EDUC 296 - Special Topics in Education

Spring 2025
Topic 01- Students as Partners in the Assessment and Learning Process
Learning Partners are co-designers in creating the optimal learning experience for students at Clark University. Learning Partners work alongside faculty to co-teach a course that they were already successful taking.

The Learning Assistant Alliance is a group of dozens of colleges that have a program like ours. The research done on these programs suggest that Learning Partners report a strong sense of community. Student grades were improved, especially for women in STEM classes, and the average GPA of a class went up every semester a professor had Learning Partners embedded in a class.

Topic 02 - Teaching Elementry Science Part 2 - for Claremont Students Only
This course will provide students with the opportunity to learn teaching methods and explore teaching as a possible career choice by co-teaching planned lessons to elementary students in grades 4 and 6. Students will read and discuss literature that addresses effective pedagogy for interesting young minds in scientific inquiry and conduct observations of science instruction while recording observations and learning from practitioners. They will also plan, facilitate, and reflect on a series of lessons that they deliver to elementary students. Special Topics courses in Education are only repeatable when the topic differs.

Fall 2024 Topic - Students as Partners in Engagement, Learning and Teaching

Learning Partners are co-designers in creating the optimal learning experience for students at Clark University. Learning Partners work alongside faculty to co-teach a course that they successfully passed in previous semesters. The Learning Partners course teaches participants to develop strategies to work with college students, design experiments based on different pedagogical levers that can be employed in the classroom to improve engagement and learning, and to collect and analyze data about the student experience. Participants will be able to use design thinking, liberatory design, and cooperative learning pedagogies as a result of this course. This course is part of the Learning Partners program. This course requires permission of the instructor to participate.

Participating students need to be selected into the Learning Partners program and have permission from the instructor to take this course. Students have to earn a B or better in the class where they are serving as peer-embedded support as a Learning Partners.

Participation in a weekly (paid) huddle and work as a Learning Partner.

Fall 2024 section 03 for Claremont Academy Students only - TOPIC:TEACHING ELEMENTARY SCIENCE: This course will provide students with the opportunity to learn teaching methods and explore teaching as a possible career choice by co-teaching planned lessons to elementary students in grades 4 and 6.  Students will read and discuss literature that addresses effective pedagogy for interesting young minds in scientific inquiry and conduct observations of science instruction while recording observations and learning from practitioners.  They will also plan, facilitate, and reflect on a series of lessons that they deliver to elementary students.   

Special Topics courses in Education are only repeatable when the topic differs.

 

Prerequisites:  

 

Anticipated Terms Offered: Annually