LRN_SCI 200-0 Introduction to Learning Sciences (1 Unit)   This class will serve as an introduction to the learning sciences through reading foundational texts in the areas of cognition, context, and design; and exploring seminal learning environments from Northwestern's Learning Sciences community.

LRN_SCI 201-0 Cognition and Action (1 Unit)   Perspectives on thinking and learning; how individuals reason and accomplish tasks, both on their own and in interaction with each other and with their immediate environments.

LRN_SCI 202-0 Culture, Language, & Identity (1 Unit)   Social and cultural dimensions of learning, particularly how diverse linguistic and cultural tools mediate forms of identity, learning experiences, and participation in and transformation of social life.

LRN_SCI 214-0 Culture and Cognition (1 Unit)   Explore the cultural ground of cognition. How do cultural environments structure and orient our conceptual knowledge, and how do these cognitive processes feedback into cultural systems? Key topics include conceptual development, knowledge organization, causal reasoning, moral psychology, and environmental psychology. Jointly, the topics are integrated through a focus on social and ecological thought. We will engage in cultural artifact analyses, field experiences, and research inquiries. Combined with LOC 214-0; may not receive credit for both courses.

LRN_SCI 224-0 Holocaust Education Design (1 Unit)   Explore the possible goals of educating about the Holocaust, the merits and challenges of addressing all of the Nazis' target groups, and the relationships between Holocaust education and educating about atrocities more broadly. Explore appropriate and inappropriate teaching methods and we will consider the design of training for Holocaust educators across formal and informal learning environments.

LRN_SCI 230-0 Introduction to Teaching and Learning (1 Unit)   This course explores the nature of learning and the implications for what it means to teach, with a particular focus on teaching and learning in US K-12 schools. To do so, we will explore and critique theories of learning and investigate how those theories have animated our own experiences as learners in schools. We will examine the various purposes of schooling and how these ideologies, coupled with theories of learning and societal forces, have worked to produce inequitable conditions and outcomes for students in US schools. We will then consider what it means to teach in ways that lead to learning and more equitable outcomes, drawing on cases that make the hidden work of teaching visible. Finally, we will apply what we’ve learned about learning, teaching, and schooling to analyze contemporary debates in education and how they are covered by the media. Social Behavioral Sciences Distro Area Social and Behavioral Science Foundational Discipl

LRN_SCI 251-0 Special Topics in Learning Sciences (1 Unit)   Foundational work on special topics.

LRN_SCI 301-0 Design of Learning Environments (1 Unit)   Conceiving, building, and testing products and services to help people learn. Topics include the human-centered design process, principles for designing learning environments, and agile project management and communication techniques.

LRN_SCI 302-0 Social, Cultural, and Linguistic Contexts of Education (1 Unit)   This course focuses on the social and contextual influences of education, from a learning, teaching, research, and policy perspective. We will examine the role or race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, and identity in the ways individuals and groups influence and are influenced by our education system.

LRN_SCI 308-0 Redesigning Everyday Organizations (1 Unit)   Concepts and methods for understanding and studying cognition and learning and putting these concepts and methods to use in a design/change project. Combined with LOC 308-0; may not receive credit for both courses.

LRN_SCI 309-0 Inclusive Making (1 Unit)   The goals of this course are to push students to 1) critically explore Making as a practice that promotes democratization, 2) develop interfaces that allow a broader population of students to participate in digital fabrication and 3) design artifacts that positively impact accessibility and inclusivity. The course will include guest speakers, laboratory portions and a projects that encourages students to develop publishable scholarship and/or functional prototypes, as they work in interdisciplinary teams. This is a hands-on project course. All students will design and implement interactive technologies. For this reason you will be expected to do computer programming and digital fabrication. However, all projects can be completed in teams. Hence, it is not essential that all students come with prior knowledge in computer programming and digital fabrication. Additionally, a portion of class and office hours will be devoted to helping students gain familiarity in basic digital fabrication and computer programming.

LRN_SCI 313-0 Tangible Interaction Design and Learning (1 Unit)   Explores the use of tangible interaction to create innovative learning experiences, including distributed cognition, embodied interaction, cultural forms, and design frameworks. Combined with COMP_SCI 313-0; may not receive credit for both courses. Prerequisite: COMP_SCI 110-0.

LRN_SCI 318-0 Text Mining for Education, Organizations, and Social Science Research (1 Unit)   This course is an introduction to the methods of text mining for students across the School of Education and Social Policy to develop an understanding of machine learning and the underpinnings of modern AI.

LRN_SCI 326-0 Design of Technological Tools for Thinking and Learning (1 Unit)   Constructionist approach to design. Participants discuss learning design literature, critique software, and design and build computer-based learning environments (CBLE).

LRN_SCI 338-0 Computational Tools for Justice and Inquiry-based Learning (1 Unit)   Theory and practice of designing school environments that integrate new technologies and media. Combined with TEACH_ED 338-0; may not receive credit for both courses.

LRN_SCI 351-0 Topics in Learning Sciences (1 Unit)   Advanced work on special topics.

LRN_SCI 360-0 Sports, Technology and Learning (1 Unit)   Sports, Technology and Learning will examine the apparent alignment and discrepancies among these three areas. Students will read conference and journal papers, watch sports-related movies, critique existing sports-related technologies and prototype their own technologies. Some elements of the course will involve students using different computer programming tools. However, no prior experience with programming is required. Cannot take and receive credit for more than one of LRN_SCI 360-0, LRN_SCI 351-0 "Sports, Technology and Learning," COMP_SCI 397-0 "Sports, Technology and Learning," and COMP_SCI 497-0 "Sports, Technology and Learning.,

LRN_SCI 372-0 Designing and Constructing Models with Multi-agent Languages (1 Unit)   Exploration and analysis of multi-agent models, which simulate "emergent" scientific phenomena in a wide variety of content domains. Combined with COMP_SCI 372-0; may not receive credit for both courses.

SESP 114-0 Summer Internship (0 Unit)  

SESP 115-0 Internship (0 Unit)  

SESP 116-0 Finding Your Path (0 Unit)   A continuation of Finding Your Path: Pathways and Future Possibilities (SESP 251), a course that supports second-year students most impacted by the historical and contemporary realities of classism and racism as they map their path forward to career fulfillment. This class is a 0 credit class in which Pathways students conduct a search for a summer internship and then complete said internship.

SESP 195-1 Civic Engagement 1- Participatory Policymaking (1 Unit)   Policy implementation involves more than just identifying and researching options, policymakers must, consider design program design, costs & sustainability; political feasibility, and building political support. In this class, you will learn how to design policy for implementation through Northwestern’s Participatory Budgeting process.

SESP 195-2 Civic Engagement 2: Participatory Budgeting (1 Unit)   Democracy gives limited opportunities for citizens to influence decision-making. In this class you will learn to implement open democracy innovations, that are more inclusive, more representative, and lead to better policy outcomes, by implementing a campus-wide participatory budgeting process, where community decides how to spend $1000 to address climate change.

SESP 195-3 Civic Engagement 3: Organizing, Gathering & Policy implementation (1 Unit)   How do we motivate people to take action? In this class, you will learn the techniques of relational organizing (canvassing, one-on-ones, public narrative), designing civic gatherings (Civic Saturdays) that move people to action to build social movements. You will also oversee policy implementation of community development projects selected in the participatory budgeting process.

SESP 200-0 Understanding Knowledge (1 Unit)   What does it mean to know something? What are the different types of knowledge and what distinguishes them from one another? What counts as fact vs. opinion vs. belief and so on; who gets to decide and under what conditions? How is knowledge produced and how does it gain traction? How does the source and type of knowledge interact with socio-political-cultural constructs and systems of power and, in turn, how can "knowledge" be used to produce and/or perpetuate power and privilege or to empower those who are marginalized? In this course students will explore these and other questions to gain insight into the social production, distribution, consumption, interpretation, and operationalization of "knowledge."

SESP 201-0 Human Development: Childhood and Adolescence (1 Unit)   Personal, social, and cognitive development from birth through adolescence. Interplay of biological and experiential factors on linguistic and conceptual development, ego, and personality.

SESP 203-0 Human Development: Adulthood and Aging (1 Unit)   Psychological, sociological, and biological factors influencing socialization and development from young and middle adulthood through old age. Influences of family, school, and work on the individual.

SESP 210-0 Introduction to Statistics and Research Methodology (1 Unit)   Definitions and classifications of terms used in quantitative methods; measures of typical and maximum performance, reliability, and validity checks; reporting and displaying data; interpreting results.

SESP 218-0 Leaders Lab (1 Unit)   Leaders Lab is an interactive, engaging and dynamic fall quarter course that was created and designed for incoming first and second-year students in SESP to reflect, experience and engage in dialogue about the "big" questions in life such as: who am I? What is my purpose in life? How can I be me? What are my responsibilities to the communities I'm a part of? Why do I serve? What is leadership? How can I lead? This course is associated with the SESP Leadership Institute. Only students enrolled in the leadership institute can register for this course.

SESP 240-0 Introduction to Social Science Research (1 Unit)   This course provides an overview of how social scientists study human behavior and society. It will introduce students to the different stages of the research process: literature review, research question formulation, research design, data collection, analysis, and presentation of findings.

SESP 251-0 Special Topics (1 Unit)   Foundational work on special topics.

SESP 260-0 Community Based Research Methodologies: Educational Justice (1 Unit)   This course examines the histories, ideas, practices, relations and possible futures that shape struggles for educational justice and human thriving. The course is unique in that it brings together an intergenerational group of thinkers and learners (high school students, undergraduate students, youth workers, graduate students, professors, high school teachers and community members) to engage in collaborative study, reflection and design.

SESP 272-0 Field Research Methods (1 Unit)   Guided practice in systematic and participant observation. Observer bias, field notes, unobtrusive measures.

SESP 291-1 Peer-Led Learning: Theory and Practice (0.25 Unit)   SESP 291 is the training program for students working as first-time mentors in the Peer Leaders program. It is taken over two academic quarters, with each quarter offering .25 credit (a total of .5 credit).

SESP 291-2 Peer-Led Learning: Theory and Practice (0.25 Unit)  

SESP 295-1 Leadership Studio I (1 Unit)   Learning organizing requires building a real organization. Students accepted to the certificate program will further develop their organizing skills by taking a leadership role on the executive board of Open Democracy Northwestern (undergraduate club). Leaders will develop strategy, train club members, manage operations. Leaders will receive weekly coaching from instructors. Course is only open to students who have completed the first year sequence of the certificate. Prerequisites: Prior to 2024-2025 students will need to have completed SESP 195-0 3 times to enroll. 2024-2025 and beyond, students will need to have completed SESP 195-1, 195-2, 195-3 to enroll.

SESP 295-2 Leadership Studio II (1 Unit)   Learning organizing requires building a real organization. Students accepted to the certificate program will further develop their organizing skills by taking a leadership role on the executive board of Open Democracy Northwestern (undergraduate club). Leaders will develop strategy, train club members, manage operations. Leaders will receive weekly coaching from instructors. Course is only open to student who have completed the first year sequence of the Civic Engagement Certificate. Prerequisites: Prior to 2024-2025 students will need to have completed SESP 195-0 3 times to enroll. 2024-2025 and beyond, students will need to have completed SESP 195-1, 195-2, 195-3 to enroll.

SESP 298-0 Student Organized Seminar (1 Unit)   Courses proposed by students and supervised by faculty sponsors on special topics approved by the SESP undergraduate education director. May be taken only once per quarter; pass/no credit only. Consultation with the SESP student affairs assistant dean advised.

SESP 310-0 Causal Methods for Evaluating Policy (1 Unit)   This course will provide students with a framework for understanding causal inference and a toolkit for making causal claims using quantitative data. Prerequisites: Students need to have taken SESP 210-0 or any 200-level STATS course.

SESP 320-0 Race and Education (1 Unit)   Conceptual underpinnings of the construct of race and how conceptions of race have influenced the course of education in the United States.

SESP 322-0 Crafting Child Policy (1 Unit)   This course is open to undergraduate students interested in the intersection of child development, social policy, and  applied  research. The course will guide students in how to apply psychological theory and rigorous research methods to the study of child and family policies in real-world settings. Working in groups, students will have the opportunity to answer pressing, current  questions posed by the Illinois  Governor’s Office of Early Childhood Education and Chicago’s Office of the Mayor. Group projects have the potential to help inform the structure and development of the state’s  innovative  policies for young children (birth to 8) and  their  families.

SESP 323-0 Holocaust Memory, Memorial and Museums (1 Unit)   What is Holocaust memory? How has Holocaust memory changed over time, and how does the Holocaust continue to affect our understanding of trauma, atrocity, and human rights today? This seminar addresses individual memory, including survivor and witness testimony, memory and trauma, and the impact of the Holocaust on survivors' families and communities.

SESP 325-0 Race, Adolescence, and School Discipline (1 Unit)   In recent years, racial disparities in school discipline have attracted the attention of educators, policymakers, parents, and the general public. Why is it so hard for legal, political, and educational institutions to improve school discipline? How do intersections of race, gender, and social class matter for students' experiences of school discipline? Are there schools that are getting discipline right? What does that look like, and to what extent can other schools learn from their successes? In this course, we will learn about evidence-based policy improvements and imagine how to create schools where race does not predict discipline.

SESP 342-0 Anthropology of Education (1 Unit)   This course explores central concepts and methods used by sociocultural anthropologists to study and understand the relationship between culture, context, power, and learning. Topics explored include everyday learning, cultural influences on education, the anthropology of literacy, race and inequality, immigrant education, social reproduction in schooling, and the anthropology of educational policy. Students cannot take and receive credit for more than one completion of SESP 342-0, SESP 351-0 "Anthropology of Education," or ANTHRO 390-0 "Anthropology of Education."

SESP 351-0 Special Topics (1 Unit)   Advanced work on special topics.

SESP 360-0 Magic Monsters & the Holocaust (1 Unit)   In this course, we'll explore public learning about the Holocaust through popular film and fiction. We'll question which historical narratives are being told and which are being ignored, and we'll ask why and how genres like fantasy, sci-fi, fairy tales, and time travel are commonly used to bring stories of mass-violence to the public.

SESP 381-0 BSED/BSJ Experiential Learning Community Workshop Series (0 Unit)   In their second year, students choose 1 experiential education requirement – either the SESP Practicum, Student Teaching, or Medill Journalism Residency for 4 units of credit. The students participate in the Community Workshop Series during the year they complete their experiential education requirement.

SESP 390-0 Research Apprenticeship (1 Unit)   Opportunity to participate in faculty research projects. Prerequisites: consent of the faculty member and the SESP assistant dean for student affairs; submission of completed Request for Independent Study/Special Courses Form at registration.

SESP 391-0 Advanced Research Design (1 Unit)   Overview of research methods that may be used to design and implement the honors thesis. Prerequisites: SESP 210-0 and SESP 272-0 recommended.

SESP 392-0 Experiential Learning: Practicum (4 Units)   The practicum is a substantive, full quarter (four academic credits) Experiential Education requirement typically completed during a SESP undergraduate student’s junior year (inclusive of the summer before/after).

SESP 392-SA Experiential Learning: Practicum Study Abroad (4 Units)   SESP students who are interested can fulfill their Experiential Education/Practicum requirement as well as their Global Engagement requirement through several different internship abroad opportunities offered through Northwestern’s Global Learning Office.

SESP 398-0 Senior Thesis Seminar (1-3 Units)   Students develop, design, implement, and evaluate a research project under a faculty advisor's guidance. Prerequisites: senior status, cumulative GPA by the end winter quarter of the junior year, recommendation for the honors program from SESP 391-0 instructor(s); consent of program director.

SESP 399-0 Independent Study (1 Unit)   Faculty-supervised study of special topics of the student's own choosing and not covered in regular courses. Prerequisites: consent of the supervising faculty member(s) and the SESP assistant dean for student affairs; submission of completed Request for Independent Study/Special Courses Form at registration.