S
    ?
    .
    EDUCATION 487:
    LITERACY: ORIGINS, CONSEQUENCES AND IMPLICATIONS
    ?
    FOR EDUCATION AND CULTURE
    Spring, 1988
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    Instructor: ?
    Dr. S. deCastell
    Wednesdays
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    Office: ?
    MPX 8545
    4:30 - 8:20 p.m. ?
    Phone:
    ?
    291-3627
    MPX 7506
    OVERVIEW
    This course provides an introduction to the study of literacy from an interdisciplinary perspective. We
    shall explore the origins of western literacy, the conditions which favoured its development and the
    role of literacy in social evolution, the economic and cultural values of literacy, and the effects of
    literacy on cognitive processes. Of particular interest is the reliance on formal educational institutions
    for the mass transmission of literacy. We will be looking in some detail at the varying conceptions of
    literacy that educators have traditionally valued, and we will be looking at some of the current research
    and scholarship that attempts to explain, justify and prescribe educational practices intended to
    increase literacy.
    PURPOSE
    By the end of the course, students should be able to identify, analyze, and justify or criticize the
    aesthetic, communicative, cognitive and socially-transformative consequences attributed to or
    associated with the acquisition of literacy. They should know something of its history and be aware of
    the range of definitions traditionally and currently given to literacy. They should have some
    understanding of the distinctive contributions of conceptual study and empirical research into literacy,
    and understand both the capacities and limitations of each of these approaches to literacy research
    and practice.
    EVALUATION
    Grades are based upon three components:
    (1)
    consistent and active participation in seminars, including the presentation of one of the
    assigned course readings - 25%
    (2)
    a mid-term exam - 25%
    (3)
    a final paper (for which both a first draft and a final draft will be required) on a topic of the students
    own choice, relevant to topics covered in the course - 50%.
    REQUIRED TEXTS
    Literac y.
    Society
    and Schoolin
    g
    : A Reader (eds. S. de Castell, A Luke, and K. Egan). Cambridge
    University Press, Cambridge, 1986.
    A detailed outline of topics and schedule of readings will be made available at the first class.
    [Text is available from Bernard. He has the book table just outside the main cafeteria on the southwest
    side of campus, near the CNIB stand]
    Any additional readings will be made available to students at cost.

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