Timeline for leading a seminar session

While the focus of this class is investigating the question, "What is effective teaching?" in the sciences and mathematics, there is substantial leeway in choosing an education-related topic to guide a seminar discussion. When leading one of the seminar sessions, you will need to follow this timeline:

• 2 weeks (14 days) before the Friday seminar session:
  topic proposal must be decided on


• 2 Mondays (11 days) before the Friday seminar session:
  2 to 5 references must be chosen (depending on length), of which at least 1 must be new (adding to our resources)


• 1 Monday (4 days) before the Friday seminar session:
  A 4-5 page summary and evaluation of the references needs to be written and ready for the class to read


• some point before class:
  seminar organization needs to be discussed with Zach


• Friday seminar session:
  lead the seminar

Ideas (and some starting points)

• classroom culture
• I have several resources -- see me
• the constructivist philosophy in science education
• I have several resources -- see me
• single-sex classrooms in math and science education
• No resources listed (yet!)
• school privatization: e.g., Edison schools
• No resources listed (yet!)
• comparing home schooling with mainstream schools
• No resources listed (yet!)
• the SATs and standardized testing today
• "SATs -- a failing test"
  ./Refs/024.htm
• "Testing: The Need and Dangers"
  http://www.law.harvard.edu/groups/civilrights/alerts/testing.html
• "Blaming the Tests, Not Bridging the Gap"
  http://www.popecenter.org/clarion/1999/Sept-Oct/test.html
• "Report Card on Standardized Testing"
  http://www.edc.org/WomensEquity/resource/title9/report/standard.htm
• "Men Continue to Outscore Women on SAT"
  http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2001/09/06/3b9724476b72a
• "College Board proposes SAT overhaul"
  http://fyi.cnn.com/2002/fyi/teachers.ednews/03/25/sat.overhaul.ap/index.html
• "A college admission test protocol to mitigate the effects of false negative SAT scores"
  ./Refs/hunter.htm
• "High-stakes testing: barriers to gifted girls in mathematics and science?"
  ./Refs/rebhorn.htm
• "Eliminating standardized tests in college admissions: the new affirmative action?"
  ./Refs/zwick.htm
• race and ethnicity & their effect on education and career choice
• "A Top University Wonders Why It Has No Black Freshmen"
  ./Refs/chronicle_article.pdf
• mainstreaming vs. gifted/special programs for similar groups of students
• A number of articles on giftedness and their place in the classroom
  ./Refs/279.htm
• "Gifted Students: Separating 'gifted' students makes energies misdirected"
  http://www.texnews.com/opinion97/con042897.html
• "Mainstreaming"
  http://www.parentsoup.com/edcentral/vocabulary/bsa070.html
• "Does separating kids by talent help or hurt?"
  http://www.lodinews.com/mtg/separating.shtml
• multiple intelligences and how they can be addressed
• "The First Seven . . . and the Eighth"
  http://www.ascd.org/readingroom/edlead/9709/checkley.html
• "Multiple Ways of Knowing: Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences Extend and Enhance Student Learning"
  http://www.earlychildhood.com/Articles/index.cfm?FuseAction=Article&A=19
• comparison with education abroad
• "Immigrant Students Find U.S. Schools Less Demanding"
  http://www.edweek.org/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=18easy.h20
• "How do U.S. students compare? Answer: Scary!"
  http://mwhodges.home.att.net/new_96_report.htm
• school types: public vs. private schools
• "Myths and Facts about Private School Choice"
  http://www.aft.org/research/vouchers/research/myths/myths.htm
• "Good News About Public Schools in the USA: a link to many articles"
  http://www.nea.org/publiced/goodnews/
• the effect of racial stereotypes on white students
• "Racial stereotypes hurt academic performance -- in whites"
  http://www.osu.edu/researchnews/archive/racster.htm
• team teaching
• No resources listed (yet!) Marty Blood presented this in Spr 2002
• government-funded teaching programs: Teach for America
• "Message From Manual Arts"
  http://www.edweek.org/ew/ew_printstory.cfm?slug=02la.h20
• "Teach for America Aims to Level Educational Playing Field"
  http://www.education-world.com/a_issues/issues230.shtml
• "Why Math and Science Majors Should Join"
  http://www.teachforamerica.org/tfa/math_sci.html
• "Who Will Speak for the Children"
  ./Refs/darlinghammond.pdf
• Teacher training and development
• "Principles of Effective Professional Development for Mathematics and Science Education: A Synthesis of Standards"
  ./Refs/NISE.pdf
• distance learning
• No resources listed (yet!) Tyrel McQueen presented this in Spr 2002