Courses

EDUC B200, H200: Critical Issues in Education (Fall 2009 and Spring 2010)

Designed to be the first course for students interested in pursuing one of the options offered through the Education Program, this course is also open to students who are not yet certain about their career aspirations but are interested in educational issues. The course examines major issues in education in the United States within the conceptual framework of educational reform. The first phase of the course invites students to recognize and question prevailing assumptions, their own and those of the broader society, about authority, the political nature of knowledge, and the purposes of schooling that shape education in America. The second phase analyzes components of the teaching and learning process. The third phase seeks to engage students in imagining and enacting, through the completion of collaborative teaching projects, possibilities for reform and reinvention.

Weekly visits to a field placement in a classroom afford students opportunities to reencounter their own educational history by contrasting it with a new setting deliberately observed; to read educational theory and research through the lens of grounded observations and relationships; to develop greater awareness of the complexity and diversity of education in the United States, particularly as concerns questions of equity and social justice; and to raise questions about their own past and present educational experiences, about current practice, and about possible reforms. Students often gain teaching and mentoring experiences in their field of future endeavor. (Fall '09: Hall, Spring 2010: Cohen) Syllabus

EDUC H210: Special Education (Fall 2009)

This course is designed as a survey course. Its goal is to introduce students to a range of topics, challenges, dilemmas, and strategies in understanding and educating all learners - those considered typical learners as well as those considered "special" learners. The field of "Special Education" is vast; therefore, as the course progresses, students are encouraged to narrow their research and area of interst on a student or group of students who share similar challenges as learners.

By the end of the course, students will understand more about: how students' learning profiles affect their learning in school from a functional perspective; how and why students' educational experience is affected by special education law; major issues in the field of special education; and a-typical learners, students with disabilities, and how to meet diverse student needs in a classroom.

(Flaks) Syllabus

EDUC B220: Changing Pedagogies in Math and Science Education (Fall 2009)

This course examines perspectives related to teaching and learning math and science, including questioning why (if at all) it is important for people to learn these subjects, what is viewed as successful teaching and learning in these disciplines, and how people learn math and science. Students have a placement (2-3 hours/week) with a local teacher and will be expected to make connections between course concepts and these placement experiences. Enrollment is limited to 20 students, with priority given to students pursing certification or the minor in educational studies. Two-to-three hours of fieldwork is required per week (Praxis I). (Glasser) Syllabus

EDUC B225: Empowering Learners: Theory and Practice of Extra-Classroom Teaching (Spring 2010)

This seminar explores how tutoring, mentoring, and others types of learning support engage and transform issues of authority, role, expertise, and the nature of knowledge. Praxis field placements include campus roles as T.A., peer mentor, PLI leader; off-campus programs; and two new staff-student educational programs at Bryn Mawr. Enrollment limited to 20 students. Priority to students pursing certification or the minor in educational studies. This is a Praxis I course. (Lesnick) Syllabus

EDUC B240: Researching Education on Campus: Qualitative Methods for Assessment and Action (Spring 2010)

This course teaches students how to use and interpret observation, survey, interview, focus group, and other qualitative methods of educational research, as well as to read and write about such research. Course projects include assessment of the staff/student programs of the Teaching and Learning Initiative as well as of other projects faculty, students, and staff wish to study within the bi-college context. In addition to class meetings, research teams will meet regularly. Enrollment limited to 25 students, with priority given to students pursing certification or the minor in educational studies. (Lesnick)

EDUC H250: Literacies and Education (Fall 2009)

One of the electives offered through the Education Program, this Praxis I course is premised on the view that literacy -- constructing and negotiating meaning through multiple, diverse symbol systems -- is both a central educational mode and goal. Designed for students interested in exploring literacy and education in the multiple senses of both terms, the course examines literacy as social and cultural practice, seeking to trace its key role in formal and informal learning contexts. It also explores the role of literacy in important life passages. Throughout the course we pay particular attention to the meanings of academic literacy, its potential and its limitations. A field placement helps students explore dimensions of literacy education when it is expansively defined. (Hall) Syllabus

EDUC H260: Multicultural Education (Spring 2010)

An investigation of the continually evolving theory and practice of multicultural education in the United States. This course explores and problematizes the history, politics, definitions, focuses, purposes, outcomes, and limitations of multicultural education as enacted in a range of school subjects and settings. Central topics may include: curriculum development, teacher training, language diversity, and public policy concerns. Students will also engage in researching and reinventing what is possible in education for, with, and about a diverse world. Two-three hours per week of fieldwork in a related setting required. (Hall) Syllabus

EDUC B266: Schools in American Cities (Spring 2010)

An elective offered through the Education Program that also meets a requirement for Cities and Sociology majors, this course is designed for students to investigate the issues, challenges and possibilities of urban schooling. In the first section of the course, we address socioeconomic, legal, and cultural issues in terms of their impact on urban education. The second part of the course examines students' and teachers' identities and perspectives and issues of curriculum and pedagogy in urban settings, especially in contested terrains such as language and literacy and mathematics. In the final stretch of the course, we focus on current topics in reform in urban schools and districts. Since we are located right outside Philadelphia, the course utilizes Philadelphia as an illustrative "case"; we pay particular attention to current events in the city's reform effort. Field placements in urban school settings and conversations with urban educators and students offer us opportunities to explore the relationship of macro-conditions to particular people, places, and programs. Students also learn and practice fundamental qualitative research strategies as a way to integrate their fieldwork with other learning in the course. This is a Praxis I course. (Cross-listed as CITY B266 and SOCL B266). (Cohen) Syllabus

EDUC B280: Gender, Sex, and Education: Intersections and Conflict (Spring 2010)

This course explores the intersections and conflict between gender and education through focus on science/mathematics education and related academic domains. Investigates how gender complicates disciplinary knowledge (and vice-versa), the (de)constructing and reinforcing of genders (via science and schooling), and ways gender troubles negotiation of disciplines. Implications for teaching, society, and social justice, as well as relationships among different cultural categories, will be explored. Counts toward the Gender and Sexuality Studies Concentration/Minor. Enrollment limited to 20 students, with preference to students pursuing teacher certification or the minor/concentration in Education or Gender and Sexuality Studies. First year students will be allowed to take the course with permission of the instructor. (Glasser)

EDUC B301: Curriculum and Pedagogy Seminar (Fall 2009)

This is the penultimate course required of certification candidates. The only "methods" course they take prior to student teaching, the class challenges them to clarify and to complicate the assumptions, beliefs, hopes, fears, and goals they bring to their preparation to teach. Here, pre-service teachers think through and plan their approaches to: attending to the diversity of students; creating an appropriate teaching persona in relation to students, other teachers, administrators, and parents; conceptualizing curricula; co-creating with students a classroom environment conducive to active and engaged learning; designing meaningful, relevant lesson plans and congruent forms of assessment and evaluation; and integrating technology into their teaching.

These theoretical explorations are grounded by interaction with experienced teachers and high school students, who participate within the context of the college class, and weekly visits to the classroom in which certification candidates will be completing student teaching in the spring. Assignments include: a weekly exchange of letters with high school students and a final analysis of the dialogue; a journal; school placement and weekly reflections on this placement; and completion of the first draft of the final portfolio. (Curl) Syllabus

EDUC B302: Practice Teaching Seminar (Spring 2010)

Open only to candidates seeking certification, these two courses, which earn students three credits, complement and inform one another. Practice Teaching entails spending every day all day in a middle or high school and assuming responsibility for teaching two or three classes for a full 12 weeks in the spring of the senior year. The seminar serves as a forum for processing the student teaching experience and continuing to strive to integrate theory and practice. The assignments revisit or build on those in Curriculum and Pedagogy, connect directly to the practice teaching experience, and prepare certification candidates for a teaching career. Assignments include weekly lesson planning and other classroom-related work, an inquiry project, and completion of the final version of the portfolio. (Curl)

EDUC B303: Practice Teaching in Secondary Schools (Spring 2010)

Supervised teaching in secondary schools (12 weeks). Two units of credit are given for this course. Open only to students preparing for state teacher certification.

EDUC H310: Defining Educational Practice (Fall 2009)

This course is the first in a yearlong sequence that is required to complete the minor in Educational Studies at Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges. This course sequence is typically taken during the senior year and after all other coursework for the minor has been completed. Education 310 in the fall and Education 311 (Fieldwork Seminar) in the spring form a cohesive course of study intended to synthesize, deepen, and extend students’ knowledge and experiences in the minor.

At the center of both courses is students’ active participation in and reflective learning from a carefully chosen, yearlong field placement in an educational setting. The field placement will be central to every aspect of both Education 310 and Education 311. In the fall, students are required to attend 3-5 hours/week, and in the spring, this commitment increases to 5-8 hours. Under normal circumstances, students continue to attend the same placement for the whole academic year.

The syllabus for Education 310 coheres around three interconnected aims:

• To facilitate meaningful student involvement in and learning from an ongoing field placement
• To support students in becoming critical readers and beginning practitioners of qualitative research as a framework for understanding educational settings
• To continue learning about diversity of various kinds in American schools, and continue developing an action orientation towards working effectively in diverse settings

Like the minor in Educational Studies as a whole, this course addresses students with a broad range of interests and goals. We hope that in the focal topics and activities of the course students find resources for imagination and action, whether they are seeking to prepare for future work as a traditional teacher or study and practice education in other ways. (Lesnick) Syllabus

EDUC H311: Field Work Seminar (Spring 2010)

This course is limited to students completing the minor in Educational Studies. It is designed to complement the field placement experience (5-8 hours per week in a classroom or other education-related setting). The purpose of this seminar is to create a community of reflective practitioners in which, through discussion, reading, writing, and student presentations of problems of practice, students may explore different ways of understanding what each one experiences at his/her site. Topics studied in the course include issues in qualitative research methodology; strategies for negotiating institutions and relationships with students and colleagues; and relationships between culture and communication in education. Completing the final portfolio marks the ending of the course.

Students' individual field placements constitute the central texts of this course. The chief purpose of the field placement is to provide students with the opportunity to act as active and engaged participants, planners, reflectors, and decision-makers within educational work settings. Weekly seminar meetings aim to make productive use of the diversity and convergence of the students' placement experiences, so that they may learn to build local knowledge of their own and others' settings and to understand cross-cutting issues, and options for addressing them. (Cohen) Syllabus