Reflections about CTEs and students' comments about EDU378, fall 2009

This is the second semester I taught this course. I carefully reviewed students' comments on the CTEs and adjusted my way of teaching for fall 2009 by maintaining a highly rigorous syllabus. Towards the end of the semester, students complained about the work load of this course, but eventually they would realize the amount of work is worthwhile and yet manageable if they keep up with the course calendar.

Here are the things I continued to do, but did in a more in-depth way. First, I firmly believe that teacher candidates must get their feet wet as early as possible. So, during their practicum as observers, I encouraged and required them to negotiate with their cooperating teacher to impleme the lesson plan on social skills/social studies in the elementary classroom they are observing for 50 hours in Block I. Only one student commented on CTE that he/she thought it was not fair since other Block I courses do not require the implementation of lesson plans. Alas, I see how he or she is grade-oriented rather than learning-oriented. I will continue to highlight the value and importance of implementing lessons as early as possible in their professional development.

Second, this course is entitled Social and Academic Curriculum I. The social curriculum part was interpreted in many different ways in the past by different instructors of this course. For example, one professor taught it as if it was entitled classroom management. Another professor taught it with a belief that high engaging activities in classrooms will minimize students' misbehavior to a great extent. I share this belief and practice, and would like to highlight the social aspects of students' development. This semester, I increased the course content in classroom discipline models, for I believe student teachers need to understand the existing practices in the field and they should be able to identify best and problematic practices using their critical perspectives. If you review the syllabus for fall 2009, you will notice this addition.

Students continue to share with me their great interests in organizing early elementary social studies curriculum around the cultural universal themes. I improved the course assignment on cultural universals and encouraged students to work as cooperative groups on their selected concept among the following cultural universal themes: food, clothing, shelter, family living, communication, transportation, money, childhood, and government.

The adjusted mean for the two sections I taught in fall 2009 is 4.88 and 4.93 respectively. After I carefully reviewed all students' comments, I realized that students responded positively to my way of teaching this course. However, here are three things that I plan to do to improve when I teach this course in the future again.

First, I should make students more accountable for the reading assignments. The journals I assigned for this course work well, but I still feel that quizzes might be better ways to assess their reading. I could also assign reflective papers for them to connect their field observations with theories and practices we shared on campus.

Second, one student commented that I tended to flip through powerpoint slides too quickly sometimes. I do not believe that note-taking alone can improve learning, so sometimes I might have flipped through slides before students could take down each word on the slides. In the future, I could either print out a presentation handout for students, or use powerpoint slides more sparsely, or wait for them to take down the key ideas.

Third, I continue to encourage students to work in teams. However, there are always students who complain about work in teams. Sometimes, free riders get on everyone's nerve. Sometimes, one student tends to dominate the team decisions. This semester, I devoted quite some time for each team to plan their group activities in class. That worked very well. In the future, I would balance individual work with team projects and allow students to earn grades for both individual and group performances.