Social Foundations of Education - ED 601
Fall 2009 Syllabus

Instructor: Gary K. Clabaugh, Ed.D., Professor of Education

RETURN
edited 8/31/09

Office: Olney 263 (Office hours and appointment sign-up sheet are posted on office door. Bucks Center students can consult with the instructor for the hour prior to class.)

E-mail clabaugh62@gmail.com@ (Make sure to include "EDC 601 " and your name in the subject line)

Texts: Clabaugh and Rozycki, Understanding Schools Instructional CD (includes 4 books, other instructional materials, access to resources available on www.newfoundations.com.) and the Foundations of Education Workbook (Provided by instructor).

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Pre-K to 4 Professional Core Elements Addressed:

** Family and Community Collaboration Partnerships: family and community relationships, family collaboration and diversity.

** Professionalism: advocacy, collaboration and cooperative learning, and issues and trends.

** Adaptions and Accomodations for Diverse Students in an Inclusive Setting

General Course Standards:

This course is based on the Standards of the Council of Learned Societies in Education. The CLSE is affiliated with the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). They have been rephrased here as three dimensions of professional development that students must accomplish.

1. The Interpretive Dimension: Using theories and resources developed within the humanities and the social and behavioral sciences, students will learn to examine and explain education within multiple contexts; and to analyze the meaning, intent and effects of educational institutions, including schools."

2. The Normative Dimension: Students will learn to examine and explain education in light of value orientations. They will develop an understanding of normative and ethical behavior in educational development and recognize the inevitable presence of normative influences in educational thought and practice. ... Students will also develop their own value position regarding education on the basis of critical study and their own reflections.

3. The Critical Dimension: Students will learn to examine and explain education in light of its origins, major influences, and consequences. They will develop a more critical understanding of educational thought and practice, and of the decisions and events that have shaped them, in their various contexts. ... They also will develop policy making perspectives and skills in searching for resolutions to educational problems and issues." These include the following:

Skills: students will develop higher-order cognitive operations such as analyzing, integrating, interpreting, explaining, evaluating, applying, abstracting, distinguishing central from peripheral and discriminating between degrees of truth.

Attitudes: students will demonstrate a willingness to grant due process to ideas — even those that others may disapprove of and especially those that one finds personally distasteful — before rendering an informed and reasoned opinion.

Worldview: students will demonstrate that they understand that the world is often not what it seems and hence must be approached with an outlook that is skeptical, penetrating, tentative and complex.

Specific Course Standards:

Students must:

1. Command factual information on school law, tort liability, school finance, school organization and administration and teaching as an occupation,

2. Master specific procedures for the analysis of educational policy to include professionalism, advocacy, collaboration and cooperative learning,

3. Explain and evaluate competing accounts of familial and community realities,

4. Analyze the limits and possibilities of adaptions and accommodations for diverse students in an Inclusive setting,

5. Clearly evaluate current educational issues and trends involving US diversity,

5. Develop refined techniques for evaluating the feasibility of educational programs and instructional interventions,

6. Explain the problems peculiar to collaboration in a pluralistic community,

7. Employ analytic techniques for considering disputed issues in schooling,

8. Place schooling in historic perspective and demonstrate an understanding of current issues and trends in schooling.

9. Be open-minded and dispassionately examine ideas and positions they find personally objectionable.

10. Articulate a reasoned and informed value position regarding education.

Instructional Methodologies: Classes incorporate a variety of instructional techniques including: short lectures, Power Point presentations, analysis of video clips, guided discussions, workshops, sharing of written assignments, etc.

Course Requirements:

** Regular and Prompt Attendance, Thorough Preparation, Completion of Assignments and Informed Participation. (10% of grade.)

** Attendance is taken at the beginning of each class meeting and is factored into this grade. Late arrivals are recorded as tardy and these too are considered during grade computation. The instructor must be informed of absences beyond the control of the student, such as illness or serious personal or family situations. If absence extends more than a week the Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences should also be notified. Attendance is taken from the first regular class day regardless of the time of registration. Penalties are assessed for any unexcused absence. Missed tests or quizzes due to an unexcused absence may not be made-up and the grade of "F" will be assigned. Student Workbooks may be examined and the results can be decisive in cases where the student's grade is on the cusp.

** Analyzing Controversy: Take Home "Tool" Application (30% of grade) Student analysis of an instructor-selected educational document using prescribed format provided in class. Criterion referenced grading.

** Educational Theorist Profile (30% of grade) Student analysis of a prominent educational theorist . The paper's format is provided at http://www.newfoundations.com/GALLERY/Gallery.html. Click on "A Survey Of Attitudes And Beliefs About Education." After examining and saving that format, scroll down the page to the Gallery of Synopses and select Vygotsky. This is the example, including the style of referencing, you must emulate. Theorists will be assigned in class. Due 2 April 2009.

** Tests (30% of grade.) Tests of materials in all four provided textbooks are typically given. These tests measure declarative knowledge by means of objective questions, and procedural knowledge by means of short essays, exercises, etc. Quizzes may also be given. Quiz grades can be decisive if the student's final grade is on the cusp.

** School Board Meeting Attendance Analysis (Pass/Fail — no percentage applied, but must be satisfactorily completed for a passing course grade.) Each student submits an appraisal of a school board meeting they have attended along with whatever handouts were made available at this meeting. Instructions for the evaluation are in the Workbook. Criterion referenced grading rated as Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory. Due 26 March 09.

** Both the tool application paper and the tests not only involve factual knowledge but the ability to carry out procedures such as:

1.) identifying slogans and reifications

2.) performing an analysis of an educational document or article.

3) testing educational "problems solutions" using the "can it fail test."

4.) identifying linguistic bullying and/or domination techniques in educational literature.

5.) identifying appeals to emotion in educational literature.

6.) analyzing authority conflicts in educational controversies.

7.) operationalizing educational claims.

Note well:

** Tests are pre-announced and NO make-ups are permitted without prior instructor notification and the absence being classified as excused. A missed quiz may not be made up.

** Students are responsible for learning all assigned materials whether or not it is reviewed in class. (Questions about assigned material are always welcome.)

** Tests and test items are the property of the professor and must be returned.

** Students who are unclear about their progress should ask the instructor.

** Individual help with concepts and assignments is cheerfully available upon request. (See office hours sign-up posted weekly on O-265 door.)

** All Workbook assignments must be completed to avoid penalty.

** Students may be asked to submit their Workbooks for inspection at any time during the semester. If a student's final grade is on the cusp, the completeness and accuracy of the Workbook may be decisive.

** Extra credit work will not be accepted.

** ALL written work must be spell checked and grammar checked. Failure to do either will result in a minimum of one letter grade reduction for that assignment.

** ALL assertions of fact in written work that are not common knowledge MUST be referenced in the manner exemplified in the Vygotsky profile referenced above.

** Final grades are computed using percentage totals and are criterion referenced using the following standards: 90 – 100 = A, 80 – 89 = B. 70 – 79 = C, 60 – 69 = D, 59 or below = F.

** Written work uncompleted by the deadline will NOT be accepted unless the instructor has previously agreed to the delay.

More on Grades:

Grades reflect La Salle's official criteria, which are:

A = Superior I = Incomplete

B = Very Good W = Withdrawal

C = Average

D = Passable

F = Failure

Note: "Average" work is defined as a "C." B's require "Very Good" work. That is the standard applied in this course.

Although the instructor reserves the option of assigning plus or minus grades, they generally are not used.

The "I" grade is a provisional grade given to a student who has otherwise maintained throughout the semester a passing grade in the course, but who has failed to take the semester examination for reasons beyond his or her control. All I grades that have not been removed within three weeks of the last regular examination of the semester become Fs. When it is physically impossible for the student to remove this grade within the time limit, he or she must obtain a written extension of time from the Dean of his or her school.

Withdrawal

The "W" grade is assigned when a student officially withdraws from a course prior to its completion. The request for withdrawal from a course is filed with the Dean of Arts and Science's Office. The request must be filed on or before the "Last day to withdraw from a class," as published in the Academic Calendar located in the current edition of the undergraduate catalog and on the University Web site.

Academic Dishonesty

Plagiarism or any other form of academic dishonesty could result in course failure and additional disciplinary penalties at the program and university level. La Salle University has a formal policy on this matter that discusses and defines academic dishonesty. It also describes the formal procedures and serious consequence that accompany its violation. This policy can be found at http//:www.lasalle.ed/portal/provost/interprop/AIP Fall 2007.swf. Plus, here are supplemental details concerning cheating and plagiarism.

Cheating

Cheating involves obtaining grades fraudulently. It includes, but is not limited to:

·       Copying, or allowing another to copy, answers during an examination

·       Giving or receiving test answers by signal

·       Asking for or divulging test answers

·       Covertly using electronic devices, such as PDA's or tape recorders, during tests. (Using such devices during testing is NEVER permissible.)

·       Copying someone else's assignment

·       Writing an assignment for someone or having one written for you

·       Plagiarism

Plagiarism

Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language defines plagiarism as "the appropriation or imitation of the language, ideas and thoughts of another and representing them as one's original work." To avoid plagiarism you must provide a citation whenever you use:

·       Someone else's actual spoken or written words or paraphrases thereof

·       Someone else's graphs, charts, tables or other illustrations

·       Someone else's thought, conclusion, or premise

·       Facts that are not common knowledge

·       Materials found on, or copied from, the Internet whether or not they are posted for public use.

The above is based on a statement published by the University of Inidana which can be found at http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/wts/plagiarism.html

Note Well: If the originality of your work is questioned, you will be required to produce working documents (notes, outlines, rough drafts, photocopies, etc.) that confirm your authorship and/or demonstrate detailed knowledge of the work in question when quizzed.

Any or all of the above is subject to change if circumstances warrant.

About The Writing Center:

The Sheekey Writing Center is located in Olney 203 where tutors are available, free of charge, to help students expand their skills and sharpen their strengths. The tutors welcome work from all disciplines and across all grade levels, including graduate, and deal with papers in all stages of development, including idea development. The Center also provides information on research and documentation styles as well as study skills. While the Writing Center does not operate as a proofreading service, tutors will assist in the editing and proofreading process to help build the skills necessary to accomplish these tasks. While drop-in service exists, such service depends on tutor availability; therefore, in order to guarantee seeing a tutor, the Writing Center recommends making an appointment through TutorTrac, located on the Student Services page of La Salle's portal. The process is easy, but should you have questions about the process, there is an animated demo that can be accessed in the TutorTrac box on the Student Services page of mylasalle.

About General Subject Tutoring

Tutoring for various subject areas is available free of charge for La Salle undergraduates. General Subject Tutors help students identify what to learn as well how to learn, clarify course content and assignments, assist in learning and practicing the concepts necessary for success in a course, and help students understand their strengths and weaknesses regarding the subject matter. Students should take advantage of tutoring at the first indication of experiencing difficulty in a course or whenever they wish to improve their performance or knowledge in a course, for example, to improve B grades to A grades or to maintain high grades. Students can schedule appointments with General Subject Tutors through TutorTrac, located on the Student Services page of La Salle's portal.

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