Team Teachers: Linda Mason, Ed.D., Dean of Education, 119 AD, x5343, lnmason@sgc.edu; Kay Walck, M.Ed., Instructor, 303 AD, x5141, skwalck@sgc.edu

Course Description: (SGU 2000-2001 catalog) Education in the United States affects all its citizens. An introduction to education acquaints the student with history, philosophy, purposes, and practices of American education in relation to its social, political, religious, and economic life. Significant current school issues are examined. Emphasis is on individual and group teacher education career planning. A field experience in the schools is a required component of the course, including a journal, written classroom preparation, and oral classroom involvement.

We will explore a variety of types of schools, learning styles, and teaching styles. A variety of representatives of schools and school issues will be guests in the class. Field experiences provide opportunities to see a variety of settings and resources for schools. Students will be actively involved exploring course information and their own learning styles. Students will work in teams to develop beginning teaching skills, such as lesson planning, information presentation techniques, directing student group activities, and using learning assessment strategies. We may explore significant unexpected issues as events occur locally and in the United States.

Target Audience: The course is designed primarily for prospective teachers but may be pursued by anyone interested in an overview of education in the United States.

Mission Statement: This course is the first course in the process of understanding the teaching profession and becoming a teacher, a Reflective Practitioner. The major activities for students are: (1) to explore and reflect on the field of education in the context of becoming a teacher, (2) become a practitioner by teaching one class period on a topic of choice, (3) participate in a field experience in the schools, and (4) produce a personal philosophy of education as a Reflective Practitioner.

Instructors' Statement: We will team teach the course and be available for advisement and help with all parts of the course and any other topics needed. Dr. Mason is Associate Dean of Education, 119 AD, x5343, Office Hours: MWF 8:30-12:00, TR 1:30-4:00.

Mrs. Walck is Chair of the Education Division, 303 AD, x5141, Office Hours Posted on Door.

Course Objectives, Classroom Activities, Assessment: Upon completion of Introduction to Teaching, the student shall:

1. Demonstrate an understanding of school missions. Compare the SGU Mission and Goals to personal and a variety of school system mission and goal statements, Write a personal philosophy of education.
2. Demonstrate awareness of historical, philosophical, political and sociological ideas of education in the United States. Examine a variety of educational philosophies, trace the historical development of education in the U.S., Describe the history of education and educational philosophies in an exam. Select appropriate educational philosophies for inclusion in the personal philosophy of education.
3. Demonstrate awareness of decision making and problem solving processes in schools. Participate in case studies and directed discussions on school issues. Participate in field experiences in schools. Interview teachers. Keep a field experience journal.
4. Demonstrate understanding the Oklahoma core curriculum, PASS. Examine PASS on the Oklahoma State Department of Education website. Describe appropriate PASS in exam.
5. Gain personal experience with school personnel and students in a classroom or non-school educational setting. Directed discussions based on experiences. Demonstrate experience and confidence in classroom presentation and discussions.
6. Demonstrate awareness of a variety of learning styles. Classroom self assessment of learning styles. Demonstrate awareness of learning style differences in personal philosophy of education, directed discussions and classroom presentation.
7. Demonstrate abilities to use the World Wide Web and classroom technology in relation to schools, teachers and students. Field trip to interactive TV classroom, internet searches in class and out of class, and incorporation of technology into classroom presentation. Participation in field trips, directed discussions, and classroom presentation.
8. Demonstrate beginning abilities to plan curriculum and teach. Incorporate understanding of inquiry, various instructional strategies, varied student needs into a class presentation. Video of class presentation, bulletin board, with instructor, peer and self assessment.
9. Practice the characteristics of a reflective practitioner. Incorporate reflections into personal philosophy of education, reflective paper, and classroom presentations. Paper, philosophy of education, reflective items on exams, classroom presentation.

Textbook: Segall & Wilson, Introduction to Education: Teaching in a Diverse Society, Prentice Hall/Merrill, Columbus, 1998. ISBN:

Printed Materials: Teacher Education Handbook, 2000 You will need this handbook for all Professional Education courses, Developmental Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Psychology of Students With Exceptions, application for admission to the Teacher Education Program, portfolio development, and student teaching.

Banks, James. Multiethnic Education, Theory and Practice. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1994 (SGU).

Boyer, Ernest L. High School. New York: Harper and Row, 1983 (OBU).

Clarke and Agne. Interdisciplinary High School Teaching: Strategies for Integrated Learning, Allyn/Bacon, 1999. (SGU Curriculum Materials Library)

Curtin, Foley, Sen and Morin. Information Technology: The Breaking Wave (SGU Curriculum Materials Library).

Diaz, Massialas, Xanthopoulos. Global Perspectives for Educators, Allyn/Bacon, 2000 (SGU).

Fitzgibbons. Making Educational Decisions: An Introduction to Philosophy of Education (SGU).

Frymier. A School for Tomorrow (SGU).

Goodlad, J. I. Teachers for our Nation's Schools. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 1990 (OBU).

Goodlad, J.I. Soder, R., & Sirotnik, K. (Eds.) Places Where Teachers are Taught. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass 1990 (OBU).

Goodlad, J.I. A-place called school. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1984 (OBU).

Goodlad, J.I. The Moral Dimensions of Teaching. Jossey- Bass, San Francis Co., 1991 (OBU).

Grabe and Grabe. Integrating the Internet for Meaningful Learning (SGU Curriculum Materials Library).

Greenfield. Mind and Media: The Effects of Television, Video Games, and Computers (SGU).

Healy. Endangered Minds: Why Children Don't Think and What We Can Do About It (SGU).

Howe and Howe. Personalizing Education: Values Clarification and Beyond, An Activities Book (SGU Curriculum Materials Library).Joyce and Weil. Models of Teaching (SGU).

Kessler. The Soul of Education: Helping Students find Connection, Compassion and Character at School (SGU).

Land and Turner. Tools for Schools: Applications Software for the Classroom (SGU).

Liebert, Sprafkin and Davidson. The Early Window: The Effects of Television on Children and Youth (SGU).

National Commission on Excellence in Teacher Education. A Call for a Change in Teacher Education. Washington, D.C.: AACTE. 1985 (OBU).

National Commission on Excellence in Education. A Nation At Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. 1983 (OBU).

Oakes and Lipton. Teaching to Change the World (SGU).

Ornstein and Levine. Foundations of Education (SGU).

Potter. The Positive Use of Commercial Television With Children (SGU Curriculum Materials Library).

Rosenthal, Robert and Jacobson, Lenore. Pigmalion in the Classroom. New York: Holt Rinehart, 1968 (OBU).

Ryan and Cooper. Those Who Can, Teach (SGU).

Sykes, Charles J. Dumbing Down our Kids. (SGU)

Task Force on Teaching as a Profession. A Nation Prepared: Teachers for the 21st Century. New York: Carnegie Corporation of New York, 1986 (OBU).

Tiedt and Tiedt. Multicultural Teaching: A Handbook of Activities, Information and Resources, Allyn/Bacon, 1999 (SGU Curriculum Materials Library).

Toffler. Learning for Tomorrow: The Role of the Future in Education (SGU).

Travers and Rebore. Foundations of Education: Becoming a Teacher (SGU).

Walley and Gerrick. Affirming Middle Grades Education, Allyn/Bacon, 1999 (SGU).

• Website resources:

American Educational Research Association Abstracts (AERA) - http://aera.net/ A set of abstracts of educational research articles.

American Federation of Teachers - http://www.aft.org//index.htm A teachers’ union.

APA Style Electronic Formats - http://www.uvm.edu/~ncrane/estyles/apa.html This site contains ordering information for the APA Style Manual, including sample pages of APA writing style for electronic formats.

Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development - http://www.ascd.org A professional association for teachers. Has an online journal, Educational Leadership. Distributes Educational Leadership, The Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, and Educational Update. An excellent source of information, articles, lesson plans, and product database.

Association and Educational Standards Link List http://www.putwest.boces.org/standards.html A link list of professional education associations and educational standards for teachers and school administrators.

MLA Style - http://www.mla.org/main_mla-nf.htm This site contains ordering information for the MLA Style Manual, including electronic format style, as well as sample pages.

National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) - Has the responsibility for the voluntary national accreditation of college and university units for the preparation of teachers and other professional school personnel at the elementary, middle, and secondary levels. NCATE has 20 standards and 69 performance indicators against which professional education units are evaluated to determine their accreditation status.

National Council for the Social Studies http://www.ncss.org/

National Council of Teachers of English - http://www.ncte.org/

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics - http://www.nctm.org/

National Education Association - http://www.nea.org/ A teachers’ union.

National Science Teachers Association - http://www.nsta.org/

National Teaching & Learning Forum - http://www.ntlf.com/ntlf_online/archive/0068.html A site produced by the Houghton Mifflin Company, COMPAQ, AT&T and MetLife of education information, publications, resources, and discussions. Includes grant information and lesson plans.

Oklahoma Commission for Teacher Preparation - http://www:octp.org Has the responsibility for accreditation of Oklahoma teacher education college programs. Supervises all professional development requirements for Oklahoma teachers and school personnel.

Oklahoma State Department of Education - http://sde.state.ok.us/ Information regarding the Oklahoma State Department of Education information, including calendar of workshops, library publications and forms, news releases about Oklahoma schools, Oklahoma school web sites maintained by the students, teacher resources, divisions of the State Department of Education, status of education related legislation in the Oklahoma House of Representatives and Senate, certification information, and Priority Academic Student Skill Information.

• Community resources:

Gateway to Prevention and Recovery - 1010 E. 45^th, Shawnee 273-1170 - A treatment center for drug and alcohol abuse.

• reading assignments, writing assignments involving research, critical thinking, and reflection, audio visual presentations, team projects, guest presenters, small group presentations, individual/small group conferences, group projects, field trips, related campus events, and school field experiences with journal notes, lectures, simulations, internet research

1. Attendance: Attendance is required. Your participation in discussion and experiencing presentations is important to the learning process. Your punctual and consistent attendance is required in the teaching profession. Attendance will reflect 15 percent of the total class grade. Each absence should be discussed in relation to consequences and plans for makeup. You may wish to save absences for illness or emergencies.
1. Field Experience: Each student will spend 25 hours in a school classroom in observation and keeping a journal of the observation. The purpose of the journal is to provide a written reflective record of your observation. It is expected that you will draw insights from the reports and your reflections. See the Handbook for Teacher Education for observation journal entry forms.
1. Field Trips: We will take two field trips this semester, one to the OBU Library and one to an interactive TV classroom. Both will be scheduled during and just before this class period.
1. Read assigned material. Classwork will be planned on the assumption that you are prepared. Sometimes pop quizes will be given to keep you sharp.
1. Develop and present a lesson. This presentation will be the beginning practice of your teaching skills. This presentation will be videotaped for your self assessment. The presentation represents 40% of your grade.
1. Write a reflective paper on a topic chosen from Classic Philosophies of Education, Learning and Teaching Styles, Specific Contemporary Issue (list)_____________, Cultural Diversity in Education, Globalization in Education, School Organization Styles, History of US Education, or Teacher Lifelong Learning. Each paper will cite 3 sources from suggested readings, interviews or other approved sources, appropriately documented. Papers will be 600-1000 words in length. Each reflective paper will include a review of the topic and relevant research with a "reflective comment" on the key topic addressed in the research. The "comments" may consist of the following: (1) how the readings have changed, added to, or confirmed your thinking about the topic, (2) interesting questions about the topic that you think merit further inquiry, (3) ways that you as an educational researcher might investigate these issues further, and (4) any opinions about the topic from your mentor teachers in the schools. These papers should be shared with your Professional Education Mentoring Team members and teachers.
1. Write your philosophy of education. This should focus on your personal beliefs about teaching, learning and the purpose of schooling. Classical philosophies should be incorporated to explain your beliefs.
1. Interview an experienced teacher and a first year teacher.
1. Develop and continue your professional portfolio according to guidelines provided in Professional Education Mentoring Team.
1. Participate in educational extracurricular activities, such as SGU's BOO DOO, working with children with handicaps at the SGU stables, participating in school field trips, attending professional training programs or conferences, or other learning or school related activities as they are suggested.

Beginning and Ending Assessment: A pretest will be given at the beginning of class. We reserve the right to give extra points for exceptional classroom leadership. Class grades will be based on the following:

A - 1000-1100 points; B - 900-999 points; C - 800-899 points; D - 600-799 points

Be sure to plan to set up the room in advance of your presentation. The room may be used the hour before, so you may have to schedule setup the day before the presentation. Turn in the written syllabus the week before the presentation.