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Introduction to Teaching and Learning (230-0-20)

Instructors

Jen Munson

Meeting Info

Annenberg Hall 345: Mon, Wed 12:30PM - 1:50PM

Overview of class

This course explores the nature of learning and the implications for what it means to teach, with a particular focus on the teaching and learning that occur in US K-12 schools. To do so, we will explore and critique theories of learning and investigate how those theories have animated our own experiences as learners in schools. We will examine the various purposes of schooling and how these ideologies, coupled with theories of learning and societal forces, have worked to produce inequitable conditions and outcomes for students in US schools. We will then consider what theories of learning and a focus on equitable outcomes mean for conceptualizing teaching, and we will analyze cases of teaching to make visible the difficult cognitive work of orchestrating learning. Finally, we will apply what we've learned about learning, teaching, and schooling to analyze contemporary debates in education and how they are covered by the media.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

Conceptualize learning and how teaching and learning environments are designed in relation to how we conceive of learning

Reflect critically on your own educational experiences and situate these experiences within current research on learning, teaching, and schooling

Describe the inequalities in US education systems and how those inequalities manifest in students' experiences

Analyze cases of teaching and teacher thinking and assess the conceptions of learning represented

Explore how learning environments can be designed to support more equitable outcomes for students

Interpret contemporary debates in education using conceptions of teaching, learning, and education systems and construct reasoned arguments about these debates as a member of society

Class Attributes

Social and Behavioral Science Foundational Discipl
Social & Behavioral Sciences Distro Area

Enrollment Requirements

Enrollment Requirements: Pre-Registration -- Reserved for SESP Students until the end of preregistration, after which time enrollment will be open to everyone who has taken the prerequisites, if applicable.