Courses » Education, Schooling Society

ESS 33600  Introduction to Education, Schools and Society
Required ESS course

The aim of the introductory course is to explore some basic questions about the nature and goals of education, its history, and theoretical explanations of influences on learning, teaching, and schooling. Because no one disciplinary perspective can adequately address the complex issues in education, The course will incorporate and integrate disciplinary perspectives from history, sociology, and psychology.

In this course we will address three fundamental issues in education. We have framed them as topics for reading and discussion.

1. What is education for?
2. Under what conditions do students learn? How does the organization of schooling affect how people learn and how teachers teach?
3. How are learning, teaching, and assessment related? How do people learn? What is “good” instruction? What is the purpose of assessment, including high stakes assessment?

Course objectives

At the end of the course students will be able to:

1. Explain and evaluate various goals of American education.
2. Analyze and critique organizational structures of schooling in terms of student outcomes.
3. Argue and justify a position on tracking as an organizational feature of schooling.
4. Compare and contrast various theories of learning, e.g, behaviorism and constructivism.
5. Explain how learning, instruction, and assessment are related.
6. Provide theoretical justification for different approaches to instruction.
7. Analyze and evaluate various approaches to instruction.
8. Argue and justify a position on high stakes testing in the U.S.
9. Analyze and synthesize course materials and outside resources to answer the question: “What is education for?”

Students will use discussion and writing as primary modes of learning in this course. Written responses to readings as well as multiple drafts of a final research paper, with peer and teacher feedback, will enable students to clearly express their views on important issues in education and to argue various viewpoints on the purpose of education.

ESS 43640  Senior Seminar:Education-Related Research
Required ESS course

For students minoring in Education, Schooling, and Society, this course is designed as an advanced introduction to conducting research. In designing this course as an "advanced" introduction, I assume that those enrolled in the course have developed a research project for at least one other course. In turn, I expect that everyone will either build on a previous study or develop a new project for this class.

As you work on your own research, we will read a number of different studies that will enable us to examine a wide range of research methods: life histories, linguistic analyses, ethnographic studies of both home and school, case studies, and the like. We will address the following in analyzing the research design of a given piece of research:

• What questions motivate the study? Are these questions that relate to educational policy? to teaching? to developing theory?
• What is the theoretical frame out of which these questions develop?
• What's at stake in asking these questions?
• What are the most effective methods for answering these questions?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of different research methods?
• What are the consequences of what we find for those we study and for ourselves?

Considering the consequences of our research can mean the changes our understanding can bring about the ways gender, race, and class intersect in schools. Moreover, the way we construct our research agendas, carry out these projects, and disseminate the results of these projects "directly raise questions about who has the power to define whom, and when, and how" (McCarthy & Crichlow, 1993). Thus, it is important to ask the following:

• How are you representing those you study? What is missing?
• Which research processes make the most sense to you?
• How do you decide what is significant?
• How will you decide how to describe what is significant?

ESS 30611  Tutoring in the Community
Not required ESS course - may be elected

ESS 30611 is a one credit seminar for students who have chosen to volunteer in educational outreach programs in the South Bend Community. This seminar will provide tutors with an opportunity to explore the social, economic, and cultural forces which impact the lives of the students they mentor. It will also provide tutors with the tools they need to analyze beliefs and pedagogy, improve instruction, and foster development in South Bend schoolchildren in need. Instructor's permission is required.