C&I 507SE: Historical, International and
Disciplinary Perspectives on Reform
Wednesday, 4 to 6:50pm, Spring 2006
Room 166 College of Education
Instructor: Margery Osborne
Office:
Rm 386 College of Education
Phone: 217-840-3020
email: m-osbor@uiuc.edu
Course Overview
In
this class, we will explore the historical, international and disciplinary perspectives reform in
education. We will start by thinking about these issues in the United States
and then move to looking internationally. We will examine the ways in which
perceptions of education and disciplinary education have changed over the last
century, and consider ways in which changing views in and of education and
disciplines have affected and continue to affect practice and research. We will focus on the lessons we can
learn from examining history of reform.
The
course will be divided into three parts. The first part will provide general
overviews of the history of reform in the US. Once we have a better sense of
how reform in education addresses the school, teaching and curriculum and,
finally, assessment, we will examine how these play out in the
disciplines. We will conclude by
considering reform on an international level.
Readings
Will
be in the form of papers which I will make available for you to Xerox or PDF
files which I will send to you via email.
These
readings will be handed out in class prior to the week that they are to be
discussed. Attempts will be made to put these readings on-line.
Course
Assignments
Weekly
reading and participation (15%)
You
will be expected to read and carefully consider each of the weekly reading
assignments and to participate in class discussions of the readings each week.
If you are unable to attend class, you need to turn in a written summary of the
readings for that class.
Prior
to each class, you will turn in two questions that you have regarding the
readings. Part of the course
discussion will focus on answering these questions. These questions need to be
emailed to the class. These must be posted by Tuesday evening 8:00pm.
Annotated
Bibliography (15%)
You
will write an annotated bibliography for the articles, and book sections we
read. Your annotated bibliography should include the purpose of the article, a
brief description, the lesson(s) learned, and an evaluative statement regarding the value of the
reading as well as a brief justification for the judgment. I encourage you to use Endnote for
creating your annotated bibliography.
A trial version is available on line at http://www.endnote.com/.
You
should write these summaries as you do the reading. These summaries will be
helpful in class discussions as well. This bibliography will be due at the end
of the semester either as an endnote file or as a single word file.
Class
leadership (15%)
You
will be asked to lead one class discussions related to different aspects of our
readings. You will be responsible for organizing and conducting a part of class
on that night. The discussions can take any format you decide is appropriate
(hands-on activities, video, discussion, etc). You must talk with me the week
prior to your presentation during the scheduled office hours. If these times
are not good, please sent up an appointment with sufficient time to prepare following the meeting.
Lessons learned from the readings need to be carefully articulated by the end
of the class.
You will sign up for these leadership
sessions during the second class period. Scan the reading list and topic
headings to see what you would like to discuss.
Synthesis
paper (20%)
You
will write a synthesis paper for this class. The paper will draw on the readings for the course that have
been discussed. The focus of the
paper should be on the key lessons learned from the various readings and their
implications for current practice. I expect you to cite relevant class articles
in your discussion (~5 page
paper). Paper to be turned in to
me by email April 12th.
Final
paper (25%)
For
the final course project, you will choose a topic that is of interest to you
and is related to the topics discussed in the course. You should plan to meet
with me by the beginning of April to discuss the topic you're interested in pursuing. A rough
draft of this paper will be due May 3rd; the final draft will
be due on the first day of exam week. (~20 page paper, APA citations) Paper to
be turned in to me by email.
Possible
approaches:
-
An
analysis of (a) a current report on the status of some area of education (if
you select one we look at in class you need to look at the complete report or
from a different perspective), (b) a current curriculum unit being used in the
classroom and possible revisions necessary to make it align with current reform
efforts or (c) the implications of current science education reforms, based on the
effects of reforms made in the past century
-
A
description and analysis of how teaching in some area of a discipline has
developed during the last century and why it has developed in that way
-
A
proposal for education reform based on the effects of reforms made in the past
century.
-
A
proposal for professional development curriculum and model that could be used
to align teaching with the current reform efforts.
-
A
research proposal looking at issues surrounding education reform.
-
A
research projectÑif this option is taken, please be aware of IRB deadlines for
Champaign and Urbana school districts. Please talk to me as soon a possible.
Final Presentation (10%)
Based
on your final paper, you will develop a 20 minute presentation highlighting the
main points of your work. As part
of your presentation, you should develop visuals and hand-outs. Be prepared to
talk 15 minutes and answer questions 5 minutes. This should be a formal
presentation and take the format of a talk that you might give at a national
convention.
|
Class |
Topic |
Readings |
|
Class
1 Jan.
25 |
Current
Reforms |
A Nation at Risk No Child Left Behind |
|
Class
2 Feb
1 |
Current
Reforms continued Discussion Leaders: Heather & Lisa |
Shipps, D (2003) The BusinessmanÕs
Educator, In Powerful Reforms with Shallow Roots |
|
Class
3 Feb
8 |
Past Reforms Discussion Leaders: Margery |
Tyack & Cuban
Learning from the Past, in Tinkering Towards Utopia |
|
Class
4 Feb
15 |
Past
Reforms continued Discussion Leaders: Margery |
Sarason, S.B.
(1982) What Are Schools For?, in The Culture of School and the Problem of
Change. |
|
Class
5 Feb
22 |
Reform
and the Classroom Discussion Leaders: Mark S and Pamela |
Tyack, D,
Cuban, L. (1995) How Schools Change Reforms in Tinkering Towards Utopia. |
|
Class
6 Mar
1 |
Reform and Elementary Science Discussion Leaders: Sharon |
Doris, D. (1991)
Doing What Scientists Do: Children Learn to Investigate Their World. Chapters
1-3. |
|
Class
7 Mar
8 |
Reform
and Science (Philosophy) Discussion Leaders: Ana & Christina |
DeBoer,
G.E., (1991). A History of Ideas in Science Education, Teachers College. Chapter 8
and Chapter
9 Deuschl,
R. (1990). Restructuring Science Education: The Importance of Theories and
Their Development. Chapter 2
and Chapter
3 |
|
Class
8 Mar
15 |
Reform
and Secondary Science Discussion Leaders: Faith & Natasha |
AAAS (1985). Science for All Americans. http://www.project2061.org/publications/ Stanley, W. B., & Brickhouse, N. W. (1994). Multiculturalism,
universalism and science education. Science Education, 78, 387-398. |
|
Class
9 Mar
22 |
Break! |
|
|
Class
10 Mar
29 |
Reform
and Mathematics Topic
for final paper Discussion Leaders: Mark G |
Wilson,
S. (2003) California Dreaming: Reforming Mathematics Education |
|
Class
11 Apr
5 |
Reform
and Technology Meet
to talk about paper ideas Discussion Leaders: Ji-Young |
Cuban,
L. (2001) Oversold and Underused: Computers in the Classroom Cuban, L., Kirkpatrick, H., Peck, C. (2001). High access
and low use of technologies in high school classrooms: Explaining an apparent
paradox. American Educational Research Journal. Vol. 38, (4) p. 813 |
|
Class
12 Apr
12 |
NO
class AERA Synthesis
paper due Meet
to talk about paper ideas by end of week. |
|
|
Class
13 Apr
19 |
International
Perspectives Discussion Leaders: James |
Wolf,
A. (2004) England:
New Governments, new policies.
In Iris Rotberg (ed) Balancing Change and Tradition in Global
Education Reform. |
|
Class
14 Apr
26 |
International Perspectives Discussion Leaders: Felix |
For class: Crouch, L. (2004). South
Africa: Overcoming past injustice. In Iris Rotberg (ed) Balancing
Change and Tradition in Global Education Reform This is for your info: Kehlm, B. (2004). Germany: After
reunification. In Iris Rotberg (ed) Balancing Change and Tradition in
Global Education Reform |
|
Class
15 May
3 |
Class
presentations Final
version - annotated bibliography |
|