Today’s classrooms are rich with many kinds of diversity. This course will address future educators’ development in teaching diverse groups of learners, examining how best to apply theories of learning and development to the practice of teaching. Our particular focus will be on cultivating a strengths-based approach, incorporating the unique family and community contexts of our learners into the design and implementation of learning units.
Through assigned texts and discussion-oriented seminars, students will learn about approaches to teaching that support children’s development of critical skills in social, emotional, and academic domains. Students will learn how to design a lesson unit that draws upon the funds of knowledge children bring to the classroom, and how to create responsive lesson plans to support foundational reading, writing, and problem-solving skills.
Using empirically-based readings, and representations of educational experiences in other media – specifically, novels, documentary films, and podcasts – students will reflect upon the ways that classroom environments and teaching practices affect the development of diverse learners, including multilingual learners, children with learning differences, and children from varied racial/ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic backgrounds.
A placement in a local school attended by diverse learners will anchor the seminar course, providing regular opportunities to reflect on educational theory and practice. The placement will be supplemented by a community-engaged learning project, designed to give students personal insight into the experiences of the diverse communities in the region.
The Education Summer School includes an overnight study trip to London, to experience and reflect on the strategies for educational inclusivity employed by some of the capital’s most fascinating Museums - including the Museum of London Docklands and the Young V&A.
Professor: Jennifer Wallace Jacoby, Associate Professor of Psychology and Education, Mount Holyoke College, jacoby@mtholyoke.edu