The senior seminar will provide a space for seniors in the education studies major, as a learning community, to reflect on and deepen their knowledge and understanding in core areas of education studies. Students will be expected to bring in relevant material from their other courses; to learn and discuss new material; and to work collaboratively to develop a grounding in the study of education individually and as a group. The course content will cover the areas defined in the education studies major, including human development and learning; pedagogy; social, cultural, historical, and philosophical disciplines in education; transformative justice in education; methodologies in the study of education, including ethnography and quantitative approaches. Discussions will explore the connection and tension between academic coursework and practical experiences in educational settings, and introduce students to additional approaches and subfields.
Course components will include: (1) bridging across different students’ distinct experiences in their classes relevant to each content area; (2) collaborative reading and discussion of new work beyond the scope of the existing EDST courses; (3) creating a space to discuss and read further about talks by visiting speakers, colloquia, or other events in the College of Education Studies; (4) guest teaching by EDST and outside faculty; and (5) an independent senior project (for thesis writers, this can serve as a scaffold to make progress on the thesis).
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