Research Analysis/Literary Review

OverviewKevin Palmer

CC&I 501 INTRODUCTION TO DOCTORAL SCHOLARSHIPFall, 2011

District 211 cohort

Research Analysis/Literary ReviewOverview

• What will be determined – • 1.) Is team/co-teaching an effective tool for presenting

academic courses to secondary education students? • 2.) Is the American Studies approach to teaching

Junior English and U.S. History an effective approach for introducing high school students to a Humanity based education?

• 3.) Does the team/co-teaching approach to American Studies enhance/improve cognition in high school students?

Research Analysis/Literary ReviewOverview

*Team/Co-Teaching and Planning

Research Analysis/Literary ReviewOverview

*American Studies is an effective approach to introduce a Humanities based curriculum in high school.

Research Analysis/Literary ReviewOverview

The American Studies Program enhances/ or improves Cognition*

Team/Co-Teaching

• …students are exposed to two, at least, of a variety of educational formats; two, or more, teachers, two, or more disciplines, two, or more periods, two, or more grades, etc.

• What students also gain, …is the benefit of two, or more, interpretations and professional insights into a curriculum that may have several areas that overlap academically.

Team/Co-Teaching

• The overreaching goal is to improve… cognition …that beyond their knowledge of the content being enhanced, that effectively, so is their ability of application of what they have learned.

• The objective is that with the benefit of two, or more, teachers teaching two, or more, disciplines in one classroom, students will gain greater insight and therefore the ability “to do” as well as “to know”.

Team/Co-Teaching• …an effective team/co-teaching approach is to implement

differentiated instruction that best meets student needs. This allows two, or more, teachers to best implement lesson plans by asking each other “how can we keep student interest, and keep them motivated for learning?”

• …effectiveness of team/co-teaching on a variety of factors important to mastery of learning for students – enhancing positive peer interaction, keeping students on task, providing a greater sense of ownership of learning and involvement in their own learning, and ultimately, providing greater assessment and feedback for the teachers involved.

A Humanities based curriculum in high school

A Humanities based curriculum is vital for our students to only not be better “thinkers and doers” “empowering habits of mind, formed when we are young, require continual nourishment” underscoring the importanceof the humanities for good citizenship—without a strong grounding in history we cannot understand and protect our democratic institutions. (Berlowitz, 2010)

A Humanities based curriculum in high school

• American Studies offers students a unique format in which to encounter Junior English and U.S. History…American Studies integrates the arts (visual; painting, drawing, and photography – and performing; music, dance, and drama), architecture, and culture, as well a variety of other disciplines and techniques that would not be normally found in each of the individual courses.

A Humanities based curriculum in high school

• …a way to compel students to see the impact the Humanities have on their lives, by linking the global perspective of history and literature to their own lives;

• …are the issues relevant beyond the classroom and could it lead to the direct participation of the student in their own world, locally, or even globally? – to “think globally and act locally.”

• “… a Humanities education has lost significant market share to other curriculums, from vocational to business courses. As student entry into college increases, the concern is that the American workforce will lack the necessary skills to be well-informed citizens…Berlowitz (2010)

A Humanities based curriculum in high school

• As our global economy expands and contracts, our global perspective grows. Our educational systems must strengthen competency in reading and writing …need to compete with new economic super powers.

• It is ironic that while we increase our need to engage and expand our math and science curriculum to “compete”, the emergent and/or emerging Asian economic powers are more and more emulating U.S schools…

• …it is a “great irony” that as countries in South and East Asia are “attempting to emulate the American example of investing in world-class public higher education [the] example to which they are looking is eroding in the very place it originated” Mark Yudof, president of the University of California system{ 2009, 40} (Berlowitz, 2010).

American Studies enhances/improves cognition in high school students

The overreaching goal then is to enhance not only the learning of material - the “mastery”, but the cognition of the students, so vital as a skill set for today’s high school students.

American Studies enhances/improves cognition in high school students

• …empirical data can be collected to test current students, using questions that can measure cognitive learning; showing development over time of their enhanced and/or improved cognition.

• …collect data from former students in American Studies via a variety of social media.

• …develop standards in empirical data collection that would allow one to gauge the cognitive effectiveness …and determine what impacts it had on their post-secondary scholarship.

American Studies enhances/improves cognition in high school students

• Collection of data from both current as well as former students in an American Studies program would allow the teacher to better gauge how cognitive skills have been enhanced and/or improved… – possible descriptors:

• the success in their college majors, and/or their profession.• how their learning skills benefitted from a course like American

Studies – analytical skills, communication skills, and how the subject(s) process information.

• determine how influential American Studies was on their development as life learners.

• cross-verify collected data from American Studies and compare to regular English (E302)/U.S. History (G342) to determine if there is any variation in skill sets.

• Bassett, J. (2008). The Future of Humanities Education, Or Ahab and His Humanities. Interdisciplinary Humanities, 25(1), 7-19.

• Berlowitz, L. (2010) The Humanities: The Case for Data. Liberal Education, 96(1), 20-25.

• McClay, W. M. (2010). The Burden and Beauty of the Humanities. Arts Education Policy Review, 111(1), 33-35.

• Bordelon, S. (2010). Restructuring English and Society through an Integrated Curriculum: Ruth Mary Weeks's "A Correlated Curriculum." Rhetoric Review, 29(3), 257-274.

• Cox, C. Benjamin. (1974). Secondary social studies curriculum and pedagogy in the United States. International Social Science Journal, 26(3), 498-505.

• Davis, J.R. (1995). Interdisciplinary courses and team teaching : new arrangements for learning. Phoenix, Ariz.: American Council on Education and the Oryx Press.

• Hawbaker, B., Balong, M., Buckwalter, S., & Runyon, S. (2001). Building a Strong BASE of Support for All Students Through Coplanning. Teaching Exceptional Children, 33(4), 24-30.

• Hinde, E. (2005). Revisiting Curriculum Integration: A Fresh Look at an Old Idea. Social Studies, 96(3), 105-111.

• Murawski, W. (2006). Student Outcomes in Co-Taught Secondary English Classes: How Can We Improve? Reading & Writing Quarterly, 22(3), 227-247.

• Murawski, W, & Dieker L. (2008). 50 Ways to Keep Your Co-Teacher: Strategies for before, during, and after Co-Teaching. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 40(4), 40-48.

• Ragland, R. (2007). Changing Secondary Teachers' Views of Teaching American History. History Teacher, 40(2), 219-246.

• Sileo, J. (2011). Co-Teaching: Getting to Know Your Partner. Teaching Exceptional Children, 43(5), 32-38.

• Thomas, P. L. (2011). "A Respect for the Past, a Knowledge of the Present, and a Concern for the Future": The Role of History in English Education. English Education, 43(2), 123-144.

• Talamante, L. (2008). Teaching U.S. History with an Eye to the World. History Teacher, 41(3), 391-404.

• Tudball, L. (2007). New Trajectories for Teaching the Humanities: Considering Curriculum and Pedagogical Imperatives. International Journal of the Humanities, 4(10), 13-19.

• Yilmaz, K. (2008/2009). A Vision of History Teaching and Learning: Thoughts on History Education in Secondary Schools. High School, 92, 37-46.