This
course is
the second in a three-course sequence in a graduate program for
prospective teachers.
Course meetings: Mondays,
6:00-9:00, at the Shady Grove Campus, Building II, Room 1022.
Click for directions, if you need them.
Offices: 1310 Physics
and 2226
Benjamin
301 405-8188; davidham@umd.edu
Office Hours: By appointment --
please don't hesitate!
Description
The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday
thinking. (Albert Einstein) Feel the dignity of the
students. Do not feel superior to them, for you are not.
(Adapted from Robert Henri)
Our purpose in
this course is to begin to develop
practices of instruction —facilitating discussions, making
presentations, providing explanations, assessing students’ learning and
progress, preparing lessons — based on what we understand about
student knowledge, reasoning, and learning. At the beginning of
the course we will review the ideas from EDCI 370, and then continue
from there to focus on the craft of teaching: How do teachers
understand and address what students need to learn? How do
teachers assess and respond to student thinking?
We’ll spend our time over the semester in various activites:
•Reading and
discussing research on learning and teaching in science;
•Analyzing student thinking in ways you began
last summer, as it is evident in observations and video of science
classes, interviews of students, and/or samples of students’ written
work;
•Observing experienced teachers’ practices and
analyzing how they address (or may not) aspects of student knowledge
and reasoning;
•Reviewing and analyzing a range of assessment
strategies and practices, from everyday classroom awareness to rubrics
and exams;
•Planning, implementing, and reflecting on the
results of classroom instruction.
In all, everyone
should expect to
•read 30-50
pages
per week;
•prepare a total of five writing assignments,
each maybe 4-6 pages, on some combination of:
interviews
of students about their thinking (as from last summer);
observations of
students' thinking and learning in class; and/or
planning lessons using materials from your site to use in your
teaching.
•read, observe, and comment on other students’
work.
There is no textbook or reader to purchase, but I will ask that you
bring a check for $15 to cover photocopying for the course, payable to
the University of Maryland Science Teaching Center.
This semester, we've got an interesting
combination: Most of you will be observing in schools, as student
teachers, but a few of you will be teaching,
as interns fully responsible for three classes. And one of you is
a full-time teacher in a private school. So the idea is to have a
variety of kinds of assignments, and we'll figure out along the way
which ones make the most sense -- you won't all make the same
choices.
If at any
time you feel that it would be
more beneficial to your
education to do something differently in the course, please do speak to
the instructor. This, of course, includes appropriate
accommodations for disabilities as well as religious
holidays.
Grades will be based on written work and participation in seminar
discussions.
