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Monday June 28th 2010

Hello everyone.

Powerpoints for today's class are attached. I hope to leave a reasonable amount of time for you to work on your case studies A or B in class for the later part of this afternoon. Also, we will go over remaining assignments, their due dates, etc.

WIKI summaries: for this week shall be allocated before class ends today.

I have posted under manage wiki- files-- sample philosophy statements for you to look at.

The first thing that needs to be done is you must answer the question: 'How do students learn?' and then next -- and this is the bulk of your statement-- you should answer the question ' What theoretical frameworks influence your beliefs about teaching and learning'
 * Guidelines for philosophy statements: (additional guidelines- for basic guidelines check out the syllabus)**
 * 1. Theoretical framework:**

with respect to the latter--- you have to formulate some sort of stance-- are you a cognitive constructivist like Piaget? and if so, how is this expected to influence your philosophy of how students learn, and how you will teach them? Or do you embrace a more social constructivist view of learning like Vygotsky? In what ways (with respect to your beliefs about how students learn, and how these theories influence effective teaching?) Now..you dont have to be only a Piagetian or social constructivist, or a purely a behaviorist-- your philosophy could include bits and pieces from either of these theoretical paradigms but you have to make it explicit at the beginning and then tease them apart in subsequent paragraphs or sections.

In other words, the introduction (first 2-3 paragraphs) of your statement have to clearly articulate (albeit briefly) how you think students learn, what instruction practices facilitate this kind of learning, and which theoretical views most influence your ideas/philosophy of teaching & learning.

then you devote your entire paper to discussing the aforementioned concepts in detail. Which brings us to another important issue...

2. Organization of ideas: It is good writing practice to cluster similar ideas together. Separate your ideas with paragraphs. So if you are goin to talk about social constructivism, introduce it- describe it fully, and then discuss it relative to your ideas, and then move on to the next idea- eg differentiated instruction and so on and so forth. You dont want to mention something superficially at the beginning and then keep hinting at it in later paragraphs- it is too confusing for the reader. Paragraphs should introduce new ideas. Ideas should be dealt with almost comprehensively before moving on to the next big idea. It is bad practice to discuss three or more ideas in the same paragraph and to continue to do so in subsequent paragraphs as this inhibits a more deep analysis and discussion of the idea. Aim for clarity & concision.

The above 2 ideas are key in developing your statement. I have included in the files section, 4 philosophy statements for your review, just so you can see the format and the flow of ideas. It is always good to have model papers so you know what is required and what some good ones look like. You will notice, the structure in all papers are different but the ideas are the same in terms of how theoretical pieces are introduced and discussed. Use these mainly to guide how you should link theories to learning and teaching. Most of the theories are those you are familiar with...in fact all of them...so I think these will be helpful.


 * PS: you are NOT required to go beyond the scope of your personal philosophy to conjecture the future of education 25 years from now. This is not part of your assignment.**

Katherine.

Monday June 14th 2010

Hello Everyone!!

I hope you enjoyed Andrew Cutter's lecture.

Your contributions to constructivism have been great! Let's continue in the same spirit with the next clashing views... Im sorry about the confusion with the midterm and the 3rd case study. I hope that is all cleared up. Here's our focus for this week leading up to next monday:

1. **WIKI Summaries for this week are as follows:** a. **Metacognition:** Sarah, Nick, Joe, Ken, & Rich b. **Transfer:** Lorna, Stephanie, Derek, & Courtney c. **Intelligence:** Megan, Andrew, Chris, Melanie & Natasha d. **Synthesis of this week's clashing views:** Mo, Katie, Rob, Mike & Deby The rest of the class still gets to read the article and contribute towards the discussion on Multiple intelligence. However, I want to see 3 paragraphs summarizing these views of intelligence based on the articles.
 * Mo et al, you will summarize the main points raised by both sides (Yes, and NO-- on this week's articles on clashing views)
 * I encourage you all to create comprehensive summaries so that you all can benefit from this pool of knowledge.**

2. Midterm next week:
 * The midterm will cover the topics you have learned this week and last week only. I will give you voting rights..you get to tell me what topics you want to see on the midterm and I will select from those topics to create a test. As specified on the syllabus, the midterm will comprise 10 multiple choice questions, 5 structured questions and one essay or theory to practice question. The new page labeled 'mid term' is now open for your input on topics you would like to see covered on the midterm. Use these and the wiki summaries to facilitte your preparations.

3.** Philosophy statement:


 * Now that you have had a taste of theories of learning, I'd like you to start drafting your personal philosophy statement. Details of what this entails is in the syllabus, I will post a couple of samples for you to see. Drafts are due next week (if you have them)-- these will not be graded...they're merely for feedback if you are interested in receiving feedback before the final one is due.

4.** Wiki discussion on clashing views: multiple intelligence


 * I am looking forward to more spirited discussions on this topic. Feel free to continue the constructivism debate as well. Both of these shall be rehashed (by me) at the start of class next week. We will also have a 30 minute review before the midterm if you so desire.

5.** Schedule for next 2 weeks: The week of June 29th, you will receive your problem based case studies A or B, and start working on them. A whole new section to the wiki shall be added for your groups. But more on this then. You only need to worry about points 1-4 for now.
 * Because of the time it will take to do the midterm, etc, I reserve the right to make the schedule next week and the one after it, flexible. Therefore, anything that is not completed next week shall be covered the following week.

6**. FAQ:**

I've started an FAQ page on the wiki-- feel free to post your questions pertaining to the syllabus, midterm, projects, etc...and I will respond pronto..this is better than email because then everyone can have access to the same answers (to questions they probably have themselves).

Take care and I look forward to seeing you next week!

Katherine Picho.