**NOTE: THIS INFORMATION IS OLD. I HAVEN'T TAUGHT THIS CLASS FOR A YEAR OR TWO. THE COURSE IS CURRENTLY TAUGHT BY CATHERINE MARTIN.

BASIC INFORMATION

Instructor: Alan Colburn

Classroom: PH2-133

Class Meeting Time : Tu 5:00-8:50 p.m.

Office : FO5 - 132

Office Hours : MW 10:30-11:30 and by appointment.

Telephone : 562-985-5948

E-Mail : acolburn@csulb.edu

The College of Education has adopted the theme of "teaching for life-long learning, professional growth & social responsibility".

Their mission is to foster a learning and teaching community committed to educational excellence.

Our community promotes intellectual, personal and interpersonal growth for all students; prepares socially responsible leaders for a rapidly changing, technologically-rich world; values diversity & prepares students for a diverse world; serves and collaborates with other educators & the community; promotes school improvement for all students; and engages in research, scholarly activity, and ongoing evaluation.

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OVERVIEW OF THE COURSE & INSTRUCTIONAL PHILOSOPHY

EDSS 450C is the secondary science methods course for folks preparing to be 6-12 science teachers. All college of Education courses are designed to foster the college's mission: teaching for life-long learning, professional growth & social responsibility.

Learning to teach is like learning to create a building. You start with a solid foundation and a good framework before learning the details. As a science methods instructor, I want to help you develop the skills to create your teaching foundation and framework. Towards this end, I have three overarching goals.

When you leave EDSS 450C, I would like you to:

• have begun developing the knowledge and skills to create a classroom based around the best practices experts have to offer science teachers,

• be aware of your behaviors in the classroom and their effects on students,

• be able to explain what you're doing, constantly analyzing whether your actions help you achieve your long-term goals.

Beginning with the fall 2000 semester, we (the Science Ed faculty) have identified a list of outcomes to guide our actions in the courses you take from our department. When you leave the science credential program you should demonstrate beginner level competency in each of the following areas.

1. Be well educated in science

• critical consumers of scientific information
• have science confidence outside your discipline
• be able to read and understand science as reported in popular press (e.g., NY Times)

• Preparing lab materials
• Lab management skills
• Classroom management specifically for a hands-on science class

• Assessment
• Standards
• Knowing the learner

• History of science
• Historical understandings as it relates to misconceptions

• Finding resources (materials and human)
• Workshops & inservice opportunities
• Professional organizations
• Professional journals

This class will be mostly discussion and hands-on activities. You will also spend some time in computer labs & the library, analyze videotaped teaching segments, and microteach activities for peers. You will probably be busier during classtime in this class than in most college courses you have taken. Participation and attendance are vital.

Students must show a Single Subject Credential Program Admit Card or a Special Admit Card signed by the University Coordinator of the program in order to stay in the class. Instructors are responsible for enforcing this requirement.

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SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

Here are specific objectives I have for you as an EDSS 450C student. As someone on the verge of becoming a beginning teacher, by the time this course ends you should:

1. Have clearly defined long-term goals and a rationale for the goals.
2. Explain what you must do to teach students your goals, and provide literature-based support for your actions.
3. Begin practicing the skills to be an aware, analytical/reflective teacher constantly concerned with professional development.
4. Create concrete, 'hands-on' science lessons.
5. Create open-ended, 'minds-on' science lessons.
6. Understand and make use of the powerful teaching technique of modeling.
7. Use the learning cycle strategy to sequence instruction.
8. Understand the dimensions of effective questioning, wait-time, and responding to students to maximize their learning.
9. Know how to implement rudimentary cooperative learning structures.
10. Demonstrate an ability to design special academic instruction in English, i.e. , SDAIE strategies, to help students for whom English is not the first language.
11. Be familiar with traditional and alternate forms of assessment, as well as distinguish 'formative' and 'summative' assessment.
12. Understand the value of project-based science, and have a rudimentary knowledge of one model for its use (the SSCS model).
13. Understand the basics of skillful lecturing, and the place of similar direct instruction in effective teaching.
14. Know how to use a textbook effectively.
15. Understand the need for organization and management in the busy science classroom.
16. Be comfortable and skillful using the world wide web, e-mail, web-based discussion boards, the ERIC database, as well as a HTML editor, and program for making concept maps. I assume you enter the class skilled at the use of a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation program.

REQUIRED COURSE MATERIALS

You must purchase a course-pack of required readings. The course-pack is purchased off campus at One Stop Business Center. The store is at PCH and Bellflower. They're open 8-5 M-F, and 9-6 on the weekends. The phone # is 961-1976.

In addition, you must also purchase a small pamphlet (about constructivism & science teaching) and short book (Inquiry & Learning), both available at the campus bookstore. An optional CD is also available for you to purchase at the bookstore. All these items will be discussed fully on the first night of class. You won't need to purchase any of the bookstore items for several weeks.

If you aren't already a member of NSTA, I would suggest that you join. Membership includes a subscription to The Science Teacher, Science Scope, or any other NSTA journal. For economic reasons I am making membership optional, although NSTA has a student discount.

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ASSIGNMENTS & ASSESSMENTS

Grading Scheme

This course includes small weekly assignments, curriculum projects, a major paper (with accompanying interview), and assignments related to microteaching and lesson planning. There will be a small final, begun in class and finished during the exit interview. Assignments are expected to be handed in on time. Late assignments will be marked down unless arrangements have been made with the instructor before the assignment is due. Each assignment for this course is worth a percentage of your final grade (see below).

Attendance and participation are essential components of this course. If you don't come, and talk, class won't work. You and your classmates' ideas need to be heard for individual and collective growth to occur. As such, your final course grade will reflect your level of attendance and participation: an "A" student will have attended all classes and participated in each. I understand, of course, that things happen. I don't want you coming to class if you have a contagious disease, for example! So, you can miss one class session (of 15 total) without a penalty. However, if you miss two sessions you will have missed more than 10% of the total classtime. In a class like this, you can't miss that much class and learn as much as if you were present and participating. Thus, your final grade will decrease 5% if you miss two class sessions, 10% if you miss three class sessions, etc. If you know weeks beforehand that you will miss a class, please let me know.

PLEASE NOTE: Beginning with the fall 2000 semester, students are required to earn a grade of B or higher in EDSS 450 before they can advance to student teaching.

Assignments
 

The curriculum assignment let you collect practical materials for use directly in planning lessons for a unit. The assignments also entails relating the resources you assembled to the long-term goals you have for your students--relating this assignment to the framework paper. You also briefly discuss each resources' strengths and weaknesses, and explain potential modifications you would make to further your goals. Among other things, this assignment involves you finding resources on the web, doing ERIC searches, and creating assessment items (tests/quizzes and rubrics). This assignment and the next will be broken into smaller pieces handed in as the course progresses.

The other major assignment will be writing a literature-based rationale for teaching science. You start the paper by discussing the two or three long-term goals for students that are most important to you (along with a rationale for the goals). To show how you will teach students in ways designed to help students learn to accomplish these goals, you will go on to describe--in depth--one or more of the lessons from your curriculum assignment. You'll discuss your behaviors and those expected in your students--in other words, you'll make a detailed picture of what your classroom would look like to an observer someday. You will create a vision of what you strive to make your classroom look like after you have taught for a few years. And you'll explain why you would do these things, supporting your decisions by appropriate references to the science education literature.

The purpose of the paper is for you to begin seriously thinking about your mission as a teacher, and how you will translate that mission into a real classroom someday. To me, the ideal classroom would be one with a teacher teaching what s/he feels passionate about, in a manner consistent with best practice as advocated in the professional literature.

Your ideas will undoubtedly change with time and experience. I realize this. Too many teachers, however, never think about their long-term goals and are unaware of what they do in the classroom. Research about change suggests that simply being more aware of what you do while teaching changes behavior in a positive direction.

To get you started on this assignment, read "Research is Required Reading" by M.P. Clough, and click here to see what I will be looking for after you hand-in your paper.

Besides writing the rationale, you will have the opportunity to talk about what you wrote, answering our questions during a one-on-one interview at the end of the course. The interview is part of the course's final exam, which you will begin in class. You'll have a list of the questions I am most likely to ask about your rationale paper, and will have spent class time practicing for the interview with your peers. My expectation is that you can not only write about the classroom you will someday create, but also defend your choices verbally.

If the course goes as planned, we will videotape your microteaching. The interview, then, will also be a place where we will look at the tape and analyze your teaching behaviors. Finally, the interview is a place for you to provide evidence that you have the potential to be an excellent teacher and deserve an A grade in this course. We will discuss further in class the kinds of evidence you might provide.

You will also complete a variety of smaller assignments . Graded pass/fail, these assignments make up 20% of your total grade:

We will discuss web search engines in class. Each student will choose a (different) search engine, visit the web site, and explore how best to use the site. Most of these sites have links to additional information explaining tips for their use. You'll want to read this information. Finally, you will try ten searches (we will discuss search topics in class, and you will start the assignment during classtime). You'll hand in a brief summary of how you went about each of these searches, and the lessons you learned along the way.

Spend time thinking about your mission as a teacher. What kind of an impact do you want your class to have on your students? Write a paragraph in which you draft the two to four long-term student goals that will guide most everything you hope to accomplish. Examples might include helping students learn to like science, understand the nature of science, critical thinking skills, science content, how to work together, and how to study/learn independently.

Make a list of the forty most important ideas in your discipline. Divide your list into categories based on the broadness of the ideas. Begin with those ideas that are overarching--unifying concepts that are a part of understanding anything and everything in the discipline--and work your way down to more specific concepts.

Write a cover letter in which you apply for a full time teaching position. Assume the job's advertisement mentions that the school wants to hire "reflective practitioners with a strong rationale for teaching science." Include your resume with your letter.

Create a one page handout for students outlining your classroom's rules. On a separate sheet, describe three specific routines you will train students to follow.

Do an ERIC search to find five hands-on activities about a topic of your choice. Copy the activities, and bring both the activities and the ERIC search printout to class.

Pretend you have $400 to spend on equipment and supplies for teaching science, and decided to spend the money on supplies related to teaching the topic of your curriculum assignment. Use catalogs to create a simple spreadsheet listing items, source companies, catalog item numbers, telephone numbers, cost per unit, and total cost. Note: you must use a spreadsheet program when completing this assignment . Then write a one page proposal explaining why you should have these items. Be sure to mention applicable goals.

Make a photocopy of a traditional laboratory activity. Show ways you could modify the activity to make it more open-ended.

Create a learning cycle unit plan. The learning cycle will be part of your curriculum assignment. Briefly describe the series of activities that will make up the learning cycle based unit, and why your unit plan is a learning cycle.

Write a letter to your principal justifying why the school should give you money to attend an NSTA or CSTA convention. We'll discuss details during class.

COURSE TOPICS
 

Students with disabilities who need reasonable modifications, special assistance, or accomodations in this course should promptly direct their request to the course instructor. If a student with a disability feels that modifications, special assistance, or accomodations offered are inappropriate or insufficient, s/he should seek the assistance of the Director of Disabled Student Services on campus.
 
 

EDSS 450C