Exploring the Tensions Between Narrative Imagination and Official Knowledge Through The Life of Pi

This presentation was given during the Curriculum Studies Summer Collaborative

Young Citizens of the World Unite! A Case for the Model United Nations in Middle School Classrooms

In this manuscript, the authors describe the benefits and theoretical connections the Junior Model United Nations (JMUN) program has with middle school classrooms. The lens used to view the JMUN program is informed by literature on the needs of young adolescents, inquiry learning, and global citizenship. Findings from this literature illuminate nuances in the interaction between inquiry learning through the C3 Framework and active learning participation. Implications for middle school students, in-service teachers, and teacher candidates are discussed

Slaying the Dragon: Junior Model United Nations Curriculum Designing for Middle School Teacher Candidates

Abstract The process of teaching curriculum design to pre-service teachers is a complex process.  To address this issue, teacher candidates were asked to integrate an inquiry-based approach while considering their own curriculum chapter for a Junior Model United Nations (JMUN) program.  The findings of this study suggest that teacher candidates can benefit from inquiry-based methods in planning and teaching JMUN curriculum.  In the process, teacher candidates become aware of their own biases and pedagogical needs while teaching their future students.  This is accomplished through cause and effect teaching since the teacher candidates are simultaneously building and teaching. The further removed teacher candidates are from curriculum development, the less likely they are to understand the significance of curriculum development and its applications.

Viewing edTPA through Freire’s Critically Optimistic Lens

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Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Our Students Are?

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What to Do With What Disney Has Done: A Juxtaposition of Disney Characters and the Global Citizen

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Absolute vs. Relative Location

An expression with which many educators are familiar sounds something like “we have to meet our students where they are.” This is in reference to ongoing, and increasing, pressure on classroom teachers to differentiate their instruction so that all learners can have equal access to academic success. This pressure, in turn, is a result of more and more evidence that students in classrooms do not all interact with information in the same ways. Evidence of this spans from neuroscientific research to scholarship on the role of culture in ways of learning and knowing. All point to the same conclusion: it cannot be taken for granted that a group of students will reach the same learning goals by being taught the same information in the same ways. Hence the impetus felt by classroom teachers to “meet” their students wherever they happen to be relative to a given learning goal. This paper troubles the notion of “meeting students where they are,” and challenges the philosophical beliefs and practices of teacher educators around this sentiment. The topic will be addressed in the format of an individual paper presentation that compares the outcomes of using relative and absolute locations to describe students and weaves together suggestions for ways to truly “meet students where they are.

Exploring the Tensions Between Narrative Imagination and Official Knowledge Through the \u3cem\u3eLife of Pi\u3c/em\u3e

In this chapter we borrow the experiences had by the main character of Yann Martel’s 2013 novel, Life of Pi, to show how imagination is a tool we use to help us survive. We explain that in many ways, because of the work involved to make sense out of new and unfamiliar things, children are surviving the hard work of growing up that is childhood

The 4 R\u27s of Professional Development School Partnerships

The 4 R’s of Professional Development School Partnerships University faculty and public school administrators describe the strengths and opportunities that exist in Professional Development School partnerships. In area middle and elementary schools, university faculty and students are collaborating with teachers, students, and administrators to better prepare teacher candidates to succeed early in their teaching careers. This presentation will enumerate the lessons learned in planning and implementing these partnerships, multiple ways learning is impacted, and the ways all partners are working to ensure the potential of these relationships is met. The 4 R’s of Professional Development School Partnerships are the Roles and Responsibilities of faculty, students, clinical teachers, preservice teachers, and administrators, the Reality of best intentions in action, and Research possibilities that are emerging as a result of the partnerships