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Presentation Schedule

=EdFS 377 Seminar in Educational Psychology=

9:00am-Noon
=Course Description=

This is a seminar in the study of educational psychology. "Ed. Psych." is a vast and dynamic body of knowledge that has emerged from roughly a century and a quarter of disciplined study of what happens when people get together to teach and to learn in the organized settings called "school."

This course is a foundations course. Its location in the educational foundations area means the inquiry and learning that occurs within EdFS 377 should inform our decision making as we practice our particular craft. Decisions are based in kinds of reasoning: values held concerning the roles of teacher and student, dispositions practiced to approach particular pedagogical situations in certain kinds of ways, commitments made regarding our responsibility to the larger society in which we reside, and sometimes our gut reaction to what simply feels right. Bottom Line? The study and accommodation of selective areas of educational psychology should result in better teaching and learning. At the end of the course, I want you to feel we met this expectation without exception.

The course syllabus and expectations frame group study and individual project work. Though **we** will start with a syllabus that looks fairly structured, our approach to organizing ourselves "to do the work" will remain flexible until we comprehend who we are and what it is that needs to be done over our fifteen days together. We'll utilize different groupings of ourselves across the day, starting with reading response groups and content study groups aka "wikigroups".

Course Goals

 * 1) Know how to create an environment that means an identified group of children/youth will be better learners.
 * 2) Know more content because of our intentional engagement with each other and with selected portions of our ed psych content.
 * 3) Sharpen our teaching practice through our study of brain structure and function.
 * 4) Claim membership with the virtual family of educational psychologists.
 * 5) Experience our whole being greater than the sum of our parts because of our web2.0 collaboration.
 * 6) Increased specificity about 1-5 (details, details, details).

Expectations of Ourselves as Learners
A seminar should be a bounded, free flowing, ongoing, academic discussion among scholars. Thoughtful, risk-taking, productive, useful, and above all engaging and fun. I want you to think about your participation in this way. Listen to others, own your thoughts, challenge and let yourself be challenged. Let's try to keep it real! Don't hide. Be respectful. Listen. Offer your expertise to others. Share your sense of humor.

Course Expectations
The expectations for the course are designed to get the maximum amount out of us relative to participation and projects. I do expect you to commit to memory broad knowledge about the field of educational psychology. I do want you to know well an area that interests you. " A lot " translates into deeply structured knowledge about an area of interest including supportive and validating commentary by a respected educational psychologist. I've tried to build these general goals into the specific outcome expectations for the course. Follow the link.

Meanings of the Word "Seminar"
1. a meeting of university or college students for study or di scussion with an academic advisor and the group the participates in the meeting 2. a course of specialized graduate or undergraduate study under faculty supervision, in which ideas, approaches, and advances are regularly shared among participants

Texts
Required 1. Zull, James. (2002). The Art of Changing The Brain. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing, LLC. 2. Annual Editions 09/10: Educational Psychology. 24th Edition. Eds. Cauley, Kathleen. M. & Pannozzo, Gina M. Boston, MA: McGraw Hill. 3. June/July 2009 Edition of [|Edutopia Magazine]. Distributed by the instructor, complimentary copies courtesy of Jen Fujimoto and Elana Leoni, George Lucas Educational Foundation. 4. Recommended Books and Links