PSU School of Education
"Meeting our communities' lifelong educational needs”
C & I 580
Theories of Instruction
Winter 2010 (1/4 through 3/14)
CRN =
Online Class
Instructor: Phil Brady
Phone—home: 386-8782
E-mail: plb.psu@gmail.com
Portland State University
Graduate School of Education
Students needing an accommodation pursuant to federal, state or institutional education regulations
should immediately inform the course instructor. Students with conditions affecting their abilities will be
referred to The Disability Resource Center (503-725-4150, TTY or Relay 503-725-4178) to document
their disability. That office will provide appropriate support and services.
Graduate School of Education
Vision Statement:
Preparing professionals to meet our diverse community’s lifelong educational needs.
GSE Goals and Purposes:
Prepare our candidates to provide leadership in:
1. Diversity and Inclusiveness
* To work in diverse settings
* To create inclusive and therapeutic environments
2. Research-Based Practices and Professional Standards
* To critically analyze and implement research-based practices
* To demonstrate appropriate professional knowledge, skills, & dispositions
3. Impacting Learning and Development
* To ensure all learners and clients succeed
* To use technology to enhance learning
* To influence policy and provide leadership for organizations.
4. Evidence-Informed Decision Making
* To use evidence to address problems of practice and make educational and
therapeutic decisions
Policies: Academic integrity
In the PSU Student Conduct Code # 577-031-0136
Proscribed Conduct by Portland State University
The following constitutes conduct as proscribed by Portland State University for which a
student or student organization or group is subject to disciplinary action:
(1) Obstruction or disruption of teaching, research, administration, disciplinary procedures
or other University activities, including the University's public service functions or other
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authorized activities on University-owned or -controlled property, or any other location
where teaching, research, administration, disciplinary procedures or other University
activities take place.
(2) All forms of academic dishonesty, cheating, and fraud, including but not limited to: (a)
plagiarism, (b) the buying and selling of course assignments and research papers, (c)
performing academic assignments (including tests and examinations) for other persons, (d)
unauthorized disclosure and receipt of academic information and (e) falsification of
research data.
Course Description (Portland State University Catalog)
An investigation of what happens in the classroom, emphasizing the interrelatedness
of learning, subject matter, and teaching; testing of scholars’ and the student’s own
ideas against concrete case studies of instruction; formulation and defense of one’s
own theory.
Course Outcomes
* Explore and practice with multiple models of teaching and learning
* Refine and expand personal repertoire of teaching methods
Professional Books:
Required
Joyce, B., Weil, M., & Calhoun, E. (2009). 8th Edition. Models of teaching. Boston: Pearson.
Optional
Marzano, R., Pickering, D., & Pollack, J. (2001). Classroom instruction that works: researchbased strategies for increasing student achievement. Boston: Pearson.
Web
Other on-line resources articles may be assigned or made available. Links will be provided in
the weekly assignments posted on the group blog.
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Enduring Understandings
Learning takes place in many environments, both formal and informal, and at many
levels (Blooms’ taxonomy, for example).
Some methods, activities and settings seem particularly appropriate for specific kinds
of learning and for specific groups of learners.
The best way to teach something depends upon characteristics of the learner.
The best way to teach something is not always the easiest way; it may not be the most
efficient way either.
Essential Questions
What kinds of teaching are effective in creating and supporting successful learners?
What are the advantages of multiple approaches to teaching and learning?
What factors increase the likelihood that learning will occur?
Unit Questions
How do teachers create effective learning environments for their students?
What are the characteristics of effective teaching?
What can teachers do to increase the learning of their students?
Evidence of Learning
• Engaging lesson plans that exemplify specific models; reflections about the
model’s strengths or weaknesses
• Engaging and interesting essays, that are accurately grounded in Joyce’s models.
• An action plan that defines specific models of teaching that you find appropriate
for your teaching situation and that explains why the models were selected and
how they meet the needs of your students.
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Assignments & Expectations
Required readings will be assigned each week. It's important to have assignments read on time
so you can actively participate in our blog. All other assignments are described below.
Points
Grading will be based on the following point system:
Weekly blog posts
Responses to the blog posts of other students
4 Micro-Lessons (2-3 page lesson plan, plus a brief
reflection on what seemed most important and/or most
difficult in designing a lesson with that specific model)
4 Reflection papers (2-3 pages)
Action Plan (5-6 pages)
20
10
40
20
10
Grading Grades will be assigned based on this system:
95 – 100 = A
90 -95 = A87 – 89 = B+
83 – 86 = B
80 – 82 = BAttendance & Participation
Since this is an online course, participation is defined as completing assignments on time.
Since others will be responsible for responding to your blog posts, it is important that you
blog regularly. Late posts will receive half credit.
Blog Posts
I will provide a prompt (or set of prompts) for each week’s reading. Please read the blog
assignment closely: sometimes there will be one set of directions for everyone, sometimes
there will be multiple prompts, and sometimes you will be provided with alternative prompts
(so look for those “OR”s).
The purpose of the blog posts will not be to write summaries of the reading; rather, they will
give you the opportunity to respond to the reading: how these ideas, methods, or attitudes
make sense to you; how they might be useful; how productive they seem.
The blog posts are very important. In a substantial way, they take the place the kinds of
discussions that would occur during class meetings. They provide you with an opportunity to
talk about how you are making sense of the reading; your perspective helps others to
understand each model more fully.
Blog posts are due on Sunday night of each week. For instance, the blogs on the 1/4
readings must be posted by midnight of 1/10 (Sunday).
Blog Responses
In addition to your own blog post, you should read many of the posts from other students in
the class. (Reading the blog posts is part of the “reading” assignment for each week.) Please
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respond to at least two blogs that have no response. These posts can be relatively succinct,
but must engage with the content, and respond in a specific and substantive way.
Blog responses are due on Wednesday night of the following week. For instance, the blogs
on the 1/4 posts must be posted by midnight of 1/13 (Wednesday).
Model Lessons—4 (2-3 pages)
Each of you will be writing 4 micro-lessons: two lessons focusing on one of the informationprocessing model, and two lessons from the remaining three models. Since there are multiple
models in each family, you have quite a bit of leeway to focus on the specific models that
seem most interesting or challenging.
The point of the micros is to you an opportunity to work through how the model could work
in your teaching environment. If at all possible, you should try out the lesson with real people
(either students in school or a group of adults). If you are not going to actually do the lesson,
write it for the age that you work with. If you are going to actually teach the lesson, write it
for the level of that group.
Since we will not be able to view you actually doing the lesson, you need to write your plan
in considerable detail—basically, the level that a sub would need to do your lesson with
fidelity. [Additional options, depending on your level of technological capability and
equipment: get together (in person or online) for the micro lesson; video tape the lesson and
then to submit the video; submit written reflection as well.]
Position Papers—4 essays (2-3 pages)
Each of you will write a 2-3 page analysis of one model within each of the four families.
These papers are not meant to be a summary of the model, but rather your take on the
advantages and challenges associated with that model. Your comments should focus on
questions like: what would this model be good for? What are the model’s limitations? Is the
model broadly applicable, or does it seem restrictive in some way? One way of thinking
about this assignment would be to imagine that you are discussing the model with your
colleagues and that you need to give them a sense of its advantages and disadvantages.
Personal Action Plan (5-6 pages)
Write a brief essay in which you describe how you will incorporate some of these models
and/or strategies in your classroom this year or next year. Be specific enough that this could
function as a prompt to real change. (5-6 pages)
Additional explanation of relationships among the 3 longer assignments.
The model lessons are designed to give you a chance to get into the “nuts and bolts” of a
model that seems interesting or challenging. For me, just reading about a teaching method is
quite different than actually using it, and I find that this level of specific planning increases
my understanding of how the model works.
In the position papers, you take a step back and think more generally about one of the models,
taking into account broader issues related to your content (what is being taught), level, and
context (your school, your team). The position papers may be directly linked to your model
lessons, but they do not have to be.
The action plan is your opportunity to reflect on your learning from this course. Basically,
this plan should address changes, modifications, and adaptations that you would make in your
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teaching. Remember that you are not restricted to the models from your lesson planning and
position papers.
In other words, these assignments can be either tightly or loosely connected to each other, but
should be tightly connected to your current and future teaching experiences.
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Schedule
Week
Ch
Reading
Assignments
PART ONE: Frame of Reference
1/4
1
Beginning the inquiry
2
Where models of teaching come from
3
Studying the slowly growing knowledge
base of education
4
Three sides of teaching
1/11
Blog—Goals
Blog—MT 1 [Models of
Teaching, assignment 1]
PART TWO: The informationprocessing family of models [IPF]
1/18
5
Learning to think inductively
6
Attaining concepts
Blog—MT 2
PART THREE: The social family of
models
1/25
2/1
12
Partners in learning
Blog—MT 3
13
Study of values
Lesson Plan #1
7
[IPF] Picture-word inductive model
8
[IPF] Scientific Inquiry & Inquiry
Training
Blog—MT 4
PART FOUR: The personal family of
models
2/8
2/15
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Position Paper #1
14
Nondirective teaching
Blog—MT 5
15
Developing positive self-concepts
Lesson Plan #2
9
[IPF] Memorization
10
[IPF] Synectics
Blog—MT 6
11
[IPF] Learning from presentations
Position Paper #2
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PART FIVE: The behavioral systems
family of models
16
Learning to learn from mastery
learning
17
Direct instruction
Blog—MT 7
18
Learning from simulations
Lesson Plan #3
2/22
PART SIX: Differences, Diversity, &
Curriculum
Blog—MT 8
3/1
3/8
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19
Learning Styles and Models of
Teaching
Lesson Plan #4
20
Equity
Position Paper #3
21
Creating Curriculum
Blog—MT 9
22
A bit of the future
Position Paper #4
Afterward
Action Plan
Theories of Instruction
Winter 2010