Education American University of Beirut

Overview

The program addresses the needs and interests of beginning and experienced teachers and other interested persons whose objective is to advance their knowledge of educational practice in schools. The MA program also prepares students for admission to doctoral study in a variety of related fields, such as educational psychology, research methodology, administrative and policy studies, and instruction and learning of subject matter in a variety of content areas.

Key facts

The Department of Education from American University of Beirut used to conduct its M.A. Comprehensive Examination along conventional lines, viz. an actual examination for some time. Until 2007, the comprehensive exam was a traditional type of assessment with candidates writing an examination under supervision. However, in January of 2008, the Department moved to a take-home format with candidates being given 10 days to submit their responses to a series of questions. Upon submission, candidates would then sit for an oral exam in which they defended their written exam submission. 

​​In light of the numbers of graduate students who move through the Department (by far the highest in FAS), that Comprehensive Exam format became burdensome for both the students and their academic mentors. Students, who were already expected to prepare exhaustive research proposals and defend those orally (our Department being the only one in FAS to insist on a full proposal development and defence), were lumbered with this additional zero-credit task, the value of which in terms of academic benefit was highly questionable. It was reported by several graduate students over the years that that format of the comprehensive exam was neither purposeful nor meaningful to their experience as graduate scholars. Moreover, the timing of the examination is awkward as it coincides with other end-of semester examinations and requirements. 

The Department decided to revise the comprehensive policy recognising our continuing commitment to an examination stop for the students and ensuring the continuing need for our procedures to align with the established FAS sequence of events pertaining to MA candidates (finishing the course work, passing the comprehensive, and then submitting a proposal to the graduate committee). So in Spring 2018 students could defend their thesis/project proposal in lieu of the comprehensive exam. At that time, as a transitional measure, defence of a “min-proposal” understood as an extended abstract was deemed sufficient. The revised format described here and takes effect in Fall 2021 for old and new students, equates the successful completion and defence of the full thesis/project proposal with the completion of the comprehensive exam (EDUC 395).