EDUC 5030 – March 5, 2013

Today’s class

• • • • • Review and discussion of Feb. 26 online class Continuing the conversation: The Wild Child and rationalism; reason Preparation for March 12 class: inclusive curriculum planning Assignment: 2-page draft: Common errors Will hand back; time for individual meeting with me

Online Class

1. First part of the assignment – February 23-

24: Provide a 2-paragraph response to a question (questions will be posted on the Moodle site); “Add a new discussion topic” 2. Second part – February 25-27: Respond to two other postings/topics, and reply to those who have responded to yours.

Naturally good… (Luis)

• • Related the belief “people are basically good”, in my opinion, I do not agree with this view. I think people are naturally selfish, drawing on advantages and avoiding disadvantages are natural instinct of people. However, I do agree that we should let children develop their interest and observe them and guide them in an effective way.

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother A. Chua

teaching him outdoors (Amal)

• I taught in a small school on the border and had many problems with students using drugs and underperforming. What I didn't know as a new teacher that imposing my culture from Riyadh to a previously nomadic culture was wrong. I should have been a little more like Dr. Itard and used their culture for a basis of the curriculum. (Omar)

• • • Mencius. He believe that "all people are born with natural tendencies toward "waywardness“ (Sam) Parents instill their own curriculum in their children. I wonder if Dr. Itard would have continued with teaching Victor even if he did not continue to receive a pension to work with Victor? (James) how much of education is cultural, as we value procedure, manners and decorum in nearly everything. (Kailey)

• • Dr. Itard logically developed rational steps and followed a gradual process in order to help Victor to achieve the goal of recognition of words. He first stared awakening Victor's hearing with various instruments and his voice, then he trained Victor's memory with the matching games, created some variations (Yina) a learn-by-doing approach (Carly)

• • Where as Madame Guerin focuses more on Victors emotions, …with a hug or a warm smile or awareness on Victors need to play.

Unfortunately because Dr. Itard is so rational… it actually creates more harm with Victor and his resistance to learn. Such as when Victor was being hit on the knuckles with the stick. Frankly I would not want to participate either. I think sometimes Dr. Itard was not aware of the effect… (Corey)

What versus How

• Dr. Itard’s goal was really to civilize Victor and teach him language. It may have been helpful to mankind, but I don’t think it was very helpful to Victor. (Steph)

Rationalism / Reason

• • • “Age of Reason:” when was this? What’s another name for it?

Reason: “a mental faculty or capacity” belonging to humans* that is distinct from feelings and experience.

Think, understand, and form judgments or decisions through logic: propositions, facts, and the relationship between them

“I think therefore I am”

• • • Rationalist: truth is determined by reason Mental capacity isolated from doing and feeling –requires that one step away from these Brain isolated from body • Rene Descartes

Quotes about reason

• • • • "Most men seem to live according to sense rather than reason.“(Thomas Aquinas) "A man has free choice to the extent that he is rational.“ (Thomas Aquinas) "As reason is a rebel to faith, so passion is a rebel to reason.“ (Thomas Browne) "Many are destined to reason wrongly; others, not to reason at all; and others, to persecute those who do reason.“ (Voltaire)

• • "What is rational is actual, and what is actual is rational.“ (Hegel -19 th century) "The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. He is the man who has lost everything except his reason.“ (Chesterton, 20 th century)

Instrumental Reason/Rationality

• • • Rationality, not as a belief in capabilities fo humans, but of organization and efficiency “A person acts with instrumental rationality when their action is oriented around: – Goals (outcomes, targets) – Means (plans, tools, templates) – Results (actual consequences) And when they rationally evaluate each of these.”

Two Page Draft Assignment

A

Grades and Messages; Marks

Grade

A+

Mark

19/20

Mark

95

The message

Outstanding! Keep up the excellent effort. (2) 18/20 90 Very good. Minor problems to be corrected. (4) A 17/20 85 A-/B+ 16/20 80 B+ 16/20 80 Good; solid. But a few things that could be improved. (12) Good; but on the borderline for graduate work. There are issues that require attention and work. You may want to talk to me about these. In most cases, there are problems with the structure of your draft or the way you construct arguments. (5) Satisfactory; but below the borderline for graduate work. You definitely should talk to me about your work. It would be helpful for you to work on ways of conceptualizing and writing about arguments, and/or using sources. (0)

Common Challenges

• • • • • • Subject-Verb agreement

Present tense with writers; past tense with history.

Curriculum  curricula Use of definite articles Run-on sentences Sentences that are too complex

Subject-Verb Agreement

• Verb-subject agreement: With the internationalization and globalization of education, there are an increasing number of international students in every country

Indicate Source – when not common knowledge

• • In Canada, independent schools refer to elementary and secondary schools that meet the requirements of the provincial educational system but are not managed by local government ‘they tend to be afraid of “losing face”, which has quite an important meaning for Chinese , and so they usually avoid taking risks but instead “play it safe”.

Sources/Quotes

• • “Religious schools were the first schools to be set up in the world and from these schools the spread of education started” Blockquotes: when there are more than 25 words in a quote, make it into a block quote: – No quotation marks – It ends with a period, – The reference follows without a period at the end

Blockquote

Tense / Subject-verb agreement

• • • Fisher proposed that human beings are the creatures who tell stories and those stories serve a function of making meaning of our experience.

The content of television shows are critical elements because...

With the developing of society, more and more scholars are calling for the comprehensive education for all children

Other tricky matters

• • • “In this article, we will attempt to compare different teaching models between Canada and China” “What they are taught and what they learn have great influence.” Infinitives: I have seen a lot of negative parenting practices and neglecting parental skills from Chinese parents…

Logic/Reason

• Also, “Mayberry and Knowles (1989) observed that, in general, parents who home school either do not accept the content of the school’s curriculum or are unhappy with the institutionalized nature of schooling” (Bruce, 2000, p.1). For those parents who choose to home school their kids, the results turned out to be positive….

E.g. of Unnecessary Length…

• Research shows that “...parenting issues have been identified as triggers for parent adolescent conflict”, also that “...negative parenting practices would lead to the child’s unwillingness to be socialized can be expanded to include parent-adolescent conflict as a mediating factor...”

Definite articles

• [The] early childhood education has been highly prized in China not least because of the historical influences, but also the social movement of one-child policy and the transition to market economy in the Chinese society.