Course+Syllabus

**Department of Educational Policy Studies** **EPSF 8440** **Summer Semester, 2010**
 * Georgia State University**

Professor: Dr. Donna Breault
Office: COE 440 E-Mail dbreault@gsu.edu Office Hours: by appointment


 * Introduction**

Curriculum is the environment in the school and in the classroom. You have there in miniature what you have in life outside the classroom and the school. Curriculum is therefore life! That’s why it is so vital and exciting. That’s what makes it important. There’s nothing out there that doesn’t relate to curriculum. [1]

Curriculum breathes life into your work as a leader. All that you experience within your school and life surrounding school fall within the realm of curriculum. Therefore, your ability and willingness to explore the complexity of your collective lived experience as educators and as a school community becomes the fulcrum from which your curriculum becomes animated and significant. You will be challenged within this course to critically examine your context and experiences as a teacher and as a student. You will be asked to explore the assumptions supporting and/or contradicting current practices within your classroom, your school, and society in general.

Course Objectives

 * 1) Identify and apply basic principles of curriculum and instruction.
 * 2) Identify theoretical assumptions that support and/or contradict practices regarding teaching and learning.
 * 3) Recognize the relationship between curriculum and instruction.
 * 4) Define curriculum in a personally and collectively significant manner.
 * 5) Critique curriculum according to both personal beliefs and basic principles of curriculum development.
 * 6) Recognize the relationship complexity of the human spirit and curriculum.
 * 7) Recognize historical, philosophical, social, and cultural influences on curriculum theory, development, and implementation, and respond to those influences.
 * 8) Distinguish between official, operational, hidden, null, and extra-curricular.
 * 9) Invite and explore dis-equilibrium regarding the individual within the context of the curriculum.
 * 10) Generate a means of assessing experiences within the classroom and use this model to critique your own practices.
 * 11) Identify beliefs, assumptions, and possible contradictions within your own responses to curricular issues and synthesize those findings.
 * 12) Develop and/or refine your sense of efficacy and intentionality regarding your future work as an educator.

Required Texts:
Hlebowitsh, P. S. (2005//). Designing the School Curriculum//. Boston: Pearson.

Schultz, B. D. (2008). //Spectacular Things Happen Along the Way: Lessons from an Urban Classroom//. New York: Teachers College Press.

__ Quality of Work __
I expect your discussions to be thoughtful, engaging, and respectful. Whether we are meeting face-to-face or on-line, I need to see evidence that you have not only read the assignments, but that you have also thought deeply about them and that you prepared to enter the conversation in a way that enlarges everyone’s views of the issues.

I also expect written assignments to be thoughtful and well written. All assigned papers need to be typed with 12 point font and 1 inch margins. The type should be double-spaced. Proper organization of ideas as well as appropriate use of grammar and mechanics is essential for full credit on assignments. You may turn in a draft of each assignment for feedback on content and mechanics. [2]

Professional Reciprocity I truly believe that within this course, as in life, you will gain as much as you give. Thus, I believe in challenging individuals, for it is through challenge that we grow. Nevertheless, I will make a conscious effort to honor your lives and responsibilities outside of the realm of your work as a graduate student. Therefore, I will try to balance expectations in reading and writing with what I feel is appropriate within this context. If at any time you wish to be challenged beyond what you are experiencing in class, or if you feel that you are overwhelmed by the expectations, please make an appointment to see me. I will be happy to discuss the issues with you and determine the degree to which your concerns can be met while sustaining the integrity of this program. **Grading** Letter and number grades will not be assigned during the course of this semester. Instead, the following feedback will be provided for whole and partial assignments reviewed throughout the term:


 * Check plus** – This means the work goes above and beyond what would be expected of a graduate student. Feedback regarding the characteristics that warrant a check plus will be provided with assignments.


 * Check** – This means the work falls in line with what would be expected of a graduate student. Feedback regarding the characteristics that warrant a check will be provided within the assignment.


 * Check minus** – This means the work falls short of what would be expected of a graduate student. Feedback regarding the characteristics that warrant a check minus will be provided within the assignment. Students receiving a check minus may revise their work once prior to the due date in order to achieve a rating of check or check plus.


 * X** – This means the work is unacceptable at any level. Feedback regarding the characteristics that warrant an X will be provided within the assignment. Students receiving an X may revise their work once prior to its due date in order to achieve a rating of a check or a check plus.


 * Interpretation of ratings to end-of-term grades:**
 * Anyone who has received all check pluses and checks on all overall assignments will receive an **A**.
 * Students who receive any check minuses on overall assignments will get either a **B** or a **C** depending upon the quality of work.
 * Students receiving an X on an overall assignment cannot make a grade higher than a **C**. The final grade interpretation will depend on the preponderance of rankings from the varied assignments.

**Assignments** = I have tried to design the assignments within the reality of summer. This is a compressed schedule. Nevertheless, you are expected to learn and achieve as much as you would if you’d taken the course in a 16-week period. To that end, I’ve tried to limit the “tasks” or assignments to ensure that you are reading, thinking, and “performing” in meaningful ways. Three things make up your grade: participation, a project, and a final. You will determine an appropriate project for analyzing or critiquing curriculum. This will allow you to focus much of your attention on reading, thinking, and making connections between the history, theory, and work of curriculum. If you read, think about the readings, and prepare for the on-line discussions, then you will be prepared for the final exam. It should not take any extra time to prepare if you have engaged in the class appropriately throughout. =

=Participation= Participation is an essential component of any graduate class. The following qualities are considered within the participation grade for this course:

Because this class is 100% on-line, your participation will be relegated to active and thoughtful engagement on the Wiki. Nevertheless, key characteristics found within traditional classrooms apply in this course as well:

__Collaboration:__ Much of this course will focus on collective endeavors. Therefore, you need to cooperate respectfully with others in the course. It is essential that you are able to negotiate critique and challenge ideas without attacking individuals. Contributions to class should be generative (supporting others in the class and contributing to the collective conversation) rather than distracting or degenerative (causing others to feel silenced).

__Active learning__ Participation includes attendance and collaboration, but it also includes active and appropriate involvement in the group as a whole. You need to be prepared to ask thoughtful questions and make thoughtful comments about the readings during each discussion. Likewise, you need to actively listen to others so your comments and contributions can support the coherence and collegiality within the class.

__Quality vs. Quantity__ Not everyone discusses every night of a class – particularly when it is a large class. Similarly, I will not require daily participation on Wiki discussion. In the past when I’ve required participation in every discussion, I’ve had a wide range of quality of participation from thoughtful entries to some students copying “stuff” from the web and just pasting it in or just rephrasing what others have said without reading the materials. To avoid disingenuous contributions, I want you to focus on quality instead of quantity of responses. Nevertheless, you need to recognize that the degree to which you engage will reinforce what you know and give you opportunities to enlarge your understanding. I just want that engagement to be intrinsically motivated. If you are committed to being highly engaged but are worried that others may take advantage of your work, then you are welcomed to identify interested others and continue your conversations via email or some other more private environment. If you choose to do this, you can c.c. me on those conversations if you choose to. That said, you will ultimately be judged according to the following rubric and based upon reasonable evidence of participation over the six weeks (in other words, you have to participate sufficiently for me to see the following):

Because your class is on-line, you will be assessed according to how well you engage in the discussion on line. I will use the following rubric to assess your on-line participation:
 * __On-Line Participation__**

Check plus || You make thoughtful contributions directly related to assignments. Your contributions are provided at the appropriate time. You show evidence that you have “listened” to your fellow classmates and make connections with their ideas, questions, etc. Your contributions show evidence of critical thinking, careful analysis, and thoughtful critique. You make meaningful connections between the readings, your experiences with your project, and previous discussions in your contributions || Check || Your contributions are related to assignments. Most of your contributions are offered on time. You show some evidence that you have “listened” to your fellow classmates and made connections with their ideas, questions, etc. Your contributions show some evidence of critical thinking, careful analysis, and thoughtful critique. There is moderate evidence that you have made meaningful connections between the readings, your project work, and previous discussions. || Check minus || Your contributions are not related to the assignments and/or some of them are incorrect. Several of your contributions are not on time. You make minimal or no connections between your fellow classmates comments and your own. Your contributions lack evidence of critical thinking, careful analysis, and/or thoughtful critique. There are few or no connections between your contributions and the readings, your project work, and previous discussions. || X || Your contributions are unrelated to the topics or they are incorrect. Most of your contributions are late or you do not contribute. You do not acknowledge your classmates and their ideas in your responses. You do not show evidence of critical thinking, careful analysis, or thoughtful critique. You do not reference the readings, project work, or previous discussions in your responses. ||

You will analyze and critique some form of curriculum. It may be school reform model or some other curriculum package used within your district. It may also be a higher ed. syllabus in relation to other similar syllabi or a grade-level curriculum for a specific subject area. Please review the questions for the analysis in this syllabus to ensure that the materials you select are rich enough and provide sufficient detail in order to engage in the analysis. Much of the discussion from the Hlebowitsh book will focus on this analysis process. The final project is due **July 22nd**. You will receive an electronic copy of a final exam by 8:00 am on **July 22nd**. The exam is designed to help you make connections between the readings, the discussions, and your analysis project. The exam must be returned by 8:00 am **July 23rd**. Class Schedule
 * Curriculum Analysis/Critique**
 * Final Exam**

Date || Reading || June 14 || Hlebowitsh ch. 1 ||  June 16  || Hlebowitsh, ch. 2 ||  June 21  || Hlebowitsh, ch. 3 ||  June 23  || Hlebowitsh, ch. 4 ||  June 28  || Hlebowitsh, ch. 5 ||  June 30  || Hlebowitsh, ch. 6 ||  July 5  || Hlebowitsh, ch. 7 ||  July 7  || Hlebowitsh, ch. 8 ||  July 12  || Schultz, ch. 1-4 ||  July 14  || Schultz, ch. 5-7 ||  July 22  || Submit Project and begin final exam || July 23 || Final Exam (complete and submit electronically by 8:00 am ) ||

Curriculum Analysis Project: The following fifteen questions follow the organization of Hlebowitsh’s book, and they will be the focus of the class discussions as well as the basis of your curriculum analysis. In addition to answering these fifteen questions about your curriculum materials, you will need to address the significance of the assessment; themes, trends, patterns in your analysis; and overall conclusions and recommendations for your curriculum within a specific school context (what is needed to ensure its successful implementation, etc.). 1. Identify your curriculum materials (model, unit, etc.). Describe the materials and identify the boundaries of those materials. What is/is not included? What are the implications of these inclusions/exclusions? 2. What is the nature of the educative experience based upon these materials? Is it discernable? Are multiple kinds of experiences possible? What is the relationship of the curriculum to the life of the school? 3. At what level are the curriculum materials designed (micro vs. macro)? Based upon this scope (level of organization) what is an effective perspective for critique (How specific will your analysis be?)? 4. To what degree does the curriculum support discretionary space for teachers? 5. What is the relationship between the curriculum materials and standards and testing? 6. What philosophical orientation – if any – is evident within the curriculum materials? What philosophical orientation – if any – is evident within your school? 7. Consider your school’s mission statement. Is it mere platitudes or does it have explicitly enacted significance within the life of the school? What, if anything, does it leave out? To what degree, if any does it unify experiences within the school? 8. What pervasive behaviors, skills, and values does the curriculum emphasize? 9. What kind of thinking is valued/promoted within your curriculum? 10. To what degree does capacity and/or content influence the nature of objectives articulated within your curriculum? 11. Describe the macro-curricular structure of your curriculum or how it fits within the larger macro-curricular structure of your grade-level/discipline/school. 12. Describe the horizontal and vertical articulation of the macro-curricular structure of your curriculum or the larger curricular structure within which your curriculum fits. 13. What principles organize the macro-curricular structure? 14. What, if any, instructional support (professional development, additional personnel, etc.) would teachers need to successfully implement this curriculum? 15. How is the curriculum evaluated? What additional measure are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of the curriculum in relation to the needs of the educative process (nature of the learner, values and aims of society, and the world of knowledge and subject matter)?  16. List of Picky and Pedantic Points for your Writing

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Inc. Bobbitt, F. 1918. //The Curriculum//. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Bowles, S. & H. Gintis. 1976. //Schooling in Capitalist America: Educational Reform and the// //Contradictions of Economic Life//. New York: Basic Books. Boyer, E. L. 1983. //High School: A Report on Secondary Education in America//. New York: Harper & Row. Bruner, J. 1996. //The Culture of Education//. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Caswell, H. L. and D. S. Campbell. 1935. //Curriculum Development//. New York: American Book Company. Clandinin, J. and M. Connelly. 1992. //Teacher as Curriculum Maker//. In P. Jackson (Ed.) Handbook of Research on Curriculum (363-401). New York: Macmillan. Counts, G. S. 1932. //Dare the School Build a New Social Order//? New York: John Day. Cuban. L. (1984/1993). //How Teachers Taught: Constancy and Change in American Classrooms// //1890-1980//. New York: Longman. Cubberly, E. P. 1920. //The History of Education//. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Dewey, J. 1897. My Pedagogic Creed. //The School Journal//, 54(3), 77-80. __________. 1910. //How We Think//. New York: D.C. Heath. __________. 1916. //Democracy and Education//. New York: Macmillan. __________. 1929. //The Sources of a Science of Education//. New York: H. Liveright. __________. 1938. //Experience and Education//. New York: Macmillan. Doll, Jr., W. 1993. //A Post-Modern Perspective on Curriculum//. New York: Teachers College Press. Egan, K. 1992. Imagination in Teaching and Learning. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Eisner, E. 1991. //The Enlightened Eye: Qualitative Inquiry and the Enhancement of Educational// //Practice//. New York: Macmillan. Flinders, Ds, N. Noddings, & S. Thornton. 1986. The Null Curriculum: Its Theoretical Basis and Practical Implications. //Curriculum Inquiry//, 16 (1), 33-42. Freire, P. 1968. //Pedagogy of the Oppressed//. New York: Seabury. Freire, P. & I. Shor. 1987. //A Pedagogy for Liberation: Dialogues for Transforming Education//. South Hadley, MA: Bergin and Garvey. Fullan, M. 1982. //The Meaning of Educational Change//. New York: Teachers College Press. Giroux, H. A. 1988. //Teachers as Intellectuals: Toward a Critical Pedagogy of Learning//. South Hadley, MA: Bergin & Garvey. __________. 1993. //Living Dangerously: Multiculturalism and the Politics of Difference//. New York: Peter Lang. Goodman, J. 1988. The Disenfranchisement of Elementary Teachers and Strategies for Resistance. //Journal of Curriculum and Supervision//, 3(3), 201-220. Greene, M. 1988. //The Dialectic of Freedom//. New York: Teachers College Press. __________. 1995. //Releasing the Imagination: Essays on Education, the Arts, and Social Change//. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Harris, W. T. 1898. //Psychological Foundations of Education: An Attempt to Show the Genesis of the// //Higher Faculties of the Mind//. New York: Appleton. Henderson, J. 2001. //Reflective Teaching: Professional Artistry through Inquiry//. 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(Ed.). 1995. //Theory as a Prayerful Act: The Collected Essays of James B.// //Macdonald//. New York: Peter Lang. McLaren, P. 1994. //Life in Schools: An Introduction to Critical Pedagogy in the Foundations of// //Education//. (2nd edition) New York: Longman. Miller, J. L. 1992. Shifting the Boundaries: Teachers Challenge Contemporary Thought. //Theory into Practice//, 31(3), 245-251. Molnar, A. (Ed.). 1987. //Social Issues and Education: Challenge and Responsibility//. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. National Society for the Study of Education (NSSE). 1927a. //Curriculum Making Past and// //Present. Twenty-sixth Yearbook, Part I//. (Whipple Editor) Bloomington, IL: Public School Publishing Co. __________. 1927b. //The Foundation of Curriculum Making. Twenty-sixth Yearbook, Part II//. Bloomington, IL: Public School Publishing Co. Noddings, N. 1984. //Caring//. Berkeley, Ca: University of CA Press. Pinar, W. (1975). //Curriculum Theorizing: The Reconceptualists//. Berkeley, CA:Mccutchan. 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(Eds.). 1990. //Teaching and Thinking about Curriculum: Critical// //Inquiries//. New York: Teachers College Press. Shapiro, H. 1988. Education and Democracy: Constituting a Counter-hegemonic Discourse of Educational Change. //JCT//, 8(3), 89-122. Shor, I. 1987. //Critical Teaching for Everyday Life//. (Third Printing). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Shulman, L. 1987. Knowledge and Teaching: Foundations of the New Reform. //Harvard// //Educational Review//, 57(1). 1-22. Slattery, P. 1992. Toward an Eschatological Curriculum Theory. //JCT//, 9(3), 7:22. Spring, J. 1986. //The American High School 1642-1985: Varieties of Historical Interpretation and// //Development of American Education//. New York: Longman. Taba, H. 1962. //Curriculum Development: Theory and Practice//. New York: Harcourt, Brace, & World, Inc. Tanner, D. & L. Tanner. 1995. //Curriculum Development: Theory into Practice//. (Third Ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Merrill. Tyack, D. and E. Hansot. 1990. //Learning Together: A History of Cc-Education in American// Schools. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Van Til. W. (Ed.). 1971. //Curriculum: A Quest for Relevance//. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co.
 * 1) Please do not begin your paper with a definition, particularly if that definition comes from //Webster’s Dictionary//. To do so sends a loud message that you need a crutch to begin your paper.
 * 2) Do not write bold or strong statements without equally strong support.
 * 3) Do not rely too heavily on the words or ideas of others. If you cannot integrate the ideas of others into your own, you do not understand them sufficiently or the idea is too big of a stretch. The work of others should be secondary and supportive of your own. Similarly, do not excessively quote someone or use quotes that are too long.
 * 4) Vary the pattern of sentence structure in your writing. Reread your work for the sake of hearing patterns of the words and phrases. If it drones, change the structure to flow more effectively.
 * 5) Avoid redundancy. Reread your work and check for overuse of words or phrases. If you notice redundancy, replace the overused words with synonyms or change the structure of the sentences to avoid overuse of the redundant words.
 * 6) Watch your verb tense. Make sure the verb tense you use when referencing quotes, data, etc. is appropriate and consistent.
 * 7) Be mindful of noun-pronoun agreement. Be particularly mindful of the use of plural pronouns such as “they” and “their.” Often they are used erroneously when referring to a single subject. For example, I often see sentences like the following: “The child took the form home to their parent.”
 * 8) Avoid excessively long or short paragraphs. Paragraphs should be more than a sentence, but they should not be so long that the reader finds himself/herself losing the point.
 * 9) Use transition words and phrases to help your reader follow your points more easily. Remember that many people skim papers and articles to see if they are appropriate. Using transition words will help the reader skim your paper more easily.
 * 10) Include an introduction and a conclusion in your work, but vary the wording/nature of each.
 * 11) Avoid passive voice in your writing. When verbs are passive, they just sit there and the subject of the sentence does not directly act upon them. Whenever possible, use verbs in an active sense. For example, “The teacher’s work had to be completed by the end of the day.” connects the verb to the word “work” which really can’t do anything. Instead, the writer should state the sentence differently: “The teacher must complete her work by the end of the day.”
 * 12) Avoid clichés, colloquial expressions, and jargon in your writing.
 * 13) Keep prepositional phrases brief, and don’t string too many together in one sentence.
 * 14) Use tables, graphs, and diagrams when necessary. When dealing with data, visual representations often offer more information than narrative alone. In addition, use of visual representations allows the reader to skim the work more easily.
 * 15) Avoid using “amongst.”
 * 16) When using colons to indicate a series of points or details, make sure the words preceding the colon constitute an independent clause. For example, “I went to: the store, the theater, the mall, and the garage.” is incorrect. “I went to the following places: the store, the theater, the mall, and the garage.” is correct.
 * 17) Use commas generously. You should usually separate an introductory phrase with commas. In addition, a comma and a conjunction should separate clauses in a compound sentence unless you separate the clauses with a semicolon.
 * 18) Above all, check your work to make sure it is clear. Have others read your work to see if they have questions regarding any details or ideas. Don’t assume others will understand something you “know” but do not state.
 * 19) Don’t use contractions in your papers.
 * 20) Always try to make your work beautiful and interesting.

[1] James B. Macdonald. Interview conducted by Ruth Fairfield at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, December, 1977. Quote taken from Dale L. Brubaker’s book, //Creative Curriculum Leadership//, (Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, 1994), p. 12. [2] For specific expectations regarding mechanics and style of writing, please refer to my “Petty and Pedantic Points about Writing” included within your syllabus.