Instructor:  Jorge Conesa, Ph.D.   (Education supervisor, Dr. Ken White)
How to contact me:
E-mail:  [email protected]
Office:  (425) 388-9388  (see office hours)
My office is located in Rainier Hall, 3rd floor, Room 306
Office hours: M & W from 10:10 until 11:10 AM, T & Th from 10:00 until 12:00 noon, or by appointment.

Required texts

      Guy R. Lefrancois (2000).  Psychology  for Teaching, 10th Ed.  Belmont, California: Wadsworth
       Publishing Company.

Optional/Recommended
1.  William Crain  (1999).  Theories of Development: Concepts and Applications (4th Ed.), New Jersey:
      Prentice  Hall.
2.   Jorge Conesa  (1999).  Ecological Outcome Psychological Theory: Application of Human Development
       Theories to Other Scientific Fields.  New York: Forbes Publishing.
3.  John Dewey (1938).   Experience and Education.  New York: Collier
4.  Howard Gardner (1985).   Frames of Mind.  New York: Basic Books, Inc. Publishers
5.  Gardner, Kornhaber, and Wake (1996).  Intelligence: Multiple Perspectives.  Forth Worth, Texas: Hartcourt
      Brace College Publishers.
6.  Jeanne E. Ormond (1998).   Educational Psychology: Developing Learners.  New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
7.  Robert Solso (1999).  Cognition and the Visual Arts, 3rd Ed.  Cambridge: MIT Press.
8.  Borich and Tombani (1995).   Educational Psychology: A contemporary approach.  New York: Harper
      Collins.
9.  Aldous Huxley (1962).  Island.  New York: Harper and Row Publishers.

Videos

“Bigger than life” (1956), James Mason, Walter Matthau
“The secret of the wild child” (1997),   Nova series   (PBS—pbs.org)

Welcome to Psychology 251
My overall goal for this course is to establish enduring links between psychological theory, research, and their classroom applications.  While establishing this link, we will focus on intellectual, motivational, and affective development in children and adolescents.  Specifically, this body of knowledge will survey biological, perceptual, cognitive, social, and moral development.  Additionally, we will review and comment on contemporary educational trends.  Like any scientific field, this fast growing body of knowledge encompasses diverse methodologies and perspectives. Through class discussion, examinations, group presentations, and lectures students will be able to:

*   Describe how the three major theoretical views on child development (Preformationism, Learning Theory, and Developmentalism) have affected modern and contemporary perceptions of children and have led to the creation of past and present-day educational systems.

*   Use, in logical argument, the above perspectives in the description of nature-nurture dichotomies and their syntheses.

*   Describe the concept of “teleology” and be able to use it as a heuristic for assessing educational theory and research.

*  Describe the concept of “neoteny” and be able to use it as a building block in  understanding learning and developmental theory and research.

*  Compare and critique traditional views of intelligence (Spearman, Terman , Galton) with multiple intelligence models (Sternberg, Gardner).

*  Compare and critique behavioristic expectations, or outcome-based education, to developmentalists, or constructivists programs.

*  Compare and critique behavioral, humanistic, cognitive and social learning theories of motivation.   Also be able to demonstrate this knowledge by role playing the four approaches during class activities.

*  Specify ways in which ethics and values may be taught while considering Kolhberg’s and Piaget’s theories of moral development.

*  Demonstrate increasing mastery of critical thinking protocol and behaviors, and identify specific classroom implementation of this skill.

*  Describe ways in which language and cognitive abilities are interrelated.  Analyze the implications of this relationship to bilingual education (be able to argue both sides of the issue).

*  Compare and contrast the information processing cognitive approach to operant and classical conditioning, and to observational learning.

*  Describe how regression is part of normal development and necessary for successful learning.  Include logical links to constructivism and outcome-based education.

*  Describe how play behavior is necessary for successful learning.

*  Describe ways of bringing research into the classroom as a way of gathering information needed by the teacher (Montessori empiricism).

*  Describe an ideal Montessori learning environment and compare it to your choice of educational program.  Be specific in your comparison by using environmentalist and/or developmentalist terminology.  Finally, describe how motivation and learning are manipulated in both settings.

*  Explain how Sulloway’s research on birth order may be used as a predictive tool for academic progress, behavior and motivation.

*  Explain how cultural backgrounds may be used as a predictive tool for academic progress, behavior and motivation.

*  Explain how individual cognitive styles may be used as a predictive tool for academic progress, behavior and motivation.

*  Compare and contrast Werner’s Orthogenic Principle (full version) to Schachtel’s notion of childhood amnesia.

*  Compare and contrast Piaget’s, Werner’s, and Vygostky’s models. Specifically, compare their ideas about symbol formation, language acquisition, self-regulation, and control of behavior.

*  Describe Piaget’s idea of equilibrium while using his concepts of assimilation and accommodation.

*  Describe Erikson’s eight stages of personality/social development.

*  Demonstrate, in role playing, the challenges and virtues of multiculturalism.

*  Create list of outcomes and means of evaluating learning as authentic assessment.  (Demonstrate how the outcomes or the assessment will change as a function of class size.)

Grading:
Your knowledge of the content and ideas covered during the course will be demonstrated using a variety of assessment tools.  There are five types of assessment in this class: class participation, mini seminars, class demonstrations, blue book integration essays, and comprehensive test on educational psychology terminology.   Each type of assessment is worth 15% of your grade except for class participation, which is worth 40% (out of 115%). Your are responsible for reading two assigned chapters per week ahead of lectures. The final grading scale is:

 90 - 100% = A
 80 - 89% = B
 70 - 79% = C
 60 - 69% = D
Less than 60% = E (F)

Class participation includes being on time, remaining in class during entire length of our contact hours, active and meaningful participation, keeping abreast of assignments and readings, participation in group work, participation in role-playing demonstrations, understanding the syllabus and course requirements, and in general, being an active and interested participant.  The weekly mini seminars are your opportunity to talk and write about traditional and contemporary themes and topics in educational psychology.  For maximum effect and efficiency we will assign debate roles so that students defend or critique a particular issue.  Class demonstrations are an opportunity to showcase and put into practice the skills of teaching, in mock scenarios, the methodology of education. The blue book integration essays are the written products of mini seminars.  These eight assignments are short-paragraph  summaries of these discussions.   Finally, there is a comprehensive, open book, take-home test on educational psychology terminology.  This test will take the form of an extended glossary of terms, using paraphrasing, covering important definitions, current issues, and terminology.  The completed glossary is typed.

Cheating/Plagiarism policy
Cheating is an insult to both of our intelligences; it undermines the value of your education, makes the cheater an unworthy citizen, and is against EVCC policy:   “Cheating includes any attempt to defraud, deceive, or mislead the instructor in arriving at an honest grade assessment. Plagiarism is a form of cheating that involves presenting as one’s own the ideas or work of another.”   If the thoughts are not yours, reference them! Violation of this policy will result in an "E" (an F) in this course.

Reading/Discussion Topics/Areas

Historical perspectives overview and methods
Developmental maxims
Maslow’s pyramid of needs
Early theories and research methods
Teleology
The science of educational psychology
Montessorian empiricism

Traditional theories
Freud
Erikson
Watson-Skinner-Bandura
Cognitivism

Biological and perceptual development
Neoteny
Regression and immaturity
Darwin: natural selection
The “decontextualized” classroom
Gessell: learning on demand?
Bowlby and Ainsworth
J. J. Gibson: ecological perception
Werner

Intelligence, language, creativity and learning
Piaget
Vygotsky
Sapir-Whorf and Chomsky
Aesthetic development
Bilingual education

Motivation
Humanism
Montessori and motivation
Kohl berg
Lockers (behaviorism) rewards and punishment
Birth order

Eight mini seminars: topics and controversies
1. Brain development: learning forever
2. Adolescence: self-consciousness, peer groups, and communal responsibility
3. Gifted learners, regular learners, all learners, and life-long learning
4. Multiculturalism
5. The teaching of “constructivism”?
6. The politics of outcome-based education and teaching to standards
7. Authentic evaluation: portfolios, convergence tests, skits, and other assessments
8. Individual differences in learning

Class demonstrations
To be announced.  Approximately one every two weeks, or five total demonstrations

1. After watching “Bigger than Life”, act out a “preformationist” attitude
2. Talking to minorities: establishing common ground
3. Parent-teacher relations
4. Teaching to multiple intelligences
5. Critical thinking in dialogue: the dialectics of paraphrasing

Blue book essays
These are due the following Monday after Friday's mini seminar discussions

Comprehensive glossary
Due on the day of the final (these will be returned to the students)

Holiday and/or important dates
To be announced

Inclusion Statement
I will endeavor to accommodate unique learning situations as indicated by the mission statement of EVCC.  Please let me know if these accommodations are needed and talk to me about specific arrangements that need to be made for you.

Classroom protocol
My classroom is a harassment-free zone.  Intolerant, uncaring and/or careless behaviors toward your classmates or toward me will be met by a strict enforcement of EVCC disciplinary rules.  It is disrespectful to me and to fellow students to talk incessantly while lectures are conducted.  Please refrain from juvenile and immature displays.  An academic environment is one of the most sacred spaces in democratic institutions.  If this request seems unfair or outlandish, please, I urge you to consider taking this course from another instructor.

Electronic devices
Absolutely no bells or whistles!   As a courtesy to your own learning, to others and to me, please turn off your pagers, cell phones or any other devices that go off loudly enough to be heard by a five-year-old.  No laptop computers are allowed for note-taking unless you can provide medical proof for disability.   If laptops are to be used, in order to accommodate a learning  disadvantage, you need to sit in the front row, in the “learning circle”, so that the computer screen is visible to the instructor at all times.