Purpose

Consistent with the Council on Teacher Education Framework, this course will introduce participants to the foundations of child and adolescent development and other psychological processes that are germane to teaching. Readings will be divided into three sections focusing on the characteristics of learners and the contexts in which they live, processes of learning and motivation, and the assessment of student achievement. Participants should be able to identify their own philosophical assumptions about how best to teach and justify their beliefs using evidence.

Specifically, course participants will acquire:

· An understanding of some key age-related changes in physical, cognitive, and emotional development that influence adolescents’ classroom behavior.

· An understanding of the basic theories of learning that under gird common philosophies of education.

· An understanding of motivation and the role of emotional factors in learning.

· An understanding of how to design classroom activities that meet learners’ needs.

· An understanding of what it means to respect culture and diversity in schools.

· Skills associated with maintaining discipline in a classroom.

· An understanding of what it means to teach both students and curriculum.

· Knowledge of how standardized tests are designed.

· Knowledge of how to design and implement fair grading practices.

(Illinois Standards that guided the design of this course)

Readings

We will be working with one required textbook and readings from online journals. The following textbook can be purchased from Chicago Textbooks on Taylor St. or online. We will be using the 10^th edition, but the 9^th edition differs in chapters 11 and 13.

Woolfolk, A. (2007). Educational psychology (10th ed.) Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Selected readings from online journals will also be assigned to help with issues that come up in class discussions. For those students who do not have their own computer, the ETL on the second floor of EPASW is available along with other computer labs on campus.

Format

Students are expected to complete assigned readings BEFORE coming to class. We will be spending class time using the material as we think about how to design engaging classrooms. It will be important to identify key concepts that will be applied in classrooms. The chapters listed on the syllabus are selected to comply with program standards, but the order in which the course material is covered should be seen as tentative.

The syllabus and most assignments can be found online at: http://www.uic.edu/~thork/fair if you scroll to the bottom of the page. Everyone will be included on a listserv designed for professionals who plan to teach. Members of this listserv have been from this course, EPSY 360, or previous classes. Please watch the “Subject” line of e-mail for messages that are directly relevant to our class activities. News that we are unable to share in class can be posted as well as more detailed discussion about the course.

Each week, we will try to complete three kinds of activities: a review of essential information in the readings, small group discussions, and an assessment activity. The structure of these activities will differ across classes and will depend on the imaginations of students as much as the instructor. In other words, students are expected to learn by doing as often as learn by listening.

Assignments

Assignments measure the degree to which students are able to formulate general relationships between research, lives in progress, and instructional design. Grades will be determined using information from four sources; a group log, a conceptual midterm, a group presentation, and an application-focused final exam. For each assignment, students will be expected to fully justify their decisions using evidence from the course readings. We will discuss academic dishonesty as part of the course, but for more information on the UIC’s guidelines, please go to the following:

http://www.vcsa.uic.edu/MainSite/departments/dean_of_students/Links/UIC+Discipline+Code.htm

Group discussions. Students will be assigned to small groups based on their topical interests and teaching plans. If, for some reason, the initial group assignment does not feel comfortable, students are requested to discuss this with the instructor and an alternative assignment will be made. Each week, groups will meet during class time to discuss the readings and generate methods for using research to inform their practice. To facilitate communication, group members should exchange e-mail, text message, or phone numbers so that they might contact one another outside of class.

Group members will take turns recording the details of their conversations, including the names of which speakers made each point. This content log allows me to evaluate the accuracy with which readings are understood and the ability of future teachers to collaborate with potential peers in a professional manner. The assigned groups are consistent with curriculum committees found in most high schools.

In the past, some groups have preferred to record their conversations and transcribe that recording, but it is also appropriate to record the gist of what each member contributes to a conversation. Notes should be brought to class the following week and reviewed by all group members to verify their accuracy. Changing the content of the notes is appropriate and recommended at this point. Ideally, each group member will have his or her own record of the group activities, but someone should keep a master copy that will be turned in for evaluation. On the rare occasion when someone should have to miss a class, that person is obligated to make an independent contribution to the log.

Log books will be collected for evaluation about three times during the course of the semester. Grades will be assigned to reflect each individual's participation rather than the functioning of the group as a whole. I will also look for signs of growth over the course of the semester as students improve their ability to recall the details of research and ground suggestions for practice using evidence from research, lives in progress, or media representations of adolescent lives.

Midterm. A take-home exam will be given to students in the middle of the semester to determine how well they understand the characteristics of learners and theories of learning. This exam will focus primarily on the general psychological theories of human development and learning that are taken for granted when teachers plan instructional activities.

Group presentation. As part of the final examination, each assigned group will help the class see how best to teach the age-group and course content they hope to cover as teachers. These presentations will involve the integration of at least one form of technology, but can be as creative as the group members see fit. More details on this step will be presented after the midterm. This is largely an opportunity to practice teaching and to obtain feedback on final projects before they are submitted.

Final exam. The final exam will require students to design an activity that would be appropriate for adolescents they plan to teach, to develop an assessment plan for their activity, and to illustrate how they have applied psychological principles in establishing an appropriate learning environment for prospective teenagers.

Final grades. Each activity will be weighted equally to ensure that final grades reflect a balanced evaluation of students understanding of psychological theory and ability to apply the material when teaching.

Accessibility

UIC strives to ensure the accessibility of programs, classes, and services to students with disabilities. Reasonable accommodations can be arranged for students with various types of disabilities, such as documented learning disabilities, vision or hearing impairments, and emotional or physical disabilities. If you need accommodations for this class, be sure to register with the Office of Disability Services, 1190 SSB, 413-2183, and let your instructor know your needs.

Tentative Schedule

Date	Topic	Readings
Jan. 14^th	Introduction-jigsaw learning *Application for candidacy*	Chapter 1 *Survey*
Jan. 21^st	Cognitive development and language *Film: Inside the Teenage Brain* Article: Language development Article: Maturation and learning	Chapter 2 *Discussion*
Jan. 28^th	Personal, social, and emotional development Article: Adolescents’ civil engagement	Chapter 3 *Discussion*
Feb. 4^th	Learning theory: behaviorism Article: Applied behavioral analysis Activity: *Thorny issues in teaching*	Chapter 6 *Discussion*
Feb. 11^th	Learning theory: cognitive science Article: Stimulating writing Slides: Information processing *Logs due*	Chapter 7 *Discussion*
Feb. 18^th	Learning theory: meta-cognition Articles: Self-regulated learning	Chapter 8 *Discussion*
Feb. 25^th	Learning theory: constructivism Article: Comparing some learning theories Slides: Constructivism	Chapter 9 *Discussion*
Mar. 4^th	Individual differences Article: Variable vs. person-centered analyses	Chapter 4 *Discussion*
Mar. 11^th	Motivation Article: Self-determination theory Article: What is ability & why are we mindful of it? Article: Attribution theory *Midterms due*	Chapter 10
Mar. 18^th	Creating a community of learners *Logs due*	Chapters 5 & 11
Mar. 25^th	SPRING BREAK
Apr. 1^st	Learning environments	Chapters 12 & 13
Apr. 8^th	Standardized testing & classroom assessment	Chapter 14 & 15
Apr. 15^th	Presentation preparation *NO CLASS* (*Final logs due*)
Apr. 22^nd	*Group presentations*
Apr. 29^th	*Group presentations*
May 6^th	FINALS WEEK—*Papers due no later than May 9th*

Additional Readings

Readings will be added as the semester progresses and will emerge from the ideas that unfold in students’ group discussions.

Cognitive development and language

Green, M. (1984). Cognitive stage differences in types of speaker uncertainty markers. Language and Speech, 27, 33-331.

Nippold, M. A., Hesketh, L. J., Duthie, J. K., & Mansfield, T. C. (2005). Conversation versus expository discourse: A study of syntactic development in children, adolescents, and adults. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 48, 1048-1064.

Personal, social, and emotional development

Thorkildsen, T. A. (2007). Adolescents’ moral engagement in urban setting. Theory into Practice, 46, 113-120.

Learning theories: Maturationism

(This set of assumptions is not outlined well in the text, but the ideas are aligned with theorists like Erikson who are noted there.)

Kwon, Y-J., & Lawson, A. E. (2000). Linking brain growth with the development of scientific reasoning ability and conceptual change during adolescence. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 37, 44-62.

Learning theories: Behaviorism

Greenwood, C. R., Carta, J. J., Hart, B., Kamps, D., Terry, B., Arreaga-Mayer, C., Atwater, J., Walker, D., Risley, T., & Delquadri, J. C. (1992). Out of the laboratory and into the community: 26 years of applied behavioral analysis at the Juniper Gardens Children’s Project. American Psychologist, 47, 1464-1474.

Learning theories: Cognitive science (Cultural transmission)

Rummel, N., Levin, J. Rl, & Woodward, M. M. (2003).Do pictorial mnemonic text-learning aids give students something worth writing about? Journal of Educational Psychology, 95, 327-334.

Learning theories: Complex cognitive processes (Cultural transmission II)

Schunk, D. H., & Cox, P. D. (1986). Strategy training and attributional feedback with learning disabled students. Journal of Educational Psychology, 78, 201-209.

Weinstein, C. E., Ridley, D. S., Dahl, T., & Weber, E. S. (1988/1989) Helping students develop strategies for effective learning, Educational Leadership, 46 (4), 17-19.

Learning theories: Constructivism

Cobb, P. & Yackel, E. (1996). Constructivist, emergent, and sociocultural perspectives in the context of developmental research. Educational Psychologist, 31, 175-190.

Learning and individual differences

Roeser, R. W., Strobel, K. R., & Quihuis, G. (2002). Studying early adolescents’ academic motivation, social-emotional functioning, and engagement in learning: Variable and person-centered approaches. Anxiety, Stress, and Coping, 15, 345-368.

Motivation (choose your favorite theme)

Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25, 54-67.

Nicholls, J. G. (1990). What is ability and why are we mindful of it? A developmental perspective. In R. J. Sternberg, & J. Kolligian (Eds.), Competence considered. (pp. 11-40). New Haven: Yale University Press.

Weiner, B. (1979). A theory of motivation for some classroom experiences. Journal of Educational Psychology, 71, 3-25.