CEP 900: Proseminar in Educational Psychology

Fall 2001

Course Web Page:  http://www.msu.edu/~dwong/CEP900/ 

Course Description

This proseminar is designed especially for first year doctoral students in CEPSE to introduce them to some major ideas, questions, and issues in the field and how researchers have addressed them.  The Proseminar is a course that evolves over time, being shaped by the faculty and students who participate in it each year.  We currently think of the Proseminar as a place where we will:

• Introduce the major theoretical perspectives on learning and development.  These perspectives include the behavioral, cognitive, and socio-cultural perspectives.

• Examine current issues and debates in educational practice.  We will encourage you to see issues from multiple perspectives and to combine ideas from class and your own personal experiences in developing a more sophisticated understanding of these issues.

•  Encourage you to develop your individual areas of interest by delving into its literature and talking with scholars in the field.

•  Create a community of learners and scholars among the Proseminar students and department faculty.

•  Facilitate your participation in the larger community of educational researchers and scholars.

•  Develop your writing, speaking, listening, and inquiry skills and dispositions within a professional context.

The proseminar brings together students from different areas in educational psychology including Educational Psychology, Measurement and Quantitative Methods, School Psychology, Special Education, and School Counseling to examine the common field of learning and development.   This diversity among students represents a microcosm of our department and we envision the proseminar as a site for learning how to enter into conversation with people representing these different fields, interests, and perspectives. 

During the Fall semester, we will examine learning and development from a variety of perspectives.  In particular we will focus on the nature of scholarship and disciplined inquiry concerning learning and development: What kinds of questions do psychologists and educators ask?  What methods do they use?  How does knowledge grow and change within disciplinary communities?  Issues to be considered include conceptions of what it means to know and learn in school and other settings, and methods that educational psychologists and others have used to study learning and development. 

Many of the class sessions will focus on issues that have been important in the discourse of educational psychologists about learning and development, issues such as the role of culture and community in knowledge and learning, the situated nature of learning, and the role of disciplinary knowledge in development and learning.  The readings about these issues will be taken from a variety of theoretical perspectives to help students begin to map out for themselves the "territory" of educational psychology--the theories and discourse communities that make up the field. 

We hope the Proseminar will play an important role in introducing you to advanced graduate study of learning and development, and the diverse settings in which learning and development takes place.   Although the course is not a comprehensive survey of educational psychology, we will discuss key ideas, methods, and perspectives of educational psychology and related fields as we examine a variety of research studies, and read current articles in the field.

 Major Assignments

Research Interests Portfolio (50%)

 As an emerging scholar, one of your main activities will be participating in ongoing national and international discourse in your field.  The goal of this project is to help you take the first steps at becoming a legitimate participant.  In order to do this, you must first understand the nature of the discourse that you are joining.  Every discourse community is a complex social network of individuals, ideas, and research.  In addition, the discourse has a history - it came from somewhere, has been through changes, and has been influenced by certain people, ideas, and events.  In order to participate appropriately and to be accepted and respected by others, it is critical that you appreciate these qualities of your field.

This project involves many different tasks. 

Task 1.  Talk to people in your field.  Get a broad overview of the issues, people, and ideas.  You should plan on having several meetings with your faculty advisor, make appointments to talk with other faculty, and meet with several advanced graduate students.  Make notes from all meetings.

Task 2.  Review the past 5 years of 3 major journals.  Skim the articles to figure out the major topics, ideas, and issues.  Keep notes.

Task 3.  Become familiar with the history and current state of your field.  Read review, overview, and historical pieces in handbooks, journals, or textbooks.  Keep notes.

Electronic portfolio.  All students will create an electronic portfolio by the end of the semester.   The purpose of these portfolios is to be a useful resource for doctoral students and faculty interested in your particular field.  Each portfolio should include the following components:

1. An historical visual representation of your field.   Illustrate how the field has changed during the last 30 years

2. A present-day visual representation of your field.  Illustrate the current state of the field: i.e., important people, ideas, etc.

3. Variation within the field.  Contemporary and historical differences in how people have thought about the issues

4. Notes from meetings with people in your field (see Task 1)

5. Notes from journal review (see Task 2)

6. Annotated lists:

20 influential written works

10 influential people

6 important ideas

6 important studies or research programs

6 major journals

4 research methodologies

4 contextual influences (historical events, technological innovations, etc.)

4 important conferences

Popular handbooks

Useful resources (library, website, books, etc.)

Due dates

Draft 1:           Sep 17

Draft 2:           Oct 29

Presentation:  Dec 9

Living and Learning with Ideas Project

You will be introduced to many new ideas in proseminar.  As John Dewey would have it, our goal is not simply for you to comprehend these ideas, but for you to see, act, think, and feel differently about the world because of these ideas.   Understanding is more than a mental, intellectual act; it is an act of living.  Thus, to fully understand an idea is to understand what it means to live with that idea.   Similarly, to learn an idea is to live with it for awhile.  Therefore, not only will we ask you to read and discuss ideas in class, you will also be asked to try out these ideas in the world beyond proseminar. 

Two times during the semester, you will make a concerted effort to learn ideas by living ideas.  Each assignment involves the following two parts:

Living: to learn about an idea is to live with it

-select an idea from class, find others who want to live the same idea

-put yourself in situations where you might live (observe, think, feel, act, etc.) with the idea

-observe, think, feel, and act with the idea for several days

-keep a journal record of your experience during this time

-meet with others in your group to discuss the similarities and differences in your experience

Writing: to write is to reflect upon and verbalize the experience of living with an idea.  Your write-up should be up to 5 double-spaced pages and should include:

-a synopsis of the idea

-its initial meaning to you

-a description of the idea in action

-a comparison and contrast between your and others' experience with the idea

-an analysis of how the meaning of the idea has evolved for you

Due dates

Assignment 1:       Oct 1

Assignment 2:       Nov 12

Article Critique

As a doctoral student, you will be entering into a community of academic scholars.  A central requirement for participating in the community and for successfully completing your doctoral studies is to be able to learn from the work that others have done.  You will learn how to read an article with a mind that is open, yet critical. You will be required to prepare an extensive critique of a specified research article.  This kind of activity will begin to prepare you for the Preliminary Examination which all doctoral students take at the beginning of their second year.

Due dates

Critique 1:       Oct 15

Critique 2:       Nov 26

Scholarly Writing Exercises

A vital part of becoming a scholar is learning to write well.  Good scholarly writing is clear and compelling.  In addition, writing in your field has particular conventions that are essential to understand if you are to become an effective writer.   We will have several short writing assignments during the semester designed to help you become more adept with the communication conventions of scholarship.

Participation/Attendance (20%)

Because our class relies heavily on discussion, participation is essential.  We hope that you can attend every class.  We realize, though, that on occasion it will be difficult to get to class.  If this happens, it is your responsibility to let us know ahead of time of your absence, to complete the week’s assignment, and to get class notes.  In the past, students have found it useful to leave a tape recorder in class in their absence.  If you miss more than 3 classes, we will have to lower your grade in proportion to the number of absences in fairness to others.  We recommend that you meet with us early on if you anticipate problems with your attendance.

Evaluation

Your semester grade is based on four components weighted as follows:

Research Interest Portfolio    50%

Class Participation/Attendance    20%

Assignment Preparation*    30%

Evaluated, non-graded work

-     Living and Learning Ideas

-     Article critiques

-     Scholarly writing “exercises”

* It is sometimes difficult to assign grades based on quality because students are just beginning or in the midst of learning how do the work.  What can be graded, however, is the degree that the student seems to have prepared for or put genuine effort into the assignment.   Therefore, some assignments will be grade on this basis.  These assignments include the assigned readings, the living and learning ideas project, the article critiques, and the scholarly writing exercises.

In addition to semester grades, a written evaluation of students’ work will be prepared.  At the end of the semester, these instructor comments will be passed on to students and to their advisors and placed into the students’ academic files.

Reading Materials

Texts

Abbeduto, L. (1999). Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in Educational Psychology.  Guilford, CT: McGraw-Hill Higher Education. ISBN: 0072350768

Miller, P. H. (1993).  Theories of Developmental Psychology, 3rd ed.  W. H. Freeman & Co. ISBN: 0716723093

Phillips, D. C., & Soltis, J. F.  (1998). Perspectives on Learning, 3^rd ed. (Thinking About Education Series).  New York: Teachers College Press.  ISBN: 0807737038

Reader

 Altermatt, E. R., Pomerantz, E. M., Ruble, D. N., Frey, K. S., & Greulich, F. K. (2001). Evaluative discourse in the classroom:  A naturalistic examination of the processes of peer socialization. Manuscript under review.

 Brophy, J. Motivating students to learn. NY: McGraw Hill. Chap 2.

 Durkin, K. (1995).Chapter 9: Social cognition I: Understanding the social world.  n K. Durkin, Developmental Social Psychology: From Infancy to Old Age (pp. 290-301, 317-323).

 Heath, S. B. (1982). Questioning at home and at school: A comparative study. In G. Spindler (Ed.), Doing the ethnography of schooling: Anthropology in action. NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

 Paris, S. G., & Cunningham, A. E. (1996). Children becoming students. In D. C. Berliner & R. C. Calfee (Eds.). Handbook of Educational Psychology (pp. 117-147). New York: MacMillan.

 Phillips, D. C. (1995). The good, the bad, and the ugly: The many faces of constructivism.  Educational Researcher, 24 (7), 5-12.

 Skinner, B. F.  (1954). The science of learning and the art of teaching. Harvard Educational Review, 24, 86-97.  

Schedule of Topics and Assignments