TCHE2447 & TCHE2498 ASSESSMENT DETAILS The purpose of the assessment tasks is to provide students with an opportunity to engage directly and experientially with the objectives of the course. Assessment comprises practical and theoretical components that provide opportunities for students to experience and identify links between appropriate theories, research and practices regarding priorities in education and how these apply in and across a variety of learning environments and settings. There are two assessment tasks for this course. The Individual Task is weighted as 50% and the Group Task as 50% in determining your final result. AT1: Individual Report – Scholarly Analysis – 2000 words (50%) You are to make a scholarly analysis of two thinking perspectives met in this course by working with two articles that most align with your own ideas and values as a teacher • Start with writing about core education values/ideas you see as central to being a teacher (e.g. you might see social equity as a key platform in educational philosophy or it may be that promoting creative thinkers with a focus on problem solving sits at the centre for you. You’ll probably have 2 or 3 values/ideals at this stage.) Select 2 thinkers that address these core values. Find an article by each thinker (2 in total) related to these core values. In developing your scholarly analysis: • Clearly identify for each thinker their perspective on your chosen values • Make reference to evidence included to support those perspectives • Relate this to your own learning and perspectives as a teacher • Offer critical comment on your own learning related to those thinkers For example, you may choose to compare the ideas of Maxine Greene with Dewey’s as evidenced in one article by (or about) the work of each of them. You would read and reflect on one scholarly article or chapter written by or about each thinker, (two in total), and use what is said in those articles to justify your preference for the ideas of one over the other. You can focus your attention on articles about teaching/learning activities OR about social/structural issues. If you choose to discuss structural issues (e.g. around power) then Freire and Bourdieu might be more relevant theorists to choose. Follow this with a short section clarifying what you have learned from thinkers other than these two, explaining why they are further down your list of preferred thinkers than the two you chose. Address the useful ideas that you have learned from them. If you are unsure how to do this, here is a suggestion for a way to set it out. This is NOT a recipe – you don't have to write like this. But if you are stuck, it might be of some help. "My philosophical position as a pre service teacher is as follows. I hold these values because I believe that they will give me more job satisfaction/make me a happier teacher and/or improve my students' learning. My primary vales are w, x, y, z, ... I found arguments in (ref) and (ref) in support of my professional philosophy. I'll now discuss their arguments and use them to support my claim that my values will give me more job satisfaction/make me a happier teacher and/or improve my students' learning. Let's say one of my values is equality. I make that the heading and then write something like what follows: Equality In Noddings (2005), Noddings argues that children and teachers are not equal in power, and that teachers need to analyse and reflect on unequal relations (p. 103). She says that in some relations one party must be the main carer, (for example teachers will generally be the carer), and that we need to teach students how to care. She suggests that students in years 7 teach children in Grade 4, in order to learn how to care for people younger than themselves, and she outlines how this could happen as follows...(and so on for a paragraph or two) Freire argues for equality between educators and students. In Freire (1970) he outlines his beliefs in equality, arguing why this equal relationship between teachers and student produces more effective learning. He says this is because they need to be totally equal in power - each is always the teacher and the learner ... (and, so on for a paragraph or two) Freire (1970) was involved in adult education and in a struggle for democratic rights for adults, while Noddings (2005) is concerned with the education of children. At the moment I want to get my degree and then move into adult education, so I think that using the ideas and teaching methods of Freire (1970) will be of slightly more help to me than those of Noddings (2005) because... OR At the moment I am very interested in teaching Foundation Year, and so I think so I think that using the ideas and teaching methods of Noddings (2005) will be of slightly more help to me than those of Freire (1970) because... THEN Although the ideas discussed above are particularly significant to my personal teaching philosophy – the kind of teacher I want to be – there are other thinking perspectives that I will also incorporate into my philosophy for teaching. Some of these other ideas are… (you may then explain, for example, how Bourdieu’s cultural capital can be used to support notions of equality and/or how Dewey’s project approach may enable culturally responsive curriculum etc )… References: Noddings (2005). The Challenge to Care in Schools. Teachers College Press, New York, p 1103. Freire (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Penguin, London. Bourdieu… Dewey…