Overview and goals

Required Activities

2) Participant observation in a field site once a week beginning in Week 5.
A few weeks into the semester, students will begin field work in one of several field sites. Choices include:
ï One of two "HistoryWeb" after-school clubs where 4th through 8th graders participate in activities related to the history of the Underground Railroad (especially in the local area) and create Web-based virtual museum exhibits (http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~educ/historyweb). These clubs will meet Tuesdays at a middle school, and Wednesdays at an elementary school.
ï If you are particularly interested in museums, you may want to make a special arrangement for field work at either a local science center or black history museum. In addition to studying visitorsí activity in the museums, you could possibly work as a volunteer, or participate in an after school museum apprentice program.

3) Writing detailed field notes on your field experience following each session. Field notes must be submitted by electronic mail no later than 6pm the day following your field experience.

4) Completing a research project on an informal learning environment. A project proposal will be reviewed and approved by Week 10, and the report will be due in lieu of a final exam. The research report should be based on your own observations, and incorporate concepts or research from class readings or other literature.
 

Grading

• Class participation, short paper, and presentation (20%)
• Site participation and field note quality (40%)
• 8-12 page final research report (40%)

Class Readings

• Glesne, C., & Peshkin, A. (1992). Becoming qualitative researchers:  An introduction. White Plains, NY: Longman.
• Falk, J.H., & Dierking, L.D. (1992) The museum experience. Washington, DC: Whalesback Books.

Class Schedule

Week 2
Tuesday: Learning in school and out

• Resnick, L. B. (1987). Learning in school and out. Educational Researcher(December), 13-20.

• Wigginton, E. (1986). Chapters 1, 3, 4, & 5. In Sometimes a shining moment: The Foxfire experience, twenty years teaching in a high school classroom  (pp. 9-10, 31-54). Garden City, NY: Anchor Books.

• Falk & Dierking, pp. 1-93

• Falk & Dierking, pp. 97-125

Week 4
NOTE: Students participating in HistoryWeb after school clubs should sign up for a computer orientation during my office hours this week, or at another arranged time if schedule requires.
Tuesday: Research through participant observation

• Glesne & Peshkin, Chapters 1, 3, 4 and 5.

• Heath, S. B., & McLaughlin, M.W. (1991). Community organizations as family: Endeavors that engage and support adolescents. Phi Delta Kappan(April), 623-627.
• Ball, A., & Heath, S.B. (1993). Dances of identity: Finding an ethnic self in the arts. In S. B. Heath & McLaughlin, M.W. (Eds.), Identity and inner-city youth (pp. 69-93). New York: Teachers College Press.

Week 6
Tuesday or Wednesday: Field experience (Remember, field notes are due by 6pm the day afterward!)

Thursday: Interest

• Childress, H. (1998). Seventeen reasons why football is better than high school. Phi Delta Kappan, 79 (8), 616-619.

• Wertsch, J. V. (1984). The zone of proximal development: Some conceptual issues. In B. Rogoff & J. V. Wertsch (Eds.), Children's learning in the "zone of proximal development", (pp. 7-18). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

• Cole, M. (1996). A multilevel method for cultural psychology. In Cultural psychology: A once and future discipline (pp. 286-325). Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Week 9
Tuesday or Wednesday: Field experience (Remember, field notes are due by 6pm the day afterward)
Thursday: Transformative communication

• Polman, J. L., & Pea, R. D. (1997, March). Transformative communication in project science learning discourse. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL.

Week 10
Tuesday or Wednesday: Field experience (Remember, field notes are due by 6pm the day afterward)
Thursday: Design projects and constructionism

• Harel, I., & Papert, S. (1992). Software design as a learning environment. In D. P. Balestri, Ehrmann, S.C., & Ferguson, D.L. (Eds.), Learning to design, designing to learn: Using technology to transfrom the curriculum (pp. 35-72). Washington: Taylor & Francis.

NOTE: You only need to read pp. 35-42 and 60-69 in Harel & Papert.
• Resnick, M., & Rusk, N. (1996). Computer Clubhouses in the inner city. The American Prospect(July-August), 1-8.

Week 11
Tuesday or Wednesday: Field experience (Remember, field notes are due by 6pm the day afterward)
Thursday: Doing and thinking about history

• Cronon, W. (1992). A place for stories: Nature, history, and narrative. The Journal of American History, 78 (4), 1347-1376.
• Barton, K. C., & Levstik, L. S. (1998). "It wasn't a good part of history": National identity and studentsí explanations of historical significance. Teachers College Record, 99 (3), 478-513.

• Rogoff, B. (1994). Developing understanding of the idea of communities of learners. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 1(4), 209-229.

• Rogoff, B. (1995). Observing sociocultual activity on three planes: Participatory appropriation, guided participation, and apprenticeship. In J. V. Wertsch, del Rio, P., & Alvarez, A. (Eds.), Sociocultural studies of mind (pp. 139-164). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Week 15
Tuesday or Wednesday: Field experience (last one).  (Remember, field notes are due by 6pm the day afterward)
NOTE: In writing your research report, you may want to read Glesne & Peshkin, Chs. 7 & 8.
Thursday: Outward Bound

• Lentz, R. R. (1971). Outward BoundóEducation through experience. In D. U. Levine (Ed.), Models for integrated education: Alternative programs of integrated education in metropolitan areas. Worthington, OH: Charles A. Jones Publishing Co.

Week 16
Tuesday: Presentations I

• Half the class will give a 10-minute presentations of their projects

• The other half of the class will give 10-minute presentations of their projects