Wheaton College

Norton, Massachusetts
Spring 2015
Ed. 260 Teaching and Learning
Margaret Werner, ext 3528
or 8220
T and Th 3:30 to 4:50
Office Hours: Elisabeth Amen Nursery School I am generally always at the
nursery school from 8:00 to 3:30 except on Friday afternoon and when I am
teaching on campus. Please feel free to stop in any time or you can call
ahead to be sure that I am there.
Text Book: There is not an official text in this class. I do suggest that
you consider adding these books to your library. Living, Loving and
Learning, Love , Leo Buscaglia and The Self-Esteem Teacher, Robert
Brooks, American Guidance Please Dont Sit on the Kids, Claire
Cherry, Fearon Teacher Aids (can be purchased through Amazon).
Education is not a race. There is certainly not a starting pointnor
a finish line. A diploma does not signify that one has won a race,
but only that one has learned enough to go on learning at a
particular level. David Elkind.
Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire
William Butler Yeats
I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive
element in the classroom. My personal approach creates the
climate. My daily mood makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a
tremendous power to make a childs life miserable or joyous. I can
be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate
or humor, hurt or heal. In all situation, it is my response that
decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a
child humanized or dehumanized Haim Ginott.

Course Description:
Teaching and Learning is designed to help prospective teachers
bridge the gaps between psychological theory and educational
practice. This course introduces theories of development,
including physical, social, emotional, and cognitive, gender and
moral, as well as examining learning theories and various
instructional models. Theorists to be discussed will include Freud,
Erikson, Adler, Maslow, Gesell, Piaget, Vygotsky, Elkind, Gardner,
Kohlberg, Watson, Skinner, Bronfenbrenner, Bandura, etc. Issues
affecting development will be examined, including health, family,
environment, culture, social economic status, and media.

Questions will be raised as to how these theories enlighten and

impact teaching and learning. Effective principles of instruction
and current national trends including NCLB and Common Core will
also be discussed.
Objectives:
-To reflect on characteristics of effective teachers
-To develop familiarity and understanding of theories of
development
-To develop familiarity and understanding of theories of learning
-To make connections between learning and teaching
-To examine diversity in the classroom
-To look at learning from biological, social and environmental
perspectives
-To examine theories of intelligence and how they relate to
learning theory
-To discuss ways to assess effective methods of teaching and
learning
-To develop an awareness for different teaching and learning
styles
-To gain an understanding of behavior--neurological and
environmentally based
-To work cooperatively in researching a type of educational
system.
Course Requirement:
- Attendance and participation in class 20 points
- Group Project: 75 Points
Students will research one of the following topics Reggio
Emilia,
Montessori, Waldorf, Head Start, Home Schooling, Private
Schools, Charter Schools,
Same Sex classrooms/schools, NCLB/ Race To the Top/Common Core
Curriculum
- Mid term 70 points (take home)
- Final exam 70 (take home)
- Major reflection papers 2 to 3 pages in length 15 points
Major Reflection Papers:
"How do students learn?
This paper may be based on personal experience or your field
work experience .

Field placement in public schools, (all grades) Head Start or local

day care/nursery school settings. Requirement: 2 to 3 hours per
week (15 hours) 70 points
The second paper is based on a movie or a book about teaching,
such as The Breakfast Club, Dead Poet Society, Black Board Jungle,
Dangerous Minds, Mr. Holland Opus, Stand and Deliver, Top of the
Class. Freedom Writers, To Sir with Love, Dangerous Minds, Each
paper should be 4 to 5 pages. 15 Points
Minor reflection papers 50 points. Throughout the course students
will be asked to reflect on a variety of quotes, articles, or random
questions. Reflections will result in an accumulated grade.
One check = 2 points, two checks = 3 points, three checks
= 5 points,
-Extra credit: 10 points if you attend a workshop or an activity
sponsored on campus.
Total Points 385 for the course. You can always know your
grade by dividing the points you have earned by the number of
points you could have earned.
Jan. 22
Getting Acquainted---What is Educational Psychology?
Reflection paper due Jan 30
A Teacher, I remember
Jan 27
Jan 29

Research design & Assignments in schools

Reflection paper due Feb 3
Dr. Phils test and sun signs are they valid?

Feb 3

Theories of Development
Freud, Erikson, Adler, Maslow
Reflection paper due Feb 5
Does birth order really matter?

Feb 5

Pavlov, Watson, Skinner

Reflection paper due Feb 10
Are children conditioned to behave as they do?

Feb 10
Mom and
who you are?
Feb 12
class

Guests Charlotte and her team

Bandrua, Brofenbrenner, Kolhberg,

Reflection paper due Feb 13 Two articles: Tiger
The Parent Trap and answer the question,
How did the environment you grew up in impact
Cognitive Development
Piaget, Vygotsky , Gesell, Elkind
Reflection paper due Feb 17Articles passed out in

Feb 17
19
Feb 19
Feb 24

Feb 26
environment?
March 3
March 5

Is there such a thing as multiple intelligence?--Gardner

Take Gardners test- reflect on the results and
an article on emotional intelligence Due Feb.
Assessing effective and not effective teaching
Different teaching styles and strategies
Refection paper Due Feb 26
What makes an effective teacher
What makes an effective learning
Rethinking Space
Breaking into groups for research project
Constructivist Approach to learning
Mid term distributed Due back March 24

College break March 9 - 13

March 17

Learning Styles
Assign major reflection paper
How Do students Learn? due March 26

March 19
March 24
experience

Creating Curriculum and webbing

Film Over New England
Emergent Curriculumwhat is it?
Reflection paper Due March 26
Remembering curriculum from your school

March 26

Assessing LearningBlooms Taxonomy

Portfolios, criterion referenced,
standardized tests, rubrics
Assign 3rd Major Reflection paper Due April 28
Analyze a teacher in a movie
March 31

April 2
Presentation
April 9
Presentations

Motivating Students---Film Robert Brooks

reflection paper: Due April 2
What if everyone started with an. A
Group Presentations

April 7 Group

Group Presentations

April 14 Group

April 16 Group Presentations

April 21

Richard Lavoie When the Chips are Down

April 23

Understanding behavior and how to deal with it

April 28

Discussion: Why teachers leave teaching

Second Major Reflection Paper due
A movie about a teacher

April 30

Evaluation and take home final

Due by May 1

Other wonderful book to add to your library.

Cherry, Clare Is the left Brain Always Right? David Lake, 1988,
Please Dont Sit on the Kids, Alternatives to Punitive Discipline,
Fearon, 1983
Collum, Albert, The Geranium on the Window Sill Just Died, but
Teacher You Went Right on... 1971
Crickshank, Donald, Bainer, Deborah, The Act of Teaching, McGrawHill,1999
Elkind, David, Children and Adolescents, Oxford University Press, 1981,
The Hurried Child, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co, 1981, All Grown Up
and No Place to Go, Teenagers in Crisis, Addison-Wesley Publishing
Co.,1984, Images of the Young Child, NAEYC, 1983, Miseducation,
Alfred Knoph, 1987 The Sympathetic Understanding of the Child,birth
to sixteen, Allyn and Bacon, 1994 reprint from 1931,Reinventing Childhood,
Modern Press, 1998, The Power of Play, learning what comes
naturally, DaCapo Lifelong Books, 2007
Fitzgerald, Jeanine, The Dance of Interaction, A guide to Managing
Childrens Challenging Behaviors, Insight Press, 2005
Gesell, Arnold. The First Five Years of Life, Harper Row, 1940
Hancock, Emily, The Girl Within, Fawcett, New York 1989 Based on Mary
Pipher's book Reviving Ophelia. Emily Hancock completed her doctoral
dissertation on this subject.
Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy, Gollinkoff, Roberta, Einstein Never Used Flash Cards,
Rodale, 2003.
Johnson, Spencer, Who Moved My Cheese? Putnam, 1998
Levin, Diane, Remote Control Childhood? Combating the Hazards of
Media Culture, National Association for the Education of Young Children,
1998

Palmer, Parker, The Courage to Teach, Jossey-Bass,1998

Project Zero, Making Teaching Visible, Documenting Individual and
Group Learning, Harvard, 2001.
Puaski, Mary Ann Spencer, Understanding Piaget, Harper and Row, 1971
Salend, Spencer, Creating Inclusive Classrooms, Pearson, 2003
Shores, Rima, Rethinking the Brain. New Insight into Early
Development. Families and Work Insitute, 1997
Beverly Tatum, Why are the Black Kids Sitting Together in the
Cafeteria. Basic 2003
Wolf, Maryanne Proust and the Squid, The Story and Science of the
Reading Brain, Harper, 2007
Edward Zigler, Singer, Dorothy, Childrens Play, The Roots of Reading,
Zero to Three, 2004