T-527 How to TeachFor Understanding

Perspectives onCurriculum and Pedagogy

Session 1

T-527 Fall 2009

Challenge = bridge knowledge-action gap

Connecting educational researchwith your experience and practice

T-527 Fall 2009

Using theory

To design and analyze practice

T-527 Fall 2009

T527 Focus and Process

EducationalPrinciples

EducationalTechnologies

How can we deepen learning?

ReflectiveCommunity

Designs for Learning

T-527 Fall 2009

Goals for today

• What are the big questions for T527?

• How can I connect my experience to this course?

• Who are my classmates in T527?

• Where do I stand in relation to varied perspectives

on curriculum and pedagogy?

• How will we investigate the big questions in T527?

• How can I plan a generative project?

T-527 Fall 2009

Big Questions

• How can we design curriculum that deepens meaningful learning?

• How can we infuse new technologies to enhance teaching and learning for understanding?

• How can we develop a collaborative,

reflective community of learners?

Learning Activities

• Overview: Curriculum, Pedagogy, Technology

• How to Teach and Foster Learning: Throughlines/Targets of Difficulty, Topics, Goals Performances, Assessment, Community

• Implementation Issues: Diverse Learners, Technology and Change, Alignment

• Explore topics, partners

• Develop/refine proposal

• Learn, draft plans, reflect, revise

• Collaborate on review and feedback

• Articulate the rationale for your design

• Present your project

Readings Project

Community• Share your expertise • Exchange ideas and feedback

Education is a continuing reconstruction of experience.John Dewey

T-527 Fall 2009

Reflecting on your experience of understanding:

Meeting your course mates

Think about something that you understand well….

Evidence: How can you tell that you understand it?

Process: How did you come to understand it?

Find one person in the class whom you don’t know …

Compare and contrast your answers to these questions

List some common themes

List some differences

What is understanding? How is it fostered?

T-527 Fall 2009

T527 Focus and Process

EducationalPrinciples

EducationalTechnologies

How can we deepen learning?

ReflectiveCommunity

Designs for Learning

T-527 Fall 2009

Perspectives onCurriculum and Pedagogy

History, philosophy, politics, models, technology

• Dewey: education as reconstruction of experience• Kinchloe: traditional vs. holistic models of

curriculum, the politics of curriculum (including hidden and null)

• Darling-Hammond: social perspective on planned, enacted, and hidden curriculum; professional responsibilities amidst constraints

• Joyce: models of teaching/concepts of learning• Partnership for 21st Century Skills: implications of

technology, globalization,

T-527 Fall 2009

Take a position:

Curriculum is a product that lays out the course students and teachers will follow through one or more subject matters

Curriculum is a process of understanding the self in relation to the world

Where do you stand on this continuum? Why?How did the readings influence your position?

T-527 Fall 2009

Discussion Questions

How did this week’s readings influence your thinking and your position on this continuum?

The readings focus on k-12 schools in the US…Are they relevant to other contexts for learning?Other countries?

Talk in small groupsShare themes with whole group

T-527 Fall 2009

How can I plan a generative project?

• Design your project so that it creates a

strong bridge between the course goals

and your interests

• Use the project to connect and critique

principles with practice

• Consider collaborating with a practicing

educator and one or more classmates

T-527 Fall 2009

T-527 Fall 2009

Project discussion groups (suggested)

High School 1 Joel, Benjamin, Alex, Christopher

High School 2 Courtney, Katharine, Scott, Carolyn

Adult Learning Laura, Sara, Leslie, Marcy

Middle School 1 Toyin, Joshua, Jodi, Kelly

Middle School 2 Shaheer, Rob, Winnie, Christine, Sam

Elementary Robyn, Lisa, Caroline, Lindsay, Dianne,

International Jenny, Janhvi, Pouney, Bau Jun

Preparing for class next week Readings: compare the authors’ perspectives on the roles of

educational technologies; consider them in relation to your own and your partner educator’s views. Think, take notes, collaborate.

Project: explore partnerships with teachers and classmates. Use the course website discussion area to exchange ideas and plans.

Website: check the announcement area of the website for updates about course activities.

Meet Stone during office hours, if you wish: Wednesday, Sept. 9, 10-noon at Longfellow 324