Adolescent Development and Learning

Fall 2002

The University of Toledo

College of Education

Foundations of Education

Course Purpose

The purpose of this course is to teach you to see the world of education through the lens of student learning, development, and motivation. That means I want to transform the way you look at situations involving teaching and learning. Having been in school for the majority of your life, you of course already know a lot about teaching and learning. But I want to teach you new ways of thinking about teaching and learning. For instance, now you may view the cartoon below and simply find it humorous. But when I’m done with you, you will see things you never saw before. You will see explanations for his behavior that you may have missed. You will see qualities of his learning environment that you may have overlooked. And, you will see consequences of his actions that you may have failed to recognize.

Course Materials

Text: Educational Psychology by John W. Santrock.

Course pack: Available at The Student Book Store (3059 W Bancroft).

Standards

The course focuses on the following Ohio Performance Based Teacher Licensure Standards:

2K1 The teacher understands how learning occurs—how students construct knowledge, acquire skills, and develop habits of mind—and knows how to use instructional strategies that promote student learning.

2K2 The teacher understands that students’ physical, social, emotional, moral and cognitive development influence learning and knows how to address these factors when making instructional decisions.

3K4 The teacher understands how students’ learning is influenced by individual experience, talents, and prior learning, as well as language, culture, family and community values.

5K1 The teacher understands the cognitive processes associated with various kinds of learning (e.g. critical and creative thinking, problem structuring and problem solving, invention, memorization and recall) and how these processes can be stimulated.

6K5 The teacher recognizes factors and situations that are likely to promote or diminish intrinsic motivation, and knows how to help students become self-motivated.

Course Description

The course is divided into two parts. One part will focus on the prominent theories of how students’ learn. Each theory offers unique insights into the nature of learning and the art of teaching. I use the word art deliberately, for teaching truly becomes an art when you own learn to craft your effective practice out of your knowledge of principles of learning, development, and motivation. In this course, we will focus on the insights that each theory provides into the following issues:

• What is the goal of education?
• How is learning defined and how does it take place?
• How do experience, prior knowledge, and other people effect learning?
• What instructional methods are effective for what purposes?

The other part of the course will be patterned after scholarly learning communities. Our class will become a learning community that will investigate issues of adolescent development and motivation. Specifically, we will form interest groups. Each group will study some aspect of adolescent learning and motivation, write about what they have learned, submit their writing for peer review to another group, review the writing of another group, present their knowledge to other class members in a conference format, and, finally, revise their writing and publish it in a class journal. More details will be given later on in the semester.

Student Evaluation

Participation. Your participation is critical to the success of this class. Without your contribution to class discussion and activities, the class degrades into a lecture-based course. Lecturing does have its usefulness and I will lecture at times, but I’m sure you will find the course much more beneficial and enjoyable if class members regularly engage in lively discussion. Therefore, I decided to acknowledge the importance of participation by allowing your participation to contribute to your grade. You will be given full credit (30 pts.) for participation if you attend class and participate on a regular basis. You will only lose participation points if you fail to participate (of course) or if you fail to come to class (it’s hard to participate if you’re home in bed). I’ll give you 2 free absences (for sickness and that), but I’ll deduct 5 points for each additional absence. Attendance is especially important because there’s no way to make-up a discussion or class activity -- and it’s the discussions and activities that really make the course worthwhile. If you are unable to attend class due to a serious problem (extended sickness, death in the family, etc.), then come talk with me and we will work something out.

Quizzes. I know once you start doing the readings you will find them meaningful, useful, and interesting. But sometimes you need a little boost to get started. Hence, the quizzes. I will give 5 pop quizzes on the assigned readings at the start of class. These cannot be made up (except in some extreme situation). However, if you know you will have to miss class for a valid reason, you can take the quiz early.

Learning Community Projects. As part of a group, you will first complete the following projects and be evaluated on the quality of these projects:

1. Write an article on some issue of adolescent development.
2. Provide a peer review of another group’s adolescent development article.
3. Present what you have learned to the rest of the class about adolescent development.
4. Revise your article on adolescent development and submit it for publication in the class journal.

Afterwards, you will join a new group and complete the same four projects, only this time you will focus on the issue of motivation instead of development. Again you will be evaluated on the quality of your projects. A detailed explanation of what constitutes a quality project will be given at the onset of the activity.

Exam. There will be one take-home exam that will require you to apply, analyze, and synthesize the learning theories we will study. I suggest you form study groups to help prepare for the exam (it will really help you to understand the conceptual stuff if you discuss it with others).

*Warning: I don’t think it does you much good to just memorize the course content. I want you to develop a deep understanding and to be able to apply what you learn. Therefore, the exam requires you to apply concepts to real world situations and make connections between the various concepts. As a result, the exam is difficult, but fair. Students who come to class, do the readings, and seriously study, tend to do quite well whereas those who don’t really struggle.

Be sure to study all the assigned readings.

Grade breakdown.

*Students who experience special needs should speak to me early in the semester regarding special arrangements for test taking, note taking, or other considerations that might improve learning.

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