Courses in the Educational Studies Program, Trinity College

Educ 200 Analyzing Schools
This course introduces the study of schooling within an interdisciplinary framework. Drawing upon sociology, we investigate the resources, structures, and social contexts which influence student opportunities and outcomes in the United States and other countries. Drawing upon psychology, we contrast theories of learning, both in the abstract and in practice. Drawing upon philosophy, we examine competing educational goals and their underlying assumptions regarding human nature, justice, and democracy. In addition, a community learning component, where students observe and participate in nearby K-12 classrooms for three hours per week, will be integrated with course readings and written assignments.
NOTE: Each student must reserve one three-hour block of time in their weekly schedule (anytime between 9am - 3pm weekdays) for a community learning placement in a neighborhood Hartford public school, to be arranged by the instructor during the first week of the course.
Spring 2004 syllabus (PDF file) with Professor Jack Dougherty

Educ 216 Education and Technology
Schools and colleges have invested billions of dollars in computer technology, but how do we evaluate its effectiveness and hidden costs? Who designs technology and how does it reflect their values and beliefs? Who has access to computers and how are they actually used in our society? Students will explore these questions, critically evaluate software products, and engage in community learning placements to research how technology has shaped the context of schooling.
Fall 2002 syllabus (PDF file) with Professor Barbara Henriques

Educ 300 Education Reform: Past & Present 
How do we explain the rise and decline of education reform movements? How do we evaluate their level of “success” from different sources of evidence? Drawing upon primary source materials and historical interpretations, this course examines a broad array of elementary, secondary, and higher education reform movements from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, analyzing social, material, and ideological contexts. This intermediate-level seminar explores a topic common to all branches of educational studies from both theoretical and comparative perspectives. Prerequisite: Ed 200 or permission of instructor.
Spring 2004 syllabus (PDF file) with Professor Jack Dougherty

Educ 308: Cities, Suburbs, and Schools
How did city dwellers' dreams of better schooling, along with public policy decisions in housing and transportation, contribute to the rise of suburbia in the twentieth century? How do city-suburban disparities affect teaching and learning in classrooms today? What promise do Sheff v O'Neill remedies for racial isolation, such as magnet schools at the Learning Corridor, hold for the future? Students will investigate these questions while developing their skills in oral history, ethnographic fieldwork, and geographical information system (GIS) software. Community learning experiences will be integrated with seminar readings and research projects. Prerequisite: Ed 200 or Psyc 225 or the Cities Program or permission of instructor. Enrollment limited.
Fall 2002 syllabus (PDF file) with Professor Jack Dougherty

Educ 309 Race, Class, and Educational Policy
How do competing theories explain educational inequality? How do different policies attempt to address it? Topics include economic and cultural capital, racial identity formation, desegregation, multiculturalism, detracking, school choice, school-family relationships, and affirmative action. Student groups will expand upon the readings by designing, conducting, and presenting research projects as part of the community-learning component for this seminar.
Spring 2004 syllabus (PDF file)
with Professor Jack Dougherty

Educ 317 Alternative Education
This course examines alternatives to mainstream education, such as charter and magnet schools, Montessori programs, home-schooling, and for-profit enterprises. What historical and political factors led to the rise of the alternative movement? What social and cognitive issues do they raise about quality teaching and learning? What effects have these alternative models had on the broader educational system? The course will include a community learning component to offer students first-hand knowledge about Hartford-area alternative models and how they are implemented. Prerequisites: Ed 200 or permission of instructor. Enrollment limited.
Fall 2001 syllabus with Professor Barbara Henriques

Educ 318: Special Education
How are children labeled (or mislabeled) as having learning and developmental disabilities, autism, or attention deficit disorder? How have definitions and diagnoses of learning disorders changed over time? How does the law seek to ensure the accommodation of the needs of individuals with learning disabilities? Students will critically analyze current research on disorders, examine special education case law and advocacy, and explore issues through community learning placements and interviews with teachers and parents.
Prerequisite: Ed 200 or Psyc 295 or permission of instructor
Fall 2001 syllabus (PDF file) with Professor Mark Brown

Educ 322: Comparative Education -- Japan and the United States
How have social and political factors shaped schooling in Japan and the United States, particularly as economic competition between the two nations has increased in recent decades? In turn, how do Japanese and U.S. schools express their vision of what it means to be an educated citizen? Students will critically examine how racial, class, and gender discrimination have influenced educational policies and practices in both nations, as well as the extent and efficacy of school reform efforts addressing diversity and globalization. Prerequisite: a prior course in Educational Studies or International Studies, or permission of the instructor.
to be offered in Fall 2004 with Instructor Eugenie Kang

Educ 350 Curriculum: Theory, Policy, and Practice
What should be taught in schools and who has the right to make that decision? How do different theories of learning shape curriculum policy and development? How might the trend toward national curriculum standards influence classroom instruction and assessment? What role do interest groups play in shaping curriculum at the local, state, national, and international levels? For the community learning component, students will design, teach, and evaluate curriculum modules in cooperation with neighborhood afterschool programs. Prerequisite: Ed 200 or permission of instructor. Enrollment limited.
Spring 2002 syllabus with Professor Barbara Henriques

Educ 400 Senior Research Seminar
To fulfill the senior exercise requirement, students carry out an independent research project which builds upon acquired skills and evolving interests. The weekly seminar provides a thematic focus as well as a continuous forum for both support and critical feedback from peers, in preparation for a public presentation of the student's work at the end of the semester. Each year, the seminar will be organized around a broad theme in educational studies. Ordinarily taken in the fall semester of the senior year, with the option of continuing as a one-credit senior thesis (Educ 497) in the spring semester.
Fall 2003 syllabus (PDF file) with Professor Jack Dougherty
See past projects located in  Student Research
 

Educ 497 Senior Thesis
Open to senior majors in spring semester, who have received B+ or better in Ed 400, as a continuation of their independent research projects. By arrangement with professor.

First-Year Seminar - Resistance and Rebellion: Student Protest in American Higher Education with Professor Jack Dougherty
Why have student protests periodically erupted on college campuses over the past two hundred years? How have the methods, motivations, and broader meanings behind these movements changed, or remained the same, over time? What were the long-term outcomes of student protests? And how does our memory — or ignorance — of these events influence campus life and politics in the present? During the first half of the seminar, we will probe these issues while reading accounts of rebellion at Princeton in the early 1800s, Fisk University in the 1920s, Berkeley in the 1960s, and others. In the second half, we will research the 1968 Trinity student protest for African-American student scholarships, by examining archival evidence and conducting oral history interviews with participants. In addition to writing research papers and making oral presentations, our seminar will produce a public history exhibit on the events of 1968 for the Trinity campus community.
Trinity 1968 public history exhibit
Fall 2000 syllabus

First-Year Seminar - Learning: The Human Experience with Professor Barbara Henriques
How do we learn, how do we facilitate/hinder learning, and how can we use learning to enhance our development as individuals and as a society? These questions, along with questions students bring to the course, will create the central focus of this first-year seminar. Using a variety of materials and resources we will explore a variety of issues related to learning. Issues will include: education and development, ways of knowing, human adaptation, genetics and the environment, culture, perception, the complex mind, choice and responsibility, symbolization and meaning, the self and liberation from the self, creativity, and social institutions. The seminar will discuss issues of equity as they relate to opportunities for learning, humans as agents of social change and humans and the future of learning in our society. Readings, films, interviews and field trips will provide the material for our discussions. The seminar experience will emphasize the development of analytical reading, thinking and writing skills in an effort to nurture and construct an engaging learning environment for both the individuals in the section and the section as a whole. Fall 2001 syllabus

 

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Last updated August 10, 2004