situated_learning_2020w2

 my major is general education, and I am taking situated learning EDST 1100.
Personal Experience of Situated learning (30%)
Due: February 13
Instruction: each student in the class will present a personal narrative of an example of situated learning as it is broadly defined and creatively expanded in each of the articles we will have read in class by that point. After your presentation, prepare a three-to-five page write-up of your narrative. This write-up should include a description of the story you told, how it relates to the theories we’ve discussed and read about together, a grade you give yourself on the presentation and a justification for that grade. What characteristics of situated learning were present in your personal narrative and the accompanying presentation? Which theories did you see playing out in the discussion? In the work of doing the write-up? In giving yourself an assessment? What went well in the experience and what didn’t? What was disappointing, surprising, inspiring? What did the experience of doing this assignment teach you about the larger issues of this course?

EDST 1100R: SITUATED LEARNING

EDST 1100 N: Situated Learning

Thursdays, 2.30 – 5.30

Keele Campus, Mac 050B

Winter, 2020

Instructor: Dr. Lorin Schwarz

Email:

lschwarz@yorku.ca

Office Hours: ½ hour after class, or by appointment

*

Learning is intentional and contextual, and it involves developing systems and structures that not only allow but also encourage organization members to learn and grow together –to develop “communities of practice.”

-Preskill and Torres

The idea of a subject that calls to us is more than metaphor. In the community of truth, the knower is not the only active agent –the subject itself participates in the dialectic of knowing…geologists are people who hear rocks speak, historians are people who hear the voices of the long dead, writers are people who hear the music of words. The things of the world call to us, and we are drawn to them –each of us to different things, as each is drawn to different friends.

–Parker J. Palmer

Teaching is a complex, relational, and creative event. When I teach, I am simultaneously involved in several dynamic relations: with myself, with my everyday world, with my subject matter, and with my students. I cannot really teach if I am not engaged with my students or if my students are not involved with me.

–Carol S. Becker

The relationship between our physical constraints and the assertion of our freedom is not a ‘problem’ requiring a solution. It is simply the way human beings are. Our condition is to be ambiguous to the core, and our task is to learn to manage the movement and uncertainty in our existence, not banish it…the ambiguous human condition means tirelessly trying to take control of things. We have to do two near-impossible things at once: understand ourselves as limited by circumstances, and yet continue to pursue our projects as though we are truly in control.

–Sarah Bakewell

Course Description

Welcome to EDST 1100: “Situated Learning.” As described in the university calendar, the aims of this seminar are as follows:

“This course is framed around situated learning theories in relation to the provisioning of educational experiences in a variety of contexts (e.g., early familial experiences, formal educational experiences, cultural educational experiences, employment educational experiences).  Students are first introduced to the major principles of families of learning theories (e.g., behaviourism, cognitivism, social learning theory, social constructivism). This introduction is followed by in-depth study of situated learning theory drawing from Lave and Wenger (1991) a seminal text in the field. Students engage in exploring exemplars of situated learning drawing from theory to understand the factors at play in the exemplars because, as situated learning theory would suggest, the representations of situated learning theory must be situated in relation to reference points. Given any particular learning engagement’s situational parameters, students examine the “teacher’s” role in that engagement and how learning can be facilitated in that situation. In addition, students are provided with opportunities to develop frameworks to communicate to others about the nature of situated learning.”

The work of this seminar stems from the questions evolving from the idea that education is a situated practice: it exists as part of physical and historical worlds that were created prior to any given moment of practice, and that any of the actors within the educational setting were not participants in choosing the scripted worlds in which they learn and teach. In such an equation of ambiguity, what freedom is possible? How does situational relation weave through the very fabric of the project of education? In what ways are teaching and learning possible? What do the situated realities of teaching do to the students and teachers, administrators and other invested parties who live their lives in relation to the educational? How does education go beyond the classroom? (We might work toward a much larger definition of what education is rather than confining it to the work of schooling, curriculum and classroom.) In what ways is both existential and practical education co-created –and by whom is it co-created? What is the educational –or the educated– subject? What role does education play in identity, and vice versa? Where is the play of the personal and the psychic reality of the emotional world within the continuum of education? What legacies might we leave for future generations as we created the situated worlds into which they will be born?

Working from traditional models of education, the course will examine the “situations” of education –internal and external– and look at how communities of practice in all sorts of educational settings work to repress, understand, alter and work within the ambiguity of the phenomenological world. Using articles, films, short stories, personal essays and a novel, we will look at how learners and teachers exchange and move between categories, how life might be seen as a search for curriculum, and how we make meaning –and perhaps a sense of identity, individuality and freedom– from the learnings we do –and those we resist– from the larger world in which we live. The course looks to define the delicate balance of learner, teacher, subject, world –and a reality in which all of these co-exist.

Regular attendance and participation are mandatory. Please notify me as soon as possible if you are unable to attend class. Teacher candidates are responsible for catching up on notes, discussions and assignments that have been missed. Unexcused/unexplained absences and/or lateness may result in a lowering of your grade. Please make every effort to be in class for your scheduled presentations –and keep in mind that others have put a great deal of work into their presentations as well. Active involvement in the seminar is also compulsory; students are expected to contribute in creating a safe, respectful, professional and engaging literary community. Furthermore, it is the responsibility of everyone in the class to act in a reflective, collaborative and supportive manner as we make links between our university and practicum experiences, our seminar work and our lives.

Students are expected to arrive punctually for class, with course readings completed. Projects, group presentations and written assignments must be handed in on time. Clarity and precision of thought are required for all written work and correct grammar and punctuation are expected. Appropriate reference must be included and documented, refer to the York University style guides at

http://info.library.yorku.ca/depts/ref/refweb.thm#style

and

http://info.library.yorku.ca/internet/citing.htm

for Internet citations.

It is the policy of York University that instructors mark only original assignments, not copies. Email and fax submissions are not acceptable. Students are advised to retain a copy of each submission. All assignments should be typed in an appropriate 12-point font and double-spaced with one-inch margins. Please respect due dates and assume they hold weight. Unless a dire emergency has taken place, it is expected that assignments will be handed in on time. Work handed in outside of the parameters of the course may not be graded in time to avoid recording a “fail” mark on student transcripts. This is never a good thing. I do not accept e-mailed versions of assignments; hard copies are mandatory.

Academic honesty is of the utmost importance in any learning endeavour. Please familiarize yourself with the regulations on plagiarism and cheating in the pre-service teacher education handbook. In addition, support material and a tutorial can be accessed at York University’s Academic Integrity Web Site:

www.yorku.ca/academicintegrity

or

www.yorku.ca/academicintegrity/students.htm

.

Students with special needs are asked to contact the course director within the first two weeks of classes in order to make appropriate arrangements for assistance and facilitation of learning and teaching. It is York University’s policy to support students with identified special needs. If you believe you will experience difficulties fulfilling course requirements, please arrange to meet with me.

York provides services for students with disabilities (including physical, medical, learning and psychiatric disabilities) needing accommodation related to teaching and evaluation methods/materials. These services are made available to students in all Faculties and programs at York University.

Students in need of these services are asked to register with disability services as early as possible to ensure that appropriate academic accommodation can be provided with advance notice. You are encouraged to schedule a time early in the term to meet with each instructor to discuss accommodation needs. Please note that registering with disabilities services and discussing your needs with your instructor is necessary to avoid any impediment to receiving the necessary academic accommodations to meet your needs.

Additional information is available at

www.yorku.ca/disabilityservices

or from disability service providers:

-Office for Persons with Disabilities: N108 Ross, 416.726.5140 or

www.yorku.ca/opd

-Learning and Psychiatric Disabilities Programs- Counselling and Development Centre: 130 BSB, 416.736.5297,

www.yorku.ca/cdc

-Atkinson students: Atkinson Counseling and Supervision Centre: 114 Atkinson, 416.736.5225,

www.yorku.ca/atkcsc

-Glendon students: Glendon Counseling and Career Centre: Glendon Hall 111, 416.487.6709 www.glendon.yorku.ca/counseling

I also want to say a word about the use of computers in the class. While laptops, portable phones and WiFi have become a vital component of our lives at the university, not to mention invaluable tools for learning, there is undoubtedly a dark side to the wireless experience. Using the computer to take notes, enhance study or augment creative pedagogy is the best use of technology. Checking email, texting, online surfing, chatting, updating social networks and downloading games, music, videos or software is not. These activities are distracting to colleagues and the CD. As new teachers, you will come to understand the distractions our portable world of technology creates, as well as the educational challenges it presents within the classroom. Drawing from that knowledge, I would ask that students operate from the best angels of their natures and refrain from using technology for any purpose but the aims of the course while in the classroom setting.

On a related note, it is a matter of courtesy and legality never to record members of the class –including the teacher— without their expressed permission. My assumption is that anyone choosing to remain in the course understands this contract.

Course Texts

Dewey, John. Experience and Education. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1938.

Ludt, Erika Hasebe and Wanda Hurren. (Eds.) Curriculum Intertext:

Place/Language/Pedagogy. New York: Peter Lang, 2003.

Saenz, Benjamin Alire. The Inexplicable Logic of my Life. New York: Clarion, 2017.

Course Kit containing five (5) short stories

Online Resources listed below

Assignments

I. Group Presentation + Handout (25%)

Each student will choose one of the short stories and lead the discussion of that story to a small group in-class. In order to facilitate the discussion, I am going to ask that each student prepare 3 questions about their short story as these related to ideas and concepts of situated learning. Please write the question and some of your own links to in-class discussion and reading for each. Hand these in ONE WEEK FOLLOWING YOUR FACILITATION OF GROUP DISCUSSION, along with a small synopsis of how the question functioned in the reading groups. Did your question open up points to consider or shut them down? Were links to the theory evident or were your group members hesitant to make these connections? Why do you think that was the case? How did your thinking about each question evolve because of the discussion you facilitated? (Each question should have no more than a one-paragraph write-up.)

II. Personal Experience of Situated learning (30%)

Due: February 13

On January 30, each student in the class will present a personal narrative of an example of situated learning as it is broadly defined and creatively expanded in each of the articles we will have read in class by that point. After your presentation, prepare a three-to-five page write-up of your narrative. This write-up should include a description of the story you told, how it relates to the theories we’ve discussed and read about together, a grade you give yourself on the presentation and a justification for that grade. What characteristics of situated learning were present in your personal narrative and the accompanying presentation? Which theories did you see playing out in the discussion? In the work of doing the write-up? In giving yourself an assessment? What went well in the experience and what didn’t? What was disappointing, surprising, inspiring? What did the experience of doing this assignment teach you about the larger issues of this course?

III: Online Postings (10 X 3 = 30%)

Due: Weeks of January 12, 16 and 23

For each of the theoretical readings (Dewey, Lave) I will pose an article-based question in class and on-line; students are expected to respond in a succinct, one-paragraph answer demonstrating their engagement and understanding with the readings.

IV. Final Engagements (15%)

Due: April 2

For the last class, I will pose one last question about the larger themes of our course and ask for a succinct response engaging a number of the course readings, including The Inexplicable Logic Of My Life. Students will respond either by posting online or handing in a hard-copy demonstrating a familiar understanding of the readings and a creative re-envisioning of their encounter with the idea of “situated learning.”

An outline of the standard expectations for grading are below.

Schedule

January 9:
Course Introduction and Syllabus; Phenomenological, Existential ideas of
“situated freedom” and the psychology of being an educational subject.

Reading for Next Class: “Situated Learning in Communities of Practice”

by Jean Lave. Access at:

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/11c7/75f8a059d6100ad7f5e499ab1300e4c1747f

January 12:
Situated Learning, Community, Identity, Co-Creation

Reading for Next Class: “Stories of an Itinerant Wayfarer:

Narrative in the Space of Healing” by Patrick Verriour.

In: Curriculum Intertext

January 16:
Identity, learners, teachers, “experts”, curriculum and educational settings

Reading for Next Class: John Dewey: Experience and Education

Chapters 1 – 3 (inclusive)

January 23:
Progressive Education and Situated Learning

Reading for Next Class: John Dewey: Experience and Education

Chapters 4 and 5

January 30:
Progressive Education and Situated Learning (continued): The Play

of the Personal.

Personal Narrative Due! Be ready to share and present these.

Reading for Next Class: “Spring Pedagogy” in the course kit

(Group Discussion Presentations begin next week)

February 6:
Trauma, the personal and the community in Situated Learning

Group presentations “Spring Pedagogy”, film

Reading for Next Class: “Thursdays” in the course kit

February 13:
Revisiting the Educational Setting; Personal History and Situated Learning

What are we afraid of? What do we use the walls of a school for?

-Group Presentation “Thursdays”, lecture

Reading for next class: “Cellists” in the course kit

Personal Narrative Write-Ups are due!

February 20:
No class. Reading Week! (Begin reading the novel!)

February 27:
Time and the situated learning; when does education begin? Can it end?

-Group Presentation “Cellists”, lecture

Reading for next week: “The Honorary Shepherds” (in course kit)

March 5:
Identity and Situated Learning, Community

Group Presentation “The Honorary Shepherds”, lecture

Reading for Next Class: “Full Count”

March 12:
The World and Situated Learning: What do we do with Inheritance?

What is the “canonical text?? How does curriculum change?

Group Presentation “Full Count”, lecture

Reading for Next Class: The Inexplicable Logic of my Life

March 19:
The Life Cycle and Situated Learning: What is demanded from us?

Lecture; discussion of the novel and of using fiction in the

social science world.

Reading for Next Class
: The Inexplicable Logic of my Life

March 26: Situated Learning, Situated Freedom, Situated Lives:

Is all the logic of situation inexplicable?

Film

April 2: Wrap-up and final engagements

Final Engagement Due