Course Organization I Schedule I Courses I Capstone Project
Course Organization
This program pushes the boundaries of theory and practice, forging strong connections between the two. It encourages lateral relationships of professional learning amongst course participants (all qualified teachers), focusing on the effect of this collaborative professional learning on the performance and outcomes of their students.
Lateral Relationships of Professional LearningThis course aims to build new practices of professional knowledge making and sharing. It requires high levels of reciprocity, based on principles of collaborative knowledge construction and social networking. Even though this is an online course, higher levels of participant interaction and purposeful networking are anticipated than is the case in face-to-face courses. Key points of social responsibility in this course include:
• A three level peer review process whereby each participant will review a first draft ‘placemat' Learning Element, a revised and a final Learning Element.
• Collaborative construction of a conceptual schema for a theory wiki; contribution of one concept page to theory wiki; review of other pages; redrafting of concept page and links to other pages.
• Participation in online classes by introducing one theme or concept and facilitating discussion on that theme or concept.
• Participation in-person or online in an annual weekend showcase conference, held at the end of Semesters 3 and 7.
• Multiple points of self and peer assessment, plus reflexive review-the-reviewer responses.
The Eight Substantive CoursesAll courses are organized in the same way (except the sequence of Capstone Projects). The rationale for this is the innovative character of this program. Our aim is to establish a common and familiar pattern of learning for the students.
Each course will challenge participants intellectually by introducing them to key theorists from within and beyond the discipline of education. Participants are asked to read short extracts from prominent theorists at the course website and contribute to a theory wiki which will build a collaboratively constructed conceptual schema for the course.
After determining the key concepts by the end of week 2, each course participant will introduce main theorists and themes to the class in twenty minute presentation and facilitation sessions in Weeks 3 to 8. Each participant will also take one key concept and contribute a 500-1000 word definition to the concept wiki. This wiki entry will need to be referenced in footnotes to key educational theorists, policies and relevant research findings. The participant will also source and provide one supporting extract of five hundred words from a book, one five hundred word extract from an academic article, and one annotated link to website, blog or online video.
Participants will read and peer review wiki entries as published each week. Reviewers will also be reviewed for the usefulness and relevance of their reviews to the authors of the texts they are reviewing. Once all concepts are posted to the wiki, each participant will rewrite their contribution, making links to as many other relevant and related concepts as possible. Participants will also make links to the theory wiki in their practice-based Learning Element (created in the parallel Capstone Projects).
ScheduleThe schedule for each of these eight courses is as follows:
Week 1
Introduction: the idea of the course
Week 2
Key concepts discussed, determined and allocated to students
Week 3
Guest lecture
Week 4
Concepts 1-4
Week 5
Concepts 5-9
Week 6
Concepts 10-14
Week 7
Concepts 15-19
Week 8
Concepts 20-24
Week 9
Whole wiki review, cross-linking
Week 10
Theoretical retrospective
New Learning and New Literacies
Cohort 1 Course Schedule – 2008-2010
Course
Original Dates
Revised Dates
Cohort term
(Revised)Semester equivalent
(Revised)EPS 431 – New Learning
EPS 500 – Capstone Projects (2 hours)
Jul 14 – Sep 21, 2008
Oct 6 – Dec 14, 2008
Term 4
Fall ‘08
EPS 405 – Historical and Social Barriers In Education
Jan 12 – Mar 22, 2009
Jan 12 – Mar 22, 2009
Term 1
Spring ‘09
EPS 532 – Knowledge, Learning and Pedagogy
Apr 13 – Jun 21, 2009
Term 2
Spring ‘09
EPSY 400 – Psychology of Learning in Education (Foundation course)
Apr 13 – Jun 21, 2009
Jul 13 – Sep 20, 2009
Term 3
Summer ‘09
CI 560 Trends and Issues in Elementary Language Arts
EPS 500 – Capstone Projects (2 hours)Jul 13 – Sep 20, 2009
Oct 5 – Dec 13, 2009
Term 4
Fall ‘09
SPED 413 – New Media and Learner Diferences
Jul 13 – Sep 20, 2009
Jan 11 – Mar 21, 2010
Term 1
Spring ‘10
HRE 572 – e-Learning Ecologies
Apr 12 – Jun 20, 2009
Term 2
Spring ‘10
EPS 535 – Assessment for Learning
Oct 5 – Dec 13, 2009
Jul 12 – Sep 19, 2010
Term 3
Summer ‘10
(All courses are 4 credit hour courses except where noted)
Download schedule (.doc)
AssessmentThe course will be assessed using qualitative commentary plus quantitative scoring, using a mix of:
- self-assessment
- peer review
- review-the-reviewer assessment
The Capstone Project SequenceEvery participant will join a two or three person group to write three Learning Elements over the two year program - a learning plan for a sequence of activities including objectives, tasks and learner evaluation.
A Learning Element is a teacher planning tool comprising:
1) a plan, drafted before you start to teach,
2) a resource for teachers and learners as they undertake the learning task, and then
3), when the teaching is over and the authors have had an opportunity to revise, the Learning Element becomes a retrospective record based on what actually happened in the teaching process, and a resource that can be made available to peers.
A Learning Element is typically 10 to 20 pages long. Learning Element writing groups may be formed according to principles of similarity (two or three teachers teaching the same material at the one school, or even team teaching the one group of learners) or principles of difference (two or three teachers in very different parts of the world with complementary knowledge or experiences, or when one of whom can teach, trial and provide feedback on the Learning Element, whilst the others put their time and effort into drafting and development or act as in-person or online participant observers - this may be the required strategy at times when the teaching weeks of this course fall outside the teaching weeks of some course participants).
The Learning Element should be about something (anything) that at least one member of the group is able to teach at some point during a six month period. Stages in the development of the Learning Element are as follows:
• ‘Placemat' Plan
• Draft 1, to peer review
• Draft 2, redrafted in the light of pre-trial peer review feedback
• Draft 3A, redrafted post teaching, with ‘Reflective Practitioner Commentary'
• Draft 3B, with links made to theory wiki in the ‘Knowledge Objectives' section, to peer review
• Showcase presentation to class conference, with support of short video of class activities or PowerPoint etc.
• Final Draft in the light of class conference feedback and Draft 3 peer review
New Media Clinic
In parallel with each Learning Element, program participants will join a new media clinic, using these new media skills as a component of the Learning Element. For instance:
• Digital video
• Comics, machinima, storyboard or Flash
• Virtual worlds
• Wikis
• Blogging
• Using MySpace, Facebook or other web profiling
The schedule for the Capstone Projects is as follows:
Semester 1
Analysis of course participants' current practices
Baseline data on learner responses
An introduction to the Learning Element
Semester 2-3
Create Learning Element #1
Reflective Practice Weblog
Semester 4-5
Create Learning Element #2
Reflective Practice Weblog
Semester 6-7
Create Learning Element #3
Reflective Practice Weblog
Semester 8
Revise and complete Learning Elements 1-3
Review data on learner responses
Reflection on changing professional practice
AssessmentAs the Learning Element will generally be collaboratively written, both/all authors of the same Learning Element will be given the same mark, moderated by each's assessment of the other's relative contribution. (Note - this leaves some latitude for extraordinary events such as illness during the course, when one author can cover for another. However, given the closely interlocked, reciprocal nature of the learning and evaluation process in this course, extended non-participation—beyond a week or two—is not possible.)
Courses(four terms per year, over two years)
Course 1: EPS 431: New Learning
An introduction to the changing social and cultural contexts of education. What changes are afoot today in workplaces, civic life and everyday community life? What are their implications for education? This course will examine the possible impacts of contemporary social transformations on teaching and learning - including in the areas of technology, media, globalization, diversity, changing forms of work in the ‘knowledge society', and, in these contexts, changing learner needs and sensibilities. The course will contrast canonical and classical theories and practices of education with new and emerging educational, policies, institutions and pedagogies.
Course 2: EPS 405: Historical and Social Barriers to Education
In this course we will examine the cultural and political relationship between ability, race, class, and gender and citizenship and schooling. Particular emphasis is placed on how the construction of the citizen has been used as a tool to further deny equal participation in the public sphere such as schools.
Course 3: EPSY 400: Psychology of Learning in Education|
Presented by the Department of Educational Psychology in the College of Education
Course 4: EPS 532: Knowledge, Learning and Pedagogy
This course investigates a number of policy and pedagogical paradigms, including the didactic, authentic and transformative. It develops the concept of a pedagogical repertoire, as a way of interpreting the ways in which learners engage in a variety of ‘knowledge processes' or task types. The course introduces major philosophies or theories of knowledge. As a counterpoint, it also reflects on the practicalities of learner knowledge-making in informal as well as consciously designed learning environments.
Course 5: SPED 413: Using New Media to Address Learner Differences
An investigation of the dimensions of learner diversity: material (class, locale), corporeal (age, race, sex and sexuality, and physical and mental characteristics) and symbolic (culture, language, gender, family, affinity and persona). This course examines socio-cultural theories of difference, and considers alternative responses to these differences in educational settings - ranging from broad social, policy and institutional responses to specific pedagogical responses within classes of students.
Course 6: CI560: Trends and Issues in Language ArtsThis course is designed to meet the needs of both masters and doctoral level students who are interested in understanding issues facing language arts teachers. It will introduce the ‘multiliteracies' theory of literacy learning which recognizes that the contemporary communications environment is increasingly multimodal. Written language today is more closely connected with oral, visual, gestural, tactile and spatial modes. To remain relevant, effective literacy pedagogy needs to connect with the new communications media, and to explore their underlying ‘grammars'. The most powerful and effective learning today involves learners switching modes, a process of ‘synaesthesia'. The course will focus on current trends in language arts instruction and explore current research and practice in reading, writing, listening and speaking through readings and assignments. Participants will examine teaching methods including reading, literature circles, process writing, and critical literacy while considering how to address the needs of students from diverse backgrounds within current social and political contexts. The course will also investigate the implications of new media of language and literacy and explore the implications of developments in the contemporary media, particularly the new, digital media, for literacy and learning, and writing in emerging formats such as wikis and blogs; and newly accessible modes of writing-like activities such as digital video.
Course 7: HRE 572: e-Learning Ecologies
An examination of emerging environments of e-learning, some of which set out to emulate the heritage social relationships and discourses of the classroom, others of which attempt to create new forms of learning. The course aims to push the imaginative boundaries of what might be possible in e-learning environments and educational policy.
Course 8: EPS 535: Assessment for LearningAn investigation of how we can we make assessment integral to the learning process, and the affordances in the new technologies which allow for the integration of formative and summative and assessment and evaluation.
PLUSCourses 9a and 9b: EPS 500 NL: Capstone Projects
See Capstone Projects page {link to that page} - projects run continuously over the two years.
Course Organization I Schedule I Courses I Capstone Project
