SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
    • ULTY
    OF
    EDUCATION
    Education 298-3: Special Topics—
    Selected Question
    's & issues
    in
    Education
    Instructor.
    Prof
    Meguido Zola and Instructional Team
    ?
    1998-3
    E-mail: zola@sfu.ca
    Office MPX 8630 Telephone: 291-3259 (office
    voice mail)
    Prerequisites:
    None
    Description
    of Course:
    The course introduces you to a small but representative sample of questions and issues
    of importance to education and of interest to educators today.
    You will examine questions relating to: the concept or idea of education; learning and the
    learner; teaching and the teacher; disciplines and discourses of education; and the broader
    contexts of education in the global village and the postmodern world.
    You will be introduced to ways of exploring educational questions and issues, from
    ?
    philosophical and critical analysis, to historical and cross-cultural studies, to empirical research.
    The course models a range of instructional strategies, including: lecture, panel-discussion
    and workshop; discussion and debate; story; case study, and simulation game.
    The course offers a range of learning experiences, including- reading and responding
    orally and in writing; discussion in tutorial and on-line; library research and field-work
    Topics:
    A detailed outline of topics and presenters will be available at the first class.
    Readings:
    Jones, Ron.
    (1976). The Acorn People.
    New York, NY: Bantam ISBN
    0-440-22702-X
    Other readings will be available from the Bookstore as a Custom Courseware text.
    Course requirements and assignments:
    Attendance:
    The course is designed to unfold and develop with each session building on the
    previous one, and to be interactive and collaborative. Therefore, regular and punctual
    attendance at
    all
    presentations and tutorials is expected.
    Assignments:
    The purpose of the assignments is to help you understand the material of the
    course and to help you gain skill and ease in oral and written discussion across the discipline.
    • Weekly discussions
    on-line and in
    tutorial (50%
    of
    the final grade):
    Completion of: a weekly, brief and informal written response to, or reflection on, an
    educational question or issue arising out of that week's course presentation; weekly dialogue
    with each other in an on-line conference and in tutorial.
    • Written responses to selected course readings (30%
    of
    the final grade):
    Three times during the course, you will submit a more extended, more formal, reflection
    about, or response to, an educational question or issue arising out of one of the course readings.
    *Final examination (20% of the final grade):
    An open-book, in-class final examination requiring you to respond to a general
    educational question, case, or problem, so as to demonstrate your learnings of the course material.
    Assessment and grading:
    The completion of course requirements forms the basis for evaluation. The final
    evaluating process will comprise both your own self-evaluation and evaluation by the course
    instructor and tutorial leader/s.

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