If you learn only methods, you'll be tied to your methods, but if you learn principles you can devise your own methods.  - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Facilitator: Dr. Leslie Owen Wilson

E-mail addresses: Work: lwilson@uwsp.edu 

If you are enrolled you can readily access all of my course materials using your university ID. However, you will NOT be able to access D2L until official start of class! You will be given a variety of online resources and closed links that can only be accessed with your university password. Please see your cyber-instruction packet for details and hints about using D2L effectively. If you have difficulty accessing linked webpages from D2L, see links off of the course homepage.

Required text: Joyce, Bruce, & Weil, Marsha, w/Calhoun, Emily (8th edition, 2008) Models of teaching , Allyn and Bacon. This text runs about $120.00 retail but can be purchased for less online. As a testament to the book's value, we keep asking former students if they want to sell their copies, and none do. They say it is too valuable as a professional resource to sell. The text was chosen because it is, and has been, one of the definitive classics concerning models of teaching. The 8^th edition is the latest and differs from previous editions, so please make sure you have gotten the correct edition.

Course Description:

Simply put models of teaching deals with constructing learning environments. Models may provide frameworks, patterns, or examples for any number of educational components -- curricula, instructional techniques, instructional groupings, classroom management plans, the development of support materials, presentation methods, combined strategies, etc.. Thus, this course focuses on understanding varied aspects of instructional environments. It also deals with developing instructional repertoires, understanding curricular foci, gaining clearer perspectives as to what works with different types of learners, as well as developing an awareness as to the reasons why some methods work and others do not.

Traditionally, models of teaching are represented by a broad array of teaching systems, each system containing a distinctive philosophical basis and related pedagogical methodologies. Most models can be generally fitted into one of four distinct families: 

• social; 

• information-processing; 

• personal; and 

• behavioral systems. 

Models falling into these categories have strong histories of research, development, and usage as most have been both refined and tested in the field. In this course participants will explore selected teaching models that are representative of all four divisions and curricular orientations behind these models. 

Personalization: 

One of the nice things about e-courses is that they can be easily altered to fit individual backgrounds and needs. If you have taken my version of ED 721, have considerable knowledge of curriculum history and design, or are employed as a curriculum director with an advanced degree already, we can personalize the assignments and projects so that they are tailored to more advanced levels or personalized explorations.

Generally, during this course we will examine some of the following issues concerning the development and implementation of different types of teaching models: 

1. Our existing personal knowledge, expertise, attitudes, preferred curricular orientations, beliefs and perceptions concerning the nature of teaching and learning. 

2. Some of the different philosophical and psychological orientations that impact models of teaching and learning.

3. Representative models from the four common orientations to learning, teaching, and writing curriculum. 

4. The processes in developing personal teaching models.  

5. And any relevant professional or personal concerns, needs or interests of participating students as these may impact the implementation, development, or practice of teaching models.

6. Lastly, during this period of time, I encourage you to examine yourself in the following contexts - as a learner; as a teacher; as a writer of instructional plans, as a curricular developer, and as a member of a profession and world that is rapidly changing.  

As with all of my graduate courses, the Models course emphasizes the following components:

Specific Course Goals:

The major goals for this course are that:

1. Students will examine and become familiar with a variety of models, especially as these relate to curricular planning and instructional design -- again this can differ according to personal selection and need. 

2. Students will be able to recognize the components that create effective teaching models. 

3. Students will be able to critically analyze models and methods of teaching. 

4. Students will be able to identify models and categorize them into the appropriate categories. 

5. At a personal mastery level students will be able to construct usable and effective personal models of teaching and bring these into the curriculum. 

The material emphases, assignments, and projects are to act as a framework so that you can have some input and choice in the selection of models you wish to study in depth. Your input and clarification of your own academic, scholarly, professional, and personal needs is an imperative portion of this course. In this context, you should be prepared to determine personal directions and assignments. Therefore, it is, extremely important for you to articulate your ideas and needs concerning the content and processes of this course. You should do this in conjunction with the goals stated in the course description, the content of the text, and the instructor's assumptions, and the overriding contexts provided.

 Instructor's assumptions about graduate students:

1. THAT LEARNING IS NOT A SPECTATOR SPORT, but rather a lifelong pursuit and an interactive journey.

2.  Cyber-courses require strong levels of intrinsic motivation, and self-regulation and determination.

3. That professional adults are capable of articulating their personal, professional and academic needs.

4. That in order for learning to be meaningful, it must be relevant to the learner.

5. That I cannot teach another person directly; I can only facilitate and help monitor his/her learning, and that this process requires constant communication. 

6.  That the ideas of "closure" or of "overriding universal truths" are becoming unheard of phenomena in an Information Age and should not be expected.

7. That professional educators are academically curious and capable of scholarly self-direction. 

8. That everything except death and human dignity is negotiable. 

Grades: While you will be given rubrics for all of the major components of this course indicating differentiated gradient behaviors and expectations, general expectations for a graduate student who is "A" quality - he/she:

• Is an intrinsic learner, one self-motivated, curious, and willing to set his/her own goals and objectives.

• Raises new questions, has insightful observations and discusses these on-line with frequency and intelligence. 

• Provides evidence of having perused the assigned readings and readily shares interpretations of that information with other on-line participants. 

• Regularly attends to tasks at hand and meets set deadlines.

• Willingly cooperates with the instructor and with fellow cyber classmates.

• Produces assignments, and on-line investigations that are professional, and that demonstrate evidence of original thought and the ability to synthesize, analyze and evaluate, and create materials.

• Is responsible for initiating personal requests for help or assistance, and for devising alternative assignments that may be more personally meaningful.

It is not the events that shape our lives, it is our responses to those events.                                                             Dawna Markova