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TEACHING STATEMENT FOR EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

This entry is a teaching statement that explains how my teaching practices are intended to accomplish course goals. It establishes a context in which to understand and evaluate what goes on in the class. My teaching statement is integrated into the course syllabus, since I think students should understand my goals, methods and the rationale for my teaching. Thus, what you see are excerpts from the syllabus that explain my philosophy, course goals, teaching practices and writing emphasis aspects of the course.

 

Educational psychology is a required course for teacher education majors. Most students are juniors or seniors. The course focuses on the psychology of educational processes with an emphasis on such topics as, learning, thinking, motivation, assessment, psychological characteristics of students, classroom management, and so on.

 

Excerpts From The Course Syllabus

 

My Educational Philosophy.  All teachers have some kind of philosophy or set of beliefs about teaching and learning. I want you to know some of my beliefs so that you will better understand what we do in this course. One key belief concerns learning. Teachers hold widely different beliefs about the nature of learning. Some believe that it is mainly a process of memorizing information. In this view, knowing is equivalent to being able to reproduce information fairly accurately. To me, meaningful learning involves complex mental activities in which people try to make sense out of information and experiences. Real learning results in understanding--not simply memorizing bits of material. Closely related to learning is thinking--in fact it is hard to separate them. Thinking involves using information and one's understanding in complex ways to develop new ideas, make judgments, pose, solve and resolve questions and problems.

 

Learning and thinking are strongly affected by social interaction. Of course, people can learn and think in isolation, but learning and thinking originate in and are supported by interactions with other people. Our personal knowledge often is socially constructed and the meaning that individuals ascribe to ideas is in large part influenced by others. To paraphrase John Donne, "No mind is an island." What we think and how we think are profoundly affected by other people.

 

Meaningful learning and complex thinking are the primary goals in my classes, and they provide the basis for much of what I do as a teacher. My aims are to facilitate students' understanding, thinking and development. My role is to help students improve what they know, how they think and who they are trying to become. This means that I try to be a guide and facilitator as students engage complex issues and problems. 

 

Since I believe strongly in the social basis of learning I try to create a learning environment in which students work collaboratively on complex learning goals. I refer to this type of classroom as a critical community. In a critical community students and teachers enhance one another's learning and thinking through mutual challenge and support. Critical communities are more likely to occur when students occupy an active role in learning and when teachers focus on helping students to understand and think through complex questions and problems.

 

I will do my best to promote a critical community in the classroom. I hope to organize learning experiences that engage you with interesting and challenging material and help support your learning with constructive advice and feedback. I will respond to your ideas, ask you questions, offer my points of view, and help you to monitor and assess your learning. Since learning and thinking are active, sense-making endeavors, you will read, write and talk about important topics and questions. Writing will be an especially important way to organize, analyze, evaluate, integrate and consolidate what you know. In addition, much of the work in the course will be collaborative. You will work in small groups to develop ideas, solutions, or points of view in collaboration with your peers. Every class period will involve significant amounts of discussion either based in small groups or involving the entire class.

 

Teaching/Learning Goals and Objectives: My primary goals in this course are to help you develop your:

1.understanding of ideas, theories, principles and concepts relevant to learning, thinking and teaching.

3.interest in learning more about the subject matter and topics.

4. ability to monitor and assess your own learning and thinking.

5.ability to develop ideas and communicate more effectively through writing

 

Learning Activities and Teaching Methods.  I use four major types of teaching and learning activities intended to help you work systematically toward the learning goals throughout the semester. These include:

1.  Discussion assignments. Thoughtful and careful reading is essential preparation for each class period. There will be regular discussion assignments in which you write responses to questions, generate your own questions and think through the material before class. These assignments are intended to help you understand the material and to enhance the quality of learning and thinking that occurs in class.

2.  Collaborative learning. Collaborative learning activities are an important part of the course. They provide a forum for exchanging ideas and opportunities to develop and revise your thoughts. Small group activities increase students' engagement and interest in the material, which tend to produce better understanding and more complete learning.

3.  Lecture. Some class periods will include lecture. I use lectures to present new material and to develop frameworks for understanding important questions and issues. Although lectures can be useful, they are ineffective if students merely participate as passive observers while the teacher does all the thinking. Passive involvement results in marginal learning, meaning that material tends to be poorly understood and easily forgotten. I try to make lectures interactive by asking you to react to questions and problems as I try to answer them myself. Rest assured I will never lecture the entire class period. 

4.  Writing activities and assignments. This section of Educational Psychology is a writing emphasis course and will involve a significant amount of writing. You can expect to write regularly both in and out of class throughout the semester. The next section of the syllabus explains the nature of writing emphasis courses and describes the kind of writing that you will be doing.

 

Educational Psychology 370 as a Writing Emphasis Course.  Writing emphasis courses are part of the General Education requirements at UW-La Crosse. All students are required to complete two writing emphasis courses as part of your general education experience. These courses are part of a department's regular curriculum and have a writing-intensive component. These courses require at least 50 pages of writing over the entire semester, at least 10 pages of which should be revised, polished prose. The remainder of the writing in the course need not be held to rigorous standards of mechanical correctness. Students write frequently--perhaps one or more times each week, and the writing may vary in length from a paragraph to a few pages.

 

Why are there writing emphasis courses?  Writing is an important way to learn, think and communicate. Writing can help you to understand, consolidate and remember material. Writing enables students to formulate, discover and revise their own ideas, thus making learning more personally meaningful and memorable. And, of course, writing is an important means of communicating ideas to others. A college education should insure that students be able to communicate their thinking clearly, precisely and cogently. A writing emphasis course is an opportunity to learn through writing and further develop your writing skills.

Writing activities and assignments in this class.  There are two major forms of writing in this course. One is informal writing in which you are the sole or primary audience. The purpose of informal writing is to help you learn through writing. For example, before each class period you will respond in writing to questions about the reading material in order to organize and develop ideas in preparation for class discussion. Other types of informal writing include integrative summaries of class discussion, self-assessments, and occasional collaborative writing activities in which you compose a group response to a problem or issue. In contrast, formal writing goes one step beyond informal writing. It too is intended to enhance your learning and thinking, but also is intended to enhance your ability to communicate your ideas clearly and coherently. Formal writing conforms to acceptable standards and rules of usage and mechanical correctness, and is written to an audience other than oneself or the teacher. Consequently, revision is an integral part of formal writing since it is important to shape and adapt your ideas to the audience. We will use peer review as a way to help one another improve their writing assignments. The two major types of formal writing are culminating essays and an authentic writing project. The major differences between informal and formal writing are:

             

Informal Formal Purpose To enhance understanding and thinking To enhance understanding and thinking, and communicate ideas more effectively Audience Self-- but ideas may be shared with others Others-- writing is adapted to the audience Revision Not revised Revised to improve quality of thinking and writing Mechanical Not a primary concern Conforms to rules, standards and stylistic correctness/ conventions of field of inquiry Evaluation May or may not be evaluated by self Final copy evaluated by self, instructor and/ or instructor/ external assessor

During the semester I will distribute handouts that describe the purposes, requirements, expectations and standards for the writing assignments in more detail. You can expect the following types of writing activities:

1.Discussion assignments (DA's)- DA's are written in preparation for class discussion. You will read then organize and summarize what the author(s) said and then reflect on what you think about what the author(s) said. Sometimes DA's will be open-ended and exploratory and sometimes I will give you specific questions to answer.

2.Post-discussion writing- These are individual responses to a question or issue after we have read and discussed material. Typically these are informal writings completed either in or out of class.

3.Collaborative writing- These are group responses based upon collaborative activities in class.

4.Culminating essays- These formal responses are equivalent to essay exams and may be written in or out of class. There will be approximately 4-6 culminating essays during the semester.

5. Authentic writing project- Each student will complete an authentic writing project. These can be written individually or in collaboration with several students. You can select the type of project from several alternatives. I will provide descriptions of these in a separate handout.

6.Assessment of learning and teaching- Throughout the semester I will ask you to monitor and assess your own learning and progress toward course goals. I will also ask you to assess various aspects of the learning activities and teaching in the course.

 

Assessment of Learning.  Educational psychologists distinguish between learning and performance goals. Individuals with learning goals have a strong commitment to improving their knowledge and skills regardless of the judgments or grades associated with their performance. In contrast, students with performance goals emphasize doing well in the eyes of others. Performance-oriented students are concerned primarily with "how to look good" when evaluated or judged by others. In other words, one is concerned more with grades than with the quality of one's learning.

 

Unfortunately, performance-goal orientations prevail at all levels of education. Students, teachers and parents tend to focus much more on grades and performance than on the development of learning and thinking. If you doubt this think about the following questions. Do parents ask their children what they learned in school or how they did (i.e., what grades they got)? Do teachers urge students to study so they can learn or master something or to get a good grade? Do students ask questions about what and how they are learning or about what they need to know or do to get a specific grade? From my perspective the priorities are "out of whack." I prefer to think that learning is more important than grades and I try to emphasize this through assessment of learning.

 

If students and teachers are concerned primarily with grades then assessment of learning involves little more than sorting and grading students. This is known as summative assessment and it is intended to judge students' final level of achievement. Summative assessment draws attention to the endpoint of learning and reinforces the belief that grades are more important than the actual improvement and quality of learning and thinking.

 

In contrast, formative assessment involves constructive feedback--written or oral comments from the teacher or peers about the strengths and weaknesses of one's work. The goals of formative assessment are to enhance your learning. Formative assessment helps students focus on what and how they learn, and encourages a mastery orientation.

 

Of course, you do get graded in this course. I try to connect the grade to the quality of one's learning throughout the semester. I emphasize formative assessment by giving you opportunities to practice and receive guidance and feedback on your learning and thinking. In addition, I believe it is important for students to develop a capacity for self-assessment.  Therefore, this course incorporates self-assessment aimed at helping you to understand and develop realistic appraisals of your own work. You can expect both formative and summative assessment of learning on the following activities:

1. DA's (Discussion Assignments) reflect ongoing learning and thinking in the course. Some DA's will be viewed as class participation, others will be assessed in terms of the quality of learning they reflect.

2. Post-discussion responses. Some of the post-discussion responses will be viewed as class participation and others will be assessed in terms of quality of learning. For example, you may complete a group activity in class, and I will assess the group response as substantive, marginal or insubstantial learning and thinking.

3. Culminating Essays- Culminating essays are summative assessments that you write after having read, studied and discussed questions in class. Typically, the essay questions will be very similar to ones you responded to in a DA. Culminating essays will be written individually but may be may involve collaboration with other students.

4. Authentic writing project. Students will peer review complete drafts of the writing projects and I will evaluate the final version of the project.

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