. “Our students realize the potential that education has as a driver of social change. So, their views of possible careers are broader and more varied. They can take what they learn into many different settings.”

​“Five Core Concepts” and “Five Core Competencies” underpin the entire degree program. Students gain proficiency in each as they explore the field of education in the broadest sense possible. (See sidebar.) For example, students learn to identify social inequalities in education; explore the impact of educational policies and resource allocations; apply education theories to real-world decision-making; evaluate the quality of educational research; and practice citizenship by informing conversations around educational practice and promoting effective community engagement in education.
 
Richard Arum, former dean of the School and a professor of sociology and education, helped articulate the program’s “five core concepts.” The idea, Arum says, was to “move learning outcomes away from surface content knowledge to focus instead on core concepts, competencies, and practices that would better prepare undergraduates for success in subsequent academic studies, professional careers, and civic commitments.”
 
That has proved true for many alumni of the program, including Jamie Mitchell (’18), who focused on children’s learning and development during her time in the program. She points to the School’s uncommon breadth of research opportunities for undergraduates as a turning point for her career path.
 
For Mitchell, it was the late Carol Connor, a chancellor’s professor of education, who helped open Mitchell’s eyes to the possibilities ahead of her. Connor served as a mentor for Mitchell, sharing about her life’s work studying language and literacy development. 
 
“Joining Dr. Connor’s research lab was the most meaningful experience of my time at UCI,” Mitchell recalls. “It prepared me for a future in research, and I would not be where I am today without it.”
 
Where Mitchell is today is in Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education studying cognitive neuroscience as a Ph.D. candidate. Following her mentor’s path, Mitchell’s research interests focus literacy development, too. Specifically on the neural processes involved in reading development in special populations — such as those with dyslexia and hearing issues — who have difficulty learning to read.
 
“My BA in Education Sciences really gave me a great baseline understanding of children’s learning and development,” Mitchell says, “and gave me a strong foundation in psychological processes that I rely on every day for my research.”
 
For those who helped bring the degree to life, there’s immense appreciation in hearing feedback like this — and an excitement for where faculty, students, and alumni are taking the program today.
 
“Our students are so smart and creative,” Hansen says. “What I enjoy most is seeing their excitement grow as they realize they’re being equipped to make a difference in their own communities. A lot of them want to take what they’ve learned back to where they grew up in their formative years. Seeing them want to make a positive change in their hometowns really thrills me.”
 
One of those alumnae is Kayla Nunes (’22), who now works as a program coordinator on UCI’s GEAR UP program. The federally funded program is designed to elevate the academic achievement, college attendance, and graduation rates of first-generation, low-income, underrepresented, and underserved students. And Nunes says her experience in the BA in Education Sciences program directly inspired her current work.
 
One of the classes she took as a student required her to work with local high school students on submitting their FAFSA forms.
 
“That was a powerful experience because it taught me that my education could be tied directly to my community, and that what I was learning in the program could already be implemented in real life to help others,” Nunes says.
 
In her current role, she’s expanding on that class experience — helping high school students apply to college, apply for financial aid, and coordinating field trips for students from the Compton community to tour different college campuses.
 
“My Education Sciences classes taught me that, often times, college-readiness resources are mostly available to middle- and higher-class communities, while millions of students are not even offered this information simply due to where they happen to live or go to school,” Nunes says. “I have been so lucky to get to provide these resources and watch my students thrive and take advantage of incredible educational opportunities.”
 
Stories like these are what it’s all about for the faculty who brought UCI’s Bachelor of Arts in Education Sciences to life 10 years ago.
 
“I am so incredibly proud of this program,” says Vandell, the School of Education’s founding dean. “It was the first program of its kind in the United States, even the world, and it has served as a model that other universities have emulated. But what’s particularly important to me is that our major provides students with the knowledge, skills, and experiences to make a positive difference in their communities and organizations, anywhere they want to go.” 

Learn more about the Bachelor of Arts in Education Sciences degree program.