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Education 487-4
Critical Incidents in Teaching: The Teacher as
Decision Maker
Summer Semester, 1985
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INSTRUCTORS: Drj N'; Manley-Casimir
Dr. S. Wassermann
Wednesdays, 5:30 - 9:20
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LOCATION: MPX 8542
This course is offered for pre-service and in-service teachers who wish to
examine the various pressures influencing the decision-making processes of
teachers.
One of the important aspects of professional functioning is the autonomy of
professionals to arrive at decisions based upon their sound professional
judgment. The ability to examine and interpret data, to. analyze assumptions,
and to project potential consequences is considered a true mark of professional
functioning.
In some professions, a variety of pressures -- political, social, emotional,
personal -- serve to influence professional judgment and consequently to
influence decision making. Such influence may have a deep and pervasive effect
upon the degrees of freedom and emotional health of professionals, upon their
beliefs and values about the profession itself, and upon their subsequent
professional practice.
This course will use contemporary film and literature to raise levels of
awareness about factors influencing teachers' decision making, vis a vis
examinations of critical incidents in teaching. Students who enroll will engage
in film viewing, study of specific literature and focused group discussion,
in order to examine more critically the many facets of the decision-making
process in education. Through this process, students will become more
critically aware of personal decision-making in their own professional
educational context.
Course Objectives
(1)
To increase understanding of the various and complex factors involved in
the decision-making process.
(2)
To increase awareness of factors influencing a teacher's decision making
process.
(3)
To promote more critical awareness of personal decision making and the
consequences of decisions made upon person-in-the-process.
Texts
No texts will be required , readings will be distributed.