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EDUC6671-81-2003fall
Teacher as Researcher
& Educational Leader
Catalog Description:
This course supports the concept of the teacher's role extending beyond the
classroom as a professional member of the school community and a primary force
in attaining school and educational effectiveness and high standards for
student achievement.
Seminar Notes
9/16 School Portrait Notes
9/23 ClassFolioWebRing & 2003 School Portrait update
11/4 Personal Philosophies: Comprehensive Version
Final Digital
Portfolio Components:
Personal Philosophy of
Education
- (10%) 500 word summary
philosophy as an EdFolio 'story' with 2 links to brief and full versions, and a
third link to audio version.
- (10%) 1500 word brief
philosophy as a separate EdFolio 'story'.
- (10%) 3000 word full
philosophy as a separate EdFolio 'story'.
- (10%) 5 minute audio
recording in conversational style presenting an informal version of summary
philosophy spoken without reading notes (recorded live in class) featuring 2
challenging Q/A responses (uploaded to 'gems' section of EdFolio).
- (10%) Self-reflective EdFolio 'story' in rubric format reflecting on professional growth and final state of
personal philosophy (linked to from the main 'story' titled "Professional
Standards").
Hypothetical School Evolution Plan
-
(10%)
Quantitative/Qualitative summary portrait of existing hypothetical school
authored collaboratively as an EdFolio 'story'.
- (10%)
Quantitative/Qualitative summary portrait of the hypothetical school five years
in the future authored collaboratively as an EdFolio 'story'.
- (10%) Five year hypothetical
school change plan outline authored collaboratively with links to individually
authored section and sections authored by colleagues as two EdFolio 'stories'.
- (10%) Explanation by
candidate of how her/his personal philosophy supports and is aligned to the
hypothetical school change plan as an EdFolio 'story'.
- (10%) Self-reflective EdFolio 'story' in rubric format reflecting on professional growth and final state of
Hypothetical School Portraits and Change Plan (linked to from the main 'story' titled "Professional Standards").
Required Texts:
- Peter Senge, Nelda Cambron-McCabe,
Timothy Lucas, Bryan Smith, Janis Dutton, Art Kleiner. (2000). Schools That Learn: A Fifth Discipline Fieldbook for Educators, Parents and Everyone Who
Cares About Education. NY: Doubleday. Paperback ISBN: 0-385-49323-1, List
price $35.
- Laurel Tanner. (1997). Dewey's Laboratory School: Lessons for
Today. NY: Teachers College Press. Paperback ISBN: 0-807-73618-X, List
price: $21.95.
- Steven
Zemelman, Harvey Daniels, Arthur Hyde. (1998). Best Practice: New Standards for Teaching and Learning in American
Schools. Second Edition. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Paperback ISBN: 0-325-00091-3, List price: $27.
- Edie
Holcomb. (1998). Getting Excited About
Data: How to Combine People, Passion, and Proof. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Paperback ISBN: 0-803-96739-X, List price:
$29.95.
Role of the Texts:
- Schools That Learn: This classic handbook (designed as an inspirational reference)
provides a leadership context for teachers and offers a variety of scenarios
and ideas.
- Dewey's LaboratorySchool: This historical text provides a foundational view of
change in schools based on the famous school which launched the 'progressive'
movement in American education.
- Best Practice:
This curriculum text examines changes in classroom pedagogy across the
different subject areas brought about by the standards movement of the last
decade.
- Getting Excited About Data: This text provides a research context for teachers
and a school community who work together using 'data' to guide school growth
and improvement.
Conceptual Framework:
"Teacher as Researcher" and "Teacher as Leader" are
two buzzword phrases which have generated a great deal of discussion over the
past two decades concerning the nature of the education profession. In this
seminar, each candidate will be challenged to explore and develop a personal,
professional identity which embodies the integration of both notions.
On the leadership front, each candidate will be
challenged with numerous roadblocks to achieving her/his goals as a teacher. As
the history of American education shows, change is never easy. Classic
leadership training uses tough situations presented as scenarios/simulations to
put concepts and approaches to the test. This course will do the same. Along
with the professor's contributions, each candidate's colleagues in the course
will be asked to improvise real world impediments to her/his ideas based upon
their experiences and the candidate will be asked to overcome these impediments
in her/his personal philosophy.
On the research front, each candidate will be challenged
to incorporate everyday research as a teacher into her/his philosophy, as well
as draw on the large body of existing educational research to ground and
communicate her/his ideas and plans. Thinking as a researcher, while at the
same time being a teacher, is a powerful conceptual tool for change. Working
together as the school faculty of a hypothetical school, candidates in the
course will develop a hypothetical 'portfolio' of the school as it exists now
and one for five years in the future which reconceptualizes the mission and
data used to gauge progress. Development of a collaborative, school-wide
research process will become part of the plan to achieve change over a five
year period. Each candidate will need to align the research process of her/his
personal philosophy with that agreed upon for the overall mission of the hypothetical
school. 'Research' in this course is defined as an everyday cultural process
incorporated into the overall mission of the school. Such a process leads to
ways of viewing progress at both the classroom and school level towards the
school's mission.
Communication skills are critical for a teacher who
embodies the fiber of both a leader and researcher. Anticipating and having
thought through questions from colleagues, administrators, and the school
community which span the spectrum of curious, confused, and antagonistic is
part of the essential ‘tool set' for a teacher who has both a leader and
researcher orientation. The course requires that each candidate develop the
core notions of her/his philosophy at three levels of communication: 1) for quick
extemporaneous conversations, 2) for short conversations during meetings, and
3) for full, detailed presentation. An emphasis is placed on having candidates
anticipate both unresponsiveness (lack of interest in new ideas) and criticism
(reactions adverse to ideas expressed). The candidate's final philosophy (both
theory and praxis) must be able to function within the 'real-world' environment
of current school culture.
FAQ:
- The syllabus
mentions "quantitative analysis"; does that mean I need to know statistics? No, we
will only be using basic elementary/middle school math related to proportions
such as averages and percentages of a total (the same type of math used by
teachers when calculating grades). Your prof will also review how to create
basic bar and pie graphs from a set of numbers using a spreadsheet program. The
emphasis is on conceptualizing how to use basic proportions over time to track
change and progress in a school's objectives.
- The syllabus
mentions "qualitative analysis"; should I be worried if I've never studied this
before? Actually, all teachers do qualitative analysis every day. There is no
need to be intimidated by the term! When a teacher gives feedback to a student
about her/his writing in language arts, this is qualitative analysis. Rubric
sheets used by teachers in the classroom and by standardized assessments to
evaluate open-ended questions are formal types of qualitative analysis. When a
teacher develops a lesson plan to accomplish certain objectives and support
certain subject standards, the cognitive process used by the teacher can be
called qualitative analysis. We will be looking at ways to formalize the
qualitative process over time to track change and progress in meeting a school's
objectives.
- I never really
studied "philosophy"; am I going to have trouble figuring out theories, etc? Our
emphasis is on developing 'pragmatic' philosophies which are easy to clearly
and powerfully communicate to a general audience. For instance, when school
communities talk about "goals" and "objectives" these are the pragmatic form of
underlying philsophical beliefs. Phrases that you are all familiar with
("cooperative learning", "authentic assessment", etc.) are pragmatic labels for
different educational philosophies.
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