EDUC 8082E - New Teachers Collaborative: Principles of Progressive Education

3 cr.

In the Progressive Education Seminar; teacher participants work with colleagues to explore foundational texts and ideas associated with progressive education and to reflect on and apply these theories to their own practice. This seminar is organized in three sections, each exploring a series of Essential Questions and focusing on one or more of the Ten Common Principles of the Coalition of Essential Schools. The first section explores the Purpose and History of Progressive Education, expanding teachers’ understanding of the first common principle, “Learning to use one’s mind well,” Participants will explore ideologies and pedagogies that underlie progressive education and see how these Ideas have developed over time. Through the discussion of seminal texts, reflective journals, peer observations and synthesis paper, teacher participants will examine how Theodore R. Sizer, the Coalition of Essential Schools, and Parker are placed within a larger educational context. The second section, titled Adolescent Learning, allows teachers to examine common principle number four, “Personalization,” In this section, teachers will work together to learn about adolescent development and consider how students think, feel, and act in relation to their development. They will think specifically about “risk-taking” in and outside the classroom. Through continued use of reflective journaling and observations, as well as the interpretation of student ethnographic data, teachers will continue to synthesize their learning through writing as they examine how students learn and how this impacts our thinking and understanding as educators. The final section of this course shifts towards the work of educators, examining the design of the Progressive Constructivist Classroom. Teacher participants will examine their role in designing student-centered, inquiry-based lessons and broaden their understanding of the second and fifth common principles, “Less is more” and “Student-as-worker, teacher-as-coach.” Participants will learn the “what” and “how” of constructivism by engaging in hands-on and authentic learning themselves. They will also become familiar with contemporary research on foundational Ideas that support these instructional beliefs.