The Annotated Transcript of My Coursework at MSU
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Fall 2013
ED 800 Concepts of Educational Inquiry
Dr. Steven Weiland
Conceptions of Educational Inquiry was an introductory-level course focusing on effective ways to study teaching and learning. Six fundamental methods of educational inquiry were looked into: philosophical foundations of education, practitioner inquiry, ethnographic participant observation, biographical and historical accounts of informal and lifelong learning, curriculum organization, the effects of new information technology in learning and education. The course assignments required reading, synthesizing reflection, and writing work about essential questions of education.
TE 855 Teaching School Mathematics
Dr. Michael K. Weiss
Teaching School Mathematics was a course that directly linked to my teaching practice. The course’s primary objective was to explore approaches to effective teaching of mathematical reasoning. Within this course agenda I learned to plan and assess practice tasks that promote students’ mathematical reasoning, and deepened my understanding the broader pedagogical approaches that promote the same end. As the main product of my learning in this course, I conducted an action research aimed at improving my own methods of algebra instruction as measured by my students’ improved reasoning and problem solving models.
ED 800 Concepts of Educational Inquiry
Dr. Steven Weiland
Conceptions of Educational Inquiry was an introductory-level course focusing on effective ways to study teaching and learning. Six fundamental methods of educational inquiry were looked into: philosophical foundations of education, practitioner inquiry, ethnographic participant observation, biographical and historical accounts of informal and lifelong learning, curriculum organization, the effects of new information technology in learning and education. The course assignments required reading, synthesizing reflection, and writing work about essential questions of education.
TE 855 Teaching School Mathematics
Dr. Michael K. Weiss
Teaching School Mathematics was a course that directly linked to my teaching practice. The course’s primary objective was to explore approaches to effective teaching of mathematical reasoning. Within this course agenda I learned to plan and assess practice tasks that promote students’ mathematical reasoning, and deepened my understanding the broader pedagogical approaches that promote the same end. As the main product of my learning in this course, I conducted an action research aimed at improving my own methods of algebra instruction as measured by my students’ improved reasoning and problem solving models.
Spring 2014
EAD 860 Concepts of a Learning Society
Dr. Steven Weiland
In this sociologically-oriented course we examined the several parallel meanings of the term “the learning society”. We analyzed the historical, cultural social, and economic contexts in which learning societies evolve and function. We also examined what it means for individuals to live and partake in the learning society, and how the emerging communications technologies interact with the learning society to engender social transformation. The course work involved six units of extensive reading and viewing of online information resources, followed by reflective writing focused on six different aspects of the learning society. EAD 860 was essential in shaping my conceptions about how the many forms of learning affect larger societal systems.
EAD 877 Program Planning and Evaluation in Postsecondary Education
Dr. William Arnold
EAD 877 allowed me to develop an understanding of educational program planning in adult education contexts. In this in-depth exploration of program planning I learned to assess wide and immediate educational contexts, stakeholders’ interests, and learners’ needs, along with methods of instruction, program assessment - including but not limited to the assessment of learning progress - , as well as logistical issues taken into consideration in program planning. As the semester’s main project, I developed a comprehensive theoretical model for the preparations and subsequent processes involved in an educational institution's adaptation of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program.
EAD 860 Concepts of a Learning Society
Dr. Steven Weiland
In this sociologically-oriented course we examined the several parallel meanings of the term “the learning society”. We analyzed the historical, cultural social, and economic contexts in which learning societies evolve and function. We also examined what it means for individuals to live and partake in the learning society, and how the emerging communications technologies interact with the learning society to engender social transformation. The course work involved six units of extensive reading and viewing of online information resources, followed by reflective writing focused on six different aspects of the learning society. EAD 860 was essential in shaping my conceptions about how the many forms of learning affect larger societal systems.
EAD 877 Program Planning and Evaluation in Postsecondary Education
Dr. William Arnold
EAD 877 allowed me to develop an understanding of educational program planning in adult education contexts. In this in-depth exploration of program planning I learned to assess wide and immediate educational contexts, stakeholders’ interests, and learners’ needs, along with methods of instruction, program assessment - including but not limited to the assessment of learning progress - , as well as logistical issues taken into consideration in program planning. As the semester’s main project, I developed a comprehensive theoretical model for the preparations and subsequent processes involved in an educational institution's adaptation of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program.
Fall 2014
CEP 818 Creativity in Teaching and Learning
Dr. Punya Mishra, Rohit Mehta
CEP 818 was the course I most enjoyed during my three years in graduate school. As its name suggests, the course explored the role of creativity in education. In the definition used in the course creativity is a process whose components can be understood, and that can be methodically practiced and improved. Combined with the use of digital technology, systematically applied creativity can be a powerful tool in teaching and learning as well. CEP 818 was the course that introduced me to website development; under the "A Creative Take on Primes" section of this portfolio you can explore my ideas on creativity-infused teaching of some mathematical topics.
TE 861B Inquiry, Nature of Science and Technology
Sarah Riggs Stapleton
In TE 861B we looked at the process of knowledge construction through the real life practice of science and contrasting it to the textbook version of the scientific method. As part of this inquiry I reviewed the process of laboratory scientists’ discovery of scientific facts as described by Latour and Woolgar (click here to see this work). The course’s primary focus was to improve our practices of science instruction by focusing on teaching scientific processes rather than scientific facts. The course introduced me to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), which I found very useful in effective instruction planning and course delivery. As part of the course’s semester-long project I used the NGSS as my framework to planned and deliver a high school level life science lesson sequence about natural selection leading to six different grass populations’ adaptation to a man-made environment.
CEP 818 Creativity in Teaching and Learning
Dr. Punya Mishra, Rohit Mehta
CEP 818 was the course I most enjoyed during my three years in graduate school. As its name suggests, the course explored the role of creativity in education. In the definition used in the course creativity is a process whose components can be understood, and that can be methodically practiced and improved. Combined with the use of digital technology, systematically applied creativity can be a powerful tool in teaching and learning as well. CEP 818 was the course that introduced me to website development; under the "A Creative Take on Primes" section of this portfolio you can explore my ideas on creativity-infused teaching of some mathematical topics.
TE 861B Inquiry, Nature of Science and Technology
Sarah Riggs Stapleton
In TE 861B we looked at the process of knowledge construction through the real life practice of science and contrasting it to the textbook version of the scientific method. As part of this inquiry I reviewed the process of laboratory scientists’ discovery of scientific facts as described by Latour and Woolgar (click here to see this work). The course’s primary focus was to improve our practices of science instruction by focusing on teaching scientific processes rather than scientific facts. The course introduced me to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), which I found very useful in effective instruction planning and course delivery. As part of the course’s semester-long project I used the NGSS as my framework to planned and deliver a high school level life science lesson sequence about natural selection leading to six different grass populations’ adaptation to a man-made environment.
Fall 2015
TE 822 Issues of Culture in Classroom and Curriculum
Dr. Dorina Carter Andrews
In Issues of Culture in Classroom and Curriculum was a theories-based course in which we explored various issues of multicultural education, each very relevant to my current and future practice in the setting of international education. In this course I learned to better reflect on the preconceptions and biases I inevitably bring into my teaching practice, as well as to better understand the various minority perspectives, and consequent struggles, students bring into their learning communities. The course also gave me valuable insight into the role Critical Pedagogy plays in empowering disenfranchised learning communities and individual learners. I believe that human populations' increasing international mobility driven by globalization will make issues of multicultural education more and more significant in the near future. My projects for the course included short essays about proposed educational practices that promote learning by building on the differences each student brings into the classroom or learning community.
TE 831 Teaching School Subject Matter with Technology
Mark McCharty
I took this course to challenge my own tendency to not use technology in my practice. As a result of the course I have a more balanced view of the use of web-based digital technology in education, I am also a more efficient user of many digital technologies than I was before taking TE 831. Contrary to the many theories-based courses I took during my graduate studies, this was largely a hands-on experience that required me to produce educationally oriented media and other digital products. As the semester's main project, I conducted a case study examining some potentials a web-based digital tool has in re-mediating and re-teaching an algebra lesson that I used to teach without technology in the past.
TE 822 Issues of Culture in Classroom and Curriculum
Dr. Dorina Carter Andrews
In Issues of Culture in Classroom and Curriculum was a theories-based course in which we explored various issues of multicultural education, each very relevant to my current and future practice in the setting of international education. In this course I learned to better reflect on the preconceptions and biases I inevitably bring into my teaching practice, as well as to better understand the various minority perspectives, and consequent struggles, students bring into their learning communities. The course also gave me valuable insight into the role Critical Pedagogy plays in empowering disenfranchised learning communities and individual learners. I believe that human populations' increasing international mobility driven by globalization will make issues of multicultural education more and more significant in the near future. My projects for the course included short essays about proposed educational practices that promote learning by building on the differences each student brings into the classroom or learning community.
TE 831 Teaching School Subject Matter with Technology
Mark McCharty
I took this course to challenge my own tendency to not use technology in my practice. As a result of the course I have a more balanced view of the use of web-based digital technology in education, I am also a more efficient user of many digital technologies than I was before taking TE 831. Contrary to the many theories-based courses I took during my graduate studies, this was largely a hands-on experience that required me to produce educationally oriented media and other digital products. As the semester's main project, I conducted a case study examining some potentials a web-based digital tool has in re-mediating and re-teaching an algebra lesson that I used to teach without technology in the past.
Spring 2016
EAD 866 Teaching in Postsecondary Education
Dr. John Dirkx
In this course I learned to examine learning contexts of adult education, to reflect on practical and philosophical conceptions of teaching, to engage in systematic instructional planning and design including the assessment of students’ learning and the teacher’s effectiveness. In the course’s first module we examined the process of learning and learning contexts. Next, we moved on to explore philosophical and practical conceptions of teaching. In this module I completed a short case study involving the observation of an adult learning instructor in his practice, interviewing the instructor, then producing a written reflection about the instructor’s deemed purpose of practice. Next, we moved on to course and instructional design, theoretical as well as practical, involving a teaching project in an undergraduate learning context. The culmination of the course was the articulation of my teaching philosophy.
ED 870 Capstone Seminar
Dr. Matthew Koehler, Sarah Keenan, Spencer Greenhalgh
The Capstone Seminar is the culmination of my graduate studies. In this course I am required to critically reflect on and synthesize the sum effect of my learning during the past three years in the MAED program. How did my professional goals change since I enrolled in graduate school; what are my learning objectives for the future; what is my personal philosophy of education; these are the principal questions I'm asked to answer during this final semester as a graduate student. This online portfolio you are reading is the synthesis and summation of my journey through graduate education, as well as the main product of the Capstone Seminar.
EAD 866 Teaching in Postsecondary Education
Dr. John Dirkx
In this course I learned to examine learning contexts of adult education, to reflect on practical and philosophical conceptions of teaching, to engage in systematic instructional planning and design including the assessment of students’ learning and the teacher’s effectiveness. In the course’s first module we examined the process of learning and learning contexts. Next, we moved on to explore philosophical and practical conceptions of teaching. In this module I completed a short case study involving the observation of an adult learning instructor in his practice, interviewing the instructor, then producing a written reflection about the instructor’s deemed purpose of practice. Next, we moved on to course and instructional design, theoretical as well as practical, involving a teaching project in an undergraduate learning context. The culmination of the course was the articulation of my teaching philosophy.
ED 870 Capstone Seminar
Dr. Matthew Koehler, Sarah Keenan, Spencer Greenhalgh
The Capstone Seminar is the culmination of my graduate studies. In this course I am required to critically reflect on and synthesize the sum effect of my learning during the past three years in the MAED program. How did my professional goals change since I enrolled in graduate school; what are my learning objectives for the future; what is my personal philosophy of education; these are the principal questions I'm asked to answer during this final semester as a graduate student. This online portfolio you are reading is the synthesis and summation of my journey through graduate education, as well as the main product of the Capstone Seminar.