Hocbigg - Education
Path to a free self-taught education in Education!
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Introduction
Education is an applied, multidisciplinary field that examines how human beings acquire and organize knowledge, how learning environments are engineered, and how institutional systems structure educational opportunity. Studying education goes far beyond mastering classroom techniques; it requires grappling with cognitive development, the philosophical aims of schooling, the architecture of curriculum, and the legal and social forces that shape educational outcomes.
This curriculum is built for independent, self-directed learners starting with no prior formal background in education or teacher training. It is equally relevant for aspiring classroom teachers, instructional designers, tutors, educational technologists, and self-taught polymaths seeking to understand how learning happens.
The focus is strictly on foundational undergraduate knowledge: the core theories, instructional frameworks, and institutional realities that every practitioner and educational theorist must understand. It deliberately omits specialized graduate research training — such as advanced psychometrics, statistical modeling, and formal qualitative coding — in favor of actionable concepts, research-backed instructional models, and practical classroom dynamics.
How to Navigate the Curriculum
The curriculum is sequenced into four interrelated areas of study:
- Intellectual and Institutional Foundations: Introduction to Education Studies, Philosophy of Education, and History of Education establish the historical origins, systemic functions, and ethical debates that define modern schooling.
- Learner Development and Cognition: Child and Adolescent Development and Educational Psychology examine the biological, social, and cognitive mechanisms governing how people grow, process information, retain memory, and stay motivated.
- Instructional Delivery and Environment: Curriculum Design and Development, Instructional Design and Pedagogy, Classroom Management and Learning Environments, and Classroom Assessment and Evaluation translate cognitive theory into concrete practice — covering backward planning, lesson execution, culture-setting, and diagnostic assessment.
- Equity, Diversity, and Governance: Inclusive and Special Education, Sociology of Education, and Education Policy and Law address systemic stratification, accommodations for neurodivergent learners and students with disabilities, and the constitutional boundaries governing schools.
While you can read the historical, philosophical, and sociological subjects in any order, you should study Educational Psychology before tackling curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment. Effective instructional design, rubric creation, and classroom management all directly apply cognitive and behavioral principles.
Beyond the Core
Once you have completed this foundational path, you can explore the other resources in this series:
- Explore specialized subfields — such as cognitive load engineering, educational data mining, improvement science, and artificial intelligence in education — in Advanced Topics.
- Apply your learning by building tangible artifacts, including unit blueprints, behavior plans, policy briefs, and scoring rubrics, using the step-by-step guides in Projects.
- Engage with landmark primary texts, philosophical treatises, and historical critiques in Readings.
- Deepen your intuition through recorded university lectures and dedicated video series in Courses.
Communities
- Forums:
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- You can also interact through GitHub issues. If there is a problem with a course, or a change needs to be made to the curriculum, this is the place to start the conversation. Read more here.
Curriculum
Introduction to Education Studies
Introduces the multidisciplinary field of education, examining schooling structures, teaching as a profession, and foundational contemporary debates.
Introduction to Education Studies by Steve Bartlett and Diana Burton - The primary comprehensive survey textbook, examining the sociological, psychological, historical, and policy dimensions of education.
Introduction to Education: Understanding and Evaluating Education (MIT OpenCourseWare) - A free open-courseware alternative to Bartlett and Burton, exploring classroom environments and systemic reform through fieldwork assignments and analytical readings.
Foundations of Teaching for Learning: Introduction (Coursera / Commonwealth Education Trust) - A concise, applied digital course that complements either comprehensive overview above by focusing specifically on teacher identity, ethical duties, and daily classroom roles.
Philosophy of Education
Examines fundamental questions concerning the aims, ethical obligations, epistemological assumptions, and values that govern educational practice.
Philosophy of Education by Nel Noddings - The foundational modern textbook, systematically examining classical and contemporary philosophical traditions while centering care ethics.
Democracy and Education by John Dewey - A seminal open-access primary text to read alongside or after Noddings, establishing progressive, experiential, and democratic arguments for schooling.
Philosophy of Education (Stephen Hicks / Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship) - A standalone audio and video lecture series alternative to the written surveys, tracing how metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics shape educational theory.
History of Education
Surveys the historical evolution of formal schooling, major reform movements, and the social struggles that shaped modern educational institutions.
American Education: A History by Wayne J. Urban and Jennings L. Wagoner, Jr. - The standard core history textbook, detailing the institutional development of common schools, secondary education, and reform cycles from colonial eras to the present.
The American School: A Global Context by Joel Spring - A critical alternative or companion to Urban and Wagoner, foregrounding ideological conflicts, racial segregation, civil rights struggles, and cultural assimilation.
School: The Story of American Public Education (PBS / Films Media Group) - An audiovisual documentary series that complements the readings by dramatizing key milestones and historical reformers; search for the title on YouTube or educational streaming platforms.
Child and Adolescent Development
Explores the physical, cognitive, linguistic, and socio-emotional developmental milestones of learners from early childhood through adolescence.
Development Through the Lifespan by Laura E. Berk - The primary comprehensive reference textbook, detailing physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional maturation from early childhood through youth.
Introduction to Child Psychology (OpenLearn / The Open University) - A free introductory online course that serves as a concise alternative or preparatory primer before undertaking Berk's extensive textbook.
Educational Psychology
Investigates how people process, retain, and transfer knowledge, covering behavioral, cognitive, constructivist learning theories, and student motivation.
Educational Psychology: Active Learning Edition by Anita Woolfolk - The definitive comprehensive textbook for deep study of cognitive architecture, schema acquisition, self-efficacy, and learning science.
Educational Psychology by Kelvin Seifert and Rosemary Sutton (Open Textbook Library) - A free open-access textbook alternative to Woolfolk, covering foundational cognitive processes, classroom dynamics, and learner motivation.
Introduction to Educational Psychology (Modern States) - A structured video lecture course that pairs effectively with either textbook above to reinforce core learning theories and developmental concepts.
Curriculum Design and Development
Focuses on the architecture of educational programs, backward design methodology, scope and sequence planning, and curricular alignment.
Curriculum: From Theory to Practice by Wesley Null - The foundational textbook covering historical curriculum traditions, structural curriculum models, and institutional evaluation.
Understanding by Design by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe - A vital practical methodology to study immediately following or alongside Null, detailing backward design, essential questions, and planning for student transfer.
Foundations of Teaching for Learning: Curriculum (Coursera / Commonwealth Education Trust) - A short, video-based alternative or introductory primer on translating overarching curricular frameworks into concrete classroom units.
Instructional Design and Pedagogy
Teaches evidence-based instructional methods, lesson sequencing, questioning techniques, and direct versus inquiry-based pedagogical frameworks.
Effective Teaching Methods: Research-Based Practice by Gary D. Borich - The primary practical textbook, teaching explicit lesson execution, direct instruction procedures, student-centered questioning, and instructional delivery.
Models of Teaching by Bruce R. Joyce, Marsha Weil, and Emily Calhoun - A conceptual companion to Borich, expanding beyond direct instruction to detail specialized instructional models across information-processing, social, and behavioral domains.
Foundations of Teaching for Learning: Planning for Teaching and Learning (Coursera / Commonwealth Education Trust) - A free video-based alternative or quick-start guide to the core planning strategies found in Borich.
Classroom Management and Learning Environments
Addresses proactive strategies for establishing classroom routines, physical room design, supportive culture, and positive behavior interventions.
Classroom Management for Middle and High School Teachers by Edmund T. Emmer and Carolyn M. Evertson - The core comprehensive textbook, providing structured frameworks for room arrangement, rule and routine formulation, and behavior support systems.
Classroom Behavior Management: Key Concepts and Foundational Practices (The IRIS Center / Vanderbilt University) - An open interactive module that complements Emmer and Evertson with video scenarios, behavior escalation cycles, and practical behavior management planning.
Classroom Assessment and Evaluation
Covers the design, implementation, and analysis of formative checks, summative evaluations, authentic assessments, and grading rubrics.
Classroom Assessment: What Teachers Need to Know by W. James Popham - The primary authoritative textbook covering test construction, reliability, validity, performance tasks, rubric design, and assessment bias.
Foundations of Teaching for Learning: Introduction to Student Assessment (Coursera / Commonwealth Education Trust) - A free video course that serves as a concise, applied alternative or entry-level companion to Popham, focusing on diagnostic checks and formative feedback loops.
Inclusive and Special Education
Prepares educators to support neurodivergent learners and students with disabilities through differentiated instruction, accommodations, and Universal Design for Learning.
Including Students with Special Needs: A Practical Guide for Classroom Teachers by Marilyn Friend and William D. Bursuck - The primary core textbook covering special education legal frameworks, individualized education programs, 504 plans, and co-teaching strategies.
Universal Design for Learning: Designing Learning Experiences That Engage and Challenge All Students (The IRIS Center / Vanderbilt University) - A free interactive learning module that complements Friend and Bursuck by providing practical, scenario-based training in proactively removing curricular barriers.
Accommodations: Instructional and Testing Supports for Students with Disabilities (The IRIS Center / Vanderbilt University) - A targeted follow-up module to complete alongside or after the UDL training, focusing on selecting and evaluating specific presentation, response, and environmental accommodations.
Sociology of Education
Analyzes how broader social institutions, socioeconomic status, race, gender, and culture intersect with school structures and student achievement.
The Sociology of Education: A Systematic Analysis by Jeanne H. Ballantine, Joan Z. Spade, and Jenny M. Stuber - The primary comprehensive textbook, analyzing schools as formal organizations, cultural reproduction, social stratification, and systemic educational inequalities.
Exploring equality and equity in education (OpenLearn / The Open University) - A free, focused short course serving as an accessible alternative or applied supplement exploring how educational policies and classroom practices influence equity.
Education Policy and Law
Examines legal mandates, constitutional rights, tort liability, ethics, and governance policies governing educational institutions.
Teachers and the Law by David Schimmel, Louis Fischer, Leslie R. Stellman, and Cynthia K. Conlon - The essential practical textbook and casebook, covering student expression, teacher contracts, negligence, copyright, and due process.
Introduction to Key Constitutional Concepts and Supreme Court Cases (Coursera / University of Pennsylvania) - A foundational legal course recommended prior to or alongside Schimmel et al. to establish the First and Fourteenth Amendment jurisprudence that governs public schooling.