Time: Wednesday 3:30- 6:30 pm
Room: McDowell 202
Instructor: R.L. Venezky
Office: 211 Willard Hall Building
Telephone: 831-8126
Office Hours: W&Th 2:30 - 3:25pm and by appointment

First and foremost, EDST 821 is a seminar, which according to Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary (Mish, 1984), is "a group of advanced students studying under a professor with each doing original research and all exchanging results through reports and discussions."

Ambrose Bierce might have defined a Ph.D. seminar as a forum in which graduate students pay for the privilege of educating a professor in esoteric topics of limited viability. Whichever definition you choose, this is a seminar and therefore students will participate actively, do original research, and communicate their results to others in the group (including the professor).

EDST 821 focuses on current approaches to the analysis of instruction, learning, and schooling. One goal of the course is to teach students how to read educational research articles critically. This leads to an ability to see what new territory a particular study or review may have covered and what its contributions to the field might be, as well as its blemishes, warts, and inadequacies.

A second goal of the course is to explore educational research paradigms: the goals, methods, and attitudes that define at a given time the problems considered worthy of study and the methods deemed appropriate for this research agenda. As Kuhn and others have demonstrated, research goals and methods derive from attitudes and beliefs of the scientific community; they are not written on the back of the Sinaitic tablets nor are they arrived at through strictly objective means. The issues and methods of the 1960s are not those of the 1990s. Time, chance, and social whims happeneth to all research programs.

A third objective is to explore what issues are considered important today in cognition and instruction and how these issues might be explored. If even a single student derives from his or her work in this course a dissertation topic, we should all feel that we contributed something positive to modern educational research.

The readings are a compromise between what we have been teaching in this course and what we might be teaching in a few more years. Some of the later readings may even be replaced before they are reached this semester, due to new publications and to student findings and interests. Be warned: copying articles far ahead can be wasteful.

Students will take turns leading discussions on readings. What this leadership role entails will be discussed at the first class meeting. In addition, each class member will select by September 27 a topic for a literature review and a term paper. The literature review is due on November 1. The term paper, which can be either a research proposal or an instructional design, is due on December 14. Each student will also do a 15-20 minute class presentation on the term paper topic near the end of the course . There will also be one exam, of a form to be negotiated in one of the class meetings.

Unless strong alternative proposals are offered, the course grade will be based upon the following formula:

Grade = .20 x (exam grade) + .65 x (average of written report scores) + .05 x (oral report score) + .10 x (discussion score)

Attendance and active involvement at all class meetings is required. Students, however, are encouraged to do everything possible to make class meetings stimulating and enjoyable. Bring food and (non-alcoholic) beverages to share; prepare challenging questions about the readings or previous class discussions; bring in appropriate cartoons, poems, quotes, articles, etc. Above all, strive for critical understanding of the course content. Don't be reluctant to ask for clarification or further explanation. Not all of the readings will be characterized by clarity, crisp organization, and fully developed arguments.

1. The Publication Manual of the APA (4th ed.) and the Chicago Manual of Style (14th ed.).

2. A comprehensive, up-to-date dictionary. If in doubt, purchase Webster's New Collegiate or the new American Heritage Dictionary.

1. Rapid access to bound periodicals in Morris Library; make practice runs on Educational Researcher, Educational Psychologist, Cognition and Instruction, Psychological Science, and the American Psychologist.

2. Familiarity with the Handbook of Research on Teaching, Handbook of Research on Curriculum, Annual Review of Psychology, Review of Research in Education, and the N.S.S.E. Yearbook. Learn where to find them, how they are organized, and what topics they tend to cover.

3. Use of Delcat, Delplus, and ERIC.

4. Clear, concise writing. Read Ch.2 in the Publication Manual of the APA. Move on to Jacque Barzun, Simple & Direct: A Rehetoric for Writers. William Strunk, The Elements of Style is dated, but full of the right stuff. Most importantly, read the research literature for style as well as content.

5. Critical reading. Question every word, phrase and sentence. Seek virtue as well as error, incoherence, and sophistry. Don't go to sleep until you can rewrite the article from memory. Test for unstated assumptions and unexpected extensions.

6. Making connections. Ask at appropriate pauses in reading "How does this relate to other ideas I have read?" "Where does this fit into the educational research landscape?" "Who else thinks this way or does studies like these?"

1. There's something useful in this article.

2. The author is probably not telling me everything I need to know to understand what she or he means.

3. With a few more careful readings, I'll start to catch on.

August 30 Introduction

September 6 Learning in the curricular areas

D.C. Geary, L. Fan, & C.C Bow-Thomas (1992). Numerical cognition: Loci of ability differences comparing children from China and the United States. Psychological Science, 3(3), 180-185.

L. Siegel (1993). The development of reading. Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 24, 63-97.

C.P. Panofsky, V. John-Steiner, & P.J. Blackwell (1990). The development of scientific concepts and discourse. In Luis C. Moll (Ed.), Vygotsky and education (pp. 251-267). NY: Cambridge University Press.

September 13 Issues in school learning

B. Heyns (1987). Summer and cognitive development: Is there a season for learning? Child Development, 58(5), 1151-1160

L.J. Cronbach (1975). Beyond the two disciplines of scientific psychology. American Psychologist, 30, 116-127.

J. Littlefield et al. (1989). Some prerequisites for teaching thinking: Methodological issues in the study of LOGO programming. Cognition and Instruction, 6 (4), 331-366.

September 20 Remembering and forgetting

F.C. Bartlett (1932). Remembering (pp. 118-176). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

G.B. Semb & J.A. Ellis (1994). Knowledge taught in School: What is remembered? Review of Educational Research, 64 (2), 253-286.

D.G. MacKay & D.M. Burke (1990). Cognition and aging: A theory of new learning and the use of old connections. In Thomas M. Hess (Ed.), Aging and cognition: Knowledge organization and utilization (pp. 213-263). Amsterdam: North-Holland.

September 27 Situated learning

J.S.Brown, A.Collins, & P.Duguid (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher, 18 (1), 32-42.

D.N.Perkins & G. Salomon (1989). Are cognitive skills context-bound? Educational Researcher, 18 (1), 16-25.

S.Scribner (1984). Studying working intelligence. In B. Rogoff & J.Lave (Eds.), Everyday cognition: Its development in social context (pp. 9-40). Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

October 4 Constructing knowledge

L.S. Vygotsky (1962). Thought and language. Ch. 6: The development of scientific concepts in childhood. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. [originally published in 1934]

M.Hedegaard (1990). The zone of proximal development as basis for instruction. In L.Moll (ed.), Vygotsky and education (pp. 349-371). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

A.Collins, & D.Gentner (1987). How people construct mental models. In D.Holland & N.Quinn (Eds.), Cultural models in language and thought (pp. 243-265). NY: Cambridge University Press.

October 11 Assessment

R.E.Snow (1989). Toward assessment of cognitive and conative structures in learning. Educational Researcher, 18 (9), 8-14.

C.E.Weinstein, & D.K.Meyer (1991), Implications of cognitive psychology for testing: Contributions from work in learning strategies. In M.C.Wittrock & E.L.Baker (Eds.), Testing and cognition (pp. 40-61). Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall.

E.L.Baker, M.Freeman, & S.Clayton. Cognitive assessment of history for large-scale testing. In M.C.Wittrock & E.L.Baker (Eds.), Testing and Cognition (pp. 131-153). Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.

R.J.Shavelson, G.P.Baxter, J.Pine (1992). Performance assessments: Political rhetoric and measurement reality. Educational Researcher,21 (4), 22-27.

October 18 Exam

October 25 Expert-novice studies

D. LaBerge & S.J. Samuels (1974). Toward a theory of automatic information processing in reading. Cognitive Psychology, 6, 293-323.

W. G. Chase & H.A. Simon (1973). The mind's eye in chess. In W.G. Chase (Ed.), Visual information processing (pp. 215-281). New York: Academic Press.

November 1 Models of teaching and learning I

(Literature review due)

R.E.Slavin (1987). Mastery learning reconsidered. Review of Educational Research, 57(2), 175-213.

J.B.Carroll (1989). The Carroll model. Educational Researcher, 18 (1), 26-31.

K. VanLehn (1993). Problem solving and cognitive skill acquisition. In Michael I. Posner (Ed.), Foundations of cognitive science (pp. 527-579). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

November 8 Models of teaching and learning II

J.S.Bruner (1966). Toward a theory of instruction, Ch.3: Notes on a theory of instruction. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

R.Case & C.Bereiter (1984). From behaviorism to cognitive behaviorism to cognitive development: Steps in the evolution of instructional design. Occasional Paper #2, The Centre for Applied Cognitive Science, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Toronto.

R.Glaser (1984). Education and thinking: The role of knowledge. American Psychologist, 39(2), 93-104.

November 15 Teacher Cognition and decision making

I.E.Sigel & T.D.Kelley (1988). A cognitive developmental approach to questioning. In J.T.Dillon (Ed.), Questioning and discussion: A multidisciplinary study (pp. 105-134). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

C.M.Clark (1988). Asking the right questions about teacher preparation: Contributions of research on teacher thinking. Educational Researcher, 19(2), 15-12.

R.E.Floden, & H.G.Klinzing, (1990). What can research on teacher thinking contribute to teacher preparation? A second opinion. Educational Researcher, 19(5), 15-20.

M.Lampert, & C.M.Clark (1990). Expert knowledge and expert thinking in teaching: A response to Floden and Klinzing. Educational Researcher, 19(5), 21-23.

November 22 Thanksgiving recess

November 29 Schools and Textbooks

M.S.Smith, & J.O'Day (1992). Systemic school reform. In S.H.Fuhrman & B.Malen (Eds.), The politics of curriculum and testing (pp. 233-267). London: Falmer.

R.L.Venezky (1992). Textbooks in school and society. In P.W.Jackson (Ed.), Handbook of research on curriculum (pp. 436-462). NY: Macmillan.

J.R.Staver, & Bay, M. (1987). Analysis of the Project Synthesis goal cluster orientation and inquiry emphasis of elementary science textbooks. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 24 (7), 629-643.

December 6 Final reports; summing up

December 14 Term papers due