Educational Psychology – Winter 2007

Educational Psychology EDU 301 Winter 2007 for Secondary Students 9:00 - 10:20 AM Usually Tuesdays and Thursdays except for weeks one and six Instructor: Office: Office Hours:

Dr. Eva Bures N 308 Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:15-1:45

Electronic mail: [email protected] back-up e-mail: [email protected]

Textbook: Educational Psychology: A problem-based approach (2006). Jordan, E. & Porath, M.; Pearson. Available in bookstore.

Important links: Online conferencing: http://www.nonlocal.com/moodle E-portfolios: http://www.nonlocal.com/eva/epearl

Overall Goals of Course, and General Course Structure This course will aim toward the development of two competencies in each student. First, a general introduction to the field of psychology and its applications in real classroom contexts will be pursued. Second, individuals will become immersed in an area of particular interest to themselves. The overriding goal is that each of you will acquire knowledge and understanding you can use in classrooms; we will strive to connect theory to practice in relevant appropriate ways. The course will follow the textbook. Occasionally I will provide supplemental ‘readings’ (i.e. articles, websites, blogs, video-clips) most often available via the Internet. During the first weeks of the semester, I will present the key information and facilitate the class; afterwards, you will begin to take on more of the facilitation role and students in groups will animate about half the classes during the latter part of the semester. An online activity, an e-portfolio and a final test are used to promote learning of the fundamental course material: the online activity will be used to promote reflective discussion, and the final exam and the eportfolio will help insure that you review and synthesize course content and apply __________________________________________________________________________________

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theory to practice. Finally, the opportunity to teach will provide each student with a chance to study one area in-depth. For my teaching philosophy I draw on social-constructivism (especially Vygotsky) and also cognitive information processing models of learning. You the learner are in an active role in the learning processes involved in this course. Your learning in this course should involve an iterative cycle of action and reflection. This is not primarily a lecture course. You will learn through reading, through watching video tapes, through surfing the Internet, through face-to-face and online discussions, through class activities, through connecting what you learn in the classroom with your practicum, and through reflecting on the course material and your own progress. You will learn from each other and also through individual endeavors. My role is to help facilitate your learning: to ensure that you have an opportunity to acquire the core content of the course and also the opportunity to expand your own understanding and interpretations through small-group activities, discussions, and individual reflection. Following socio-constructivism, I also plan to model some of the skills targeted in this course. Finally, beyond even deep comprehension, I hope to inspire you with a love for the subject material that ideally will motivate you to apply what we know of human nature and learning to improve your teaching in classrooms.

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Activities for Assessment 20% HipBone Game 20% online ‘board’ 30% Teaching Experience 10% Handout 20% Class Facilitation 20% One in-class test 10%

Participation

20% E-portfolio

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HipBone Game February 1 to February 14 For this activity you will each engage in small groups of 3 or 4 in a group online activity. Marks for the HipBone Game are awarded on an individual basis. This activity is designed to advance your understanding of the course material and to support your reflective, critical thinking individually and in groups. If you have played a HipBone Game before, you will find this a rather different approach. Rather than a specific topic, we will develop a list of concepts ahead of time. In the game, each move will be about a different concept. The game will explore both the set of concepts and how they relate to each other.

Online Game: For the online activity, you and your team members will play a game

board that none of you have played on before. This type of activity is called a HipBoneGame, and is a type of ‘cognitive’ game. Groups of 3 or 4 will work on this activity, designed to advance your understanding of the course material and to support your reflective, critical thinking. You can choose your own groups. Please let me know once you have formed a group, and also ask me for help in finding group members if you run into any difficulties. Remember that you will be dependent on your group members for successful completion of these games; although each member is individually responsible for their own moves, the inter-relationships between the moves is crucial. So I suggest you pick your team members carefully and work to build positive relationships with one another during the game process.

Each individual will play three or four moves, all of which must link to other player’s moves. I will play the opening move in each game. Each move should open with a quote. Quotes should not be one-liners and should be drawn from outside the educational context. The content of each move excluding the quotes should be approximately two pages double-spaced. Use references to educational theory and also connect theory to practice; use examples and personal experience to illustrate your points. Assessment of the game will be based on the exhibition of: critical thinking (AKA deep thinking), understanding of core course issues, creative thinking, viewing multiple perspectives, and co-construction of knowledge (especially through linking).

Special Note about Online Activities:

Most undergraduate education courses require the generation of papers as a primary, graded activity. The online activity for this course might be seen as a __________________________________________________________________________________

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variation on that approach. The primary difference is that aspects of this process will be collaborative, and therefore more active (see more discussion below on this issue). This approach also encourages metacognitive processes not possible in singular paper writing. What is the same is that you must be scholarly in your approach to this task, i.e., what you say and do is evidence-based. Opinions have their place, but this process must be well informed. It is important to log on regularly, and to respond to your teammates in a timely fashion. Although online learning is asynchronous – that is, at different times – online learning has a rhythm, and timing is quite important. You cannot complete online problems in the last weekend before the deadline.

Teaching Experience

Topic/chapter selection: During the first week of the course you will read the text and handouts, and attend lectures/discussions dealing with the topic of learning and psychology, how it has been studied in the past, and how it might apply to the present and future. During the course of your initial reading, think about the areas being presented, and tentatively select several topics/chapters you would like to explore in depth. By our third class, indicate three chapters you would like to present in order of preference (i.e., first choice, second choice, third choice). If you have someone in particular you would like to work with, make these decisions together and submit your choices as a team (maximum three people).

Class Facilitation: You and your group will be responsible to facilitate the class for

approximately one hour. Once the presentation topics have been selected, each small group will be responsible for searching out appropriate information, formulating a strategy for the presentation, and clearing your plan with me. You will be responsible for searching out information supplementary to the text.

Your primary objective in the presentation is to engage the class in a meaningful learning experience where the key points of the week’s readings are your focus. In doing so, you may wish to focus on the following questions:

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• • • • •

How does this chapter connect to what we have been learning? What are the five key elements covered in the chapter? What is the theoretical information necessary for other students to understand each of these elements? What are some concrete examples that could help illustrate each of these elements? So what? What are some important classroom applications?

The presentations should be organized more or less as follows: a general introduction to the theorist/topic, followed by presentation of details of key elements, and presentation/discussion/illustration of some of the "practical" implications of the topic. This should be followed with an activity, possibly a discussion or debate using, for example, the reflective questions at the end of your textbook chapter. The total facilitation time should last no more than an hour (with group members typically “speaking” for 15-20 minutes maximum). Any demonstration will be incorporated into the session, and will vary with the topic and strategy. The reasoning behind a limited lecturing/presentation time period is that a brief lecture places more emphasis on engaging the learners in active learning, and allows you to practice exercising good organization and control. Time limits will be enforced if necessary. Note that presentations are usually greatly improved if accompanied by AV materials (such as “overheads”), handouts, demonstrations etc. (i.e., a brief exercise showing an experimental procedure, videotape or film clip, etc). In addition, you should not hesitate to draw on strategies to encourage active class participation including class discussion, debates, and activities. Do not give a Power Point presentation for the hour; Power Point is a good way to impart information, but not a good method to facilitate active learning. Remember that your main object is to facilitate student understanding of the essential concepts in an engaging, meaningful fashion. The goal of the class period is to combine information dissemination with active discussion. Therefore, the presentations should raise issues that can be discussed both during and following the actual delivery. All class members will be responsible for asking intelligent and probing questions. Disagreement as well as confirmation and supplementation are encouraged.

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Finally, expect my participation during class presentations. Expect me to reinforce and summarize key points, help begin a debate, and so on. I’ll be there if you need me! Please notice that each member of the group must participate in the classroom component, must speak to the class as a whole, and must be involved in the planning of the class facilitation and the creation of the materials. It is not acceptable to jig-saw and have one member create the hand-out, one member organize the talk, etc. I will be asking for a group statement of what each member did. Keep these ‘don’ts’ in mind: • • •

Avoid talking for an hour straight. Avoid trying to cover every small point in the readings. Avoid presenting anything you don’t understand or are unable to teach someone about.

Handout: Prepare a handout or outline that summarizes and explains the critical

content you covered. Think of it as a study guide for classmates. Distribute Xerox copies of these handouts at your presentation. Also post it in Moodle as rich text format (RTF) documents, and cut and paste the text into the message for easy online reading. Suggested length: 10 pages double-spaced. If there are additional resources, you will be responsible for informing the class the week before. In any case, you must always let me know in advance what you plan to hand out and present so that I can coordinate it with the other class activities that week.

One Test March 8th This course will have one test consisting of mini-essay and/or possibly essay questions. The main criteria will be your exhibition of high-level understanding of the course material and the skills to apply that understanding.

E-portfolios: Theory to Practice For this course you will create an e-portfolio using Epearl, a tool that is actually in use in several school boards in Quebec. You will likely be able to use this tool with students you teach so long as your school board will install it on the server!

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For the purposes of this course, the key purpose of the e-portfolio is for you to connect educational psychology to practice. This will be done largely by having you connect your practicum experience to the concepts you have been covering in class; this should allow you to pay attention to how theory can look and feel in practice. We will discuss a variety of ways you can present these connections; one approach would be to focus on a few key incidents and discuss those (separately of course) during the course of your practicum. Another approach would be to choose a few key concepts and for each one to illustrate how you saw it in practice in your practicum. Beyond the practicum experience, other parts of your e-portfolio will include a few key in-class activities and assignments that will lend themselves to making the portfolio more integrated with the class and with the development of your thinking processes.

Cooperative/collaborative Learning and Professionalism Cooperative learning and collaborative learning are both methods to promote learning through working with others. I encourage you to take responsibility for your own learning and also for the learning of your classmates. Also, I encourage you to work in ways that are effective for learning and not just efficient. For example, I strongly advise against “jigsawing” which involves dividing what is to be written and learned among your teammates. Learning for understanding need not be difficult but it frequently requires some commitment on your part, particularly with regard to carefully reading the text and working actively on course activities. For my part, I am committed to facilitating your learning. I expect and encourage you to do likewise for yourself and your classmates. Be succinct. Be helpful. Be active. And most of all, be educated. I expect you to reflect upon the course material, and to share your thoughts with your classmates in class and online. I also expect you to be careful not to commit plagiarism. In particular, if you are quoting a source, you must give credit. Do not paraphrase the textbook or other works without giving credit: this is a form of plagiarism. Plagiarism may be even easier to commit in online discussions than in written works: the more informal nature of online communication as compared to written communication may lead students to think the same rules do not apply. They do. Cite all sources online as well as in written assignments. Plagiarism and other forms of cheating (for example, copying another student’s assignment and presenting it as your own) will __________________________________________________________________________________

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be taken very seriously. Please refer to the definition of plagiarism in the Academic Calendar for 2006-2007. As developing teachers, students are expected to demonstrate professional conduct in this course. Examples of such conduct include respecting others, maintaining appropriate confidentiality, letting me know about unavoidable absences, and being polite especially to each other. In particular, students should not be on the computers logging onto their e-mail accounts, MSN chat sessions, or working on assignments for this or other classes; if students cannot respect this then access to the computers will have to be limited in class time which would be sad to find necessary at the university-level. In addition, students should not be carrying out conversations with one another to the detriment of the class as a whole; it is very important to listen in class and focus on the activities, but even if you cannot focus, interfering in the experience of others is crossing another line altogether. Please show respect for your peers and me by not carrying out your own private conversations in class except in extreme situations. Students should note that professional conduct is a condition for success in this course. Students whose overall professional behavior is unsatisfactory will be referred to the Review Committee whose mandate is the supervision of individual student progress. Please refer to the School of Education’s Policy on Ethics and Professionalism for details about professional conduct. Attendance: More specifically, attendance in this course is an essential part of acquiring the course content and each student’s consistent presence is an essential part of creating a learning community. Please let me know in advance about anticipated absences. If you unexpectedly cannot make it to class, please let me know via e-mail or telephone either ahead of time or as soon as possible afterwards. Paying attention in class, participating actively, and displaying your interest are all positive ways to add to the learning community; we all have our bad days (‘Jonah days’), but please show your respect for others by trying to give your best in class. Submission of assignments: Timeliness in the submission of assignments is important. When assignments involve group work then each group member’s active participation is necessary for the group to function smoothly. Timeliness is important when trying to work with each other: you need to be able to depend on your teammates and they on you. In particular, it is impossible in an online activity to do all the work in the last two days. Sometimes a student logs on after everyone else in his/her group has finished an online debate, and then tries to add some __________________________________________________________________________________

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comments. (This is analogous to arriving in the classroom after class is over and talking to oneself.) This is not considered acceptable participation in an online activity, and will result in a failing mark in the activity. As regards other deadlines for individual submissions, these too are important. The assignments are spaced out to allow you to process the material over time. The spacing out of assignments also allows for formative feedback that will provide you the opportunity to improve your learning and me the opportunity to improve my teaching. I reserve the right to subtract two full marks a day for late assignments. Furthermore, I reserve the right to award marks individually for group assignments if members appear to have worked disproportionately. If you are sincerely unable to meet a deadline due to illness or personal reasons, please let me know in advance face-to-face, via e-mail or via the telephone so we can discuss the situation. Sometimes students are facing specific circumstances, and it is important to let me know if that is the case so we can find a satisfactory way to allow you to successfully complete this course.

Please note that changes may be made to the topics covered and the deadlines.

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COURSE CALENDAR EDU 301 Winter 2007

Week

Date

Topic/Chapter Title

Reading/ Deadline

Class Facilitator

1

Jan 8 M

Chapter 1, 2

EMB

1

Jan 10 W Jan 16 T Jan 18 Th

Introduction to Applying Psychology to Teaching E-portfolios Development: a holistic preview

Chapter 2

EMB

Learning and cognition: developmental perspectives Learning and cognition: sociocultural, Vygotskian approaches

Chapter 3

EMB

Chapter 3 and supplemental Chapter 4

EMB

Students

Cognitive information processing

Chapter 5

Students

2 2

3

3

4 4 5

5 6 6

7

9 9

Jan 23 Tu Jan 25 Th Jan 30 Tu Feb 1 Th Feb 6 Tu

Behaviorism; social learning theory

Social and emotional development More on moral development Working on games Understanding our learners: intelligence and creativity

Chapter 6

Students

Game begins

EMB

Chapter 8

Students

Feb 8 Th Feb 12 M Feb 14 Wed

Understanding our learners: motivation More on motivation Work on e-portfolios Understanding the learning context: the supportive classroom Assessing learning

Chapter 9

Students

supplemental

EMB

Chapter 10 Game ends

Students

Chapter 11

Students

More on performance-based assessing of learning

supplemental

EMB

Feb 20 Tu Mar 6 Tu Mar 8

Chapter 12

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Th 16 17

TEST Class on standardized testing date TBA; work on e-portfolios

EMB E-portfolio

*E-portfolios to be complete ? *Supplemental readings, video-clips and other forms of information may be assigned *The flow of topics may be adjusted to match the flow of the class in order to take advantage of ‘teachable’ (AKA ‘learnable’) moments.

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