Course Prefix and Number: EDTD 6262
Instructor: Dr. Mark Warner mwarner@aug.edu 667-4503
Hours: 3 semester hours
Prerequisites: admission to graduate program and completion of EDTD 6161
Course Description: This course focuses on teaching approaches that make use of natural curiosity and desire to make sense of the world. Approaches include problem based learning, discovery learning, inquiry, concept development, and synectics. Emphasis is placed on development of curriculum and authentic assessment practices, and the development of pertinent skills related to using integrated approaches.
National Board Standards Addressed:
I. Teachers are committed to students and their learning
· uses multiple resources, including technology instruction and in guiding learning
· values student questions
· curricular activities rely on primary data sources and manipulative materials
· uses a variety of assessment procedures, techniques, and instruments
· focuses on meeting individual needs of learners
· focuses on meeting student developmental needs
II. Teachers know the subjects they teach and how to teach those subjects to students.
· focuses on real world connections and applications of content learning
· assesses student achievement or performance in situations that closely match the standards and challenges of the world outside the classroom
· flexible in all phases of instruction seeking the students’ points of view in order to understand students’ present conceptions/misconceptions for use in subsequent lessons
· acts as a facilitator of learning – questioning, guided discovery, problem based, inquiry to understand content
· engages students in active/interactive learning by mediating the environment for the students with discussion, role play, simulations, games, and student conducted research
III. Teachers are responsible for managing and monitoring student learning.
· creates, enriches, maintains and alters instructional settings to capture and sustain the interest of their students and to make the most effective use of time.
· engages students and adults to assist their teaching and at enlisting their colleagues' knowledge and expertise to complement their own.
IV. Teachers think systematically about their practice and learn from experience
· life long learning and reflection upon improved practice
· grounds practice on inquiry and research
· evaluation on impact on student learning to guide further instructional decisions
Teaching For Understanding Questions Addressed:
3. How are standards based curriculum and instruction reflective/suggestive of teaching for understanding; how doe they support teaching for understanding?
4. What approaches to curriculum design support or promote teaching for understanding?
5. Why isn't activity-based instruction adequate to the task of teaching for understanding?
6. How is instructional time affected when teaching for understanding?
7. How can teaching for understanding best be assessed? With what theories and practices of assessment is teaching for understanding compatible?
10. What kind and quality of teacher knowledge does teaching for understanding require (subject matter, pedagogical, interpersonal, other)?
11. Why is preparing for instruction more appropriate to teaching for understanding
than is planning for instruction? What would change for you as a teacher, when preparing rather than planning?
Course Outline
