Templeton Honors College - Great Hearts Academies...Templeton Honors College Templeton Honors College 1300 Eagle Road St. Davids, Pennsylvania USA 19087-3696 Tel: 610-225-5022 Fax:

Templeton Honors College

Templeton Honors College 1300 Eagle Road St. Davids, Pennsylvania USA 19087-3696

Tel: 610-225-5022 Fax: 610-341-1790 www.templetonhonorscollege.com

www.eastern.edu

November 28th, 2016 Dear Headmasters, We are pleased to announce that in June of 2017 the Templeton Honors College at Eastern University will launch a new Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) with a Concentration in Classical Education for Great Hearts teachers. Our goal is to offer a graduate degree which is truly classical in its philosophy, methods, and goals, but also offers secondary subject-area teacher certification in Pennsylvania (which has reciprocity with 45 states). Through our program teachers will explore the history and philosophy of education, deepen their understanding and love of their own subject matter and the liberal arts more broadly, and strengthen their skills in classical instruction. Students will study under Templeton’s brilliant teacher-scholars, with opportunities for mentorship in their discipline. They will consider important questions of educational philosophy and pedagogy in light of the classical understanding of the human person and vision of education. Conversations about special education and differentiating instruction for diverse learners will be rooted in an understanding of our common humanity, discussions of adolescent development will have at the forefront questions of formation, and dialogues over classroom management techniques will emphasize cultivating good habits and instilling a love of learning. The Master of Arts in Teaching will provide opportunities for reflection and intellectual growth, as well as strengthening classical teaching skills. During the two 5-week summer residencies, students will have opportunities to observe and lead sessions in the Templeton Summer Scholars Program – our residential program for high school students, and receive feedback from the Templeton faculty. During the academic year students will be paired with a mentor teacher and will regularly receive feedback on their instruction in the Great Hearts classroom. I’ve enclosed the guiding values of the Templeton Honors College, a statement of values for the MAT, and preliminary course descriptions. We hope to see many of your teachers this June! Sincerely, Jonathan Yonan, Dean




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VALUES OF THE TEMPLETON HONORS COLLEGE

TRUTH AND LEARNING We are committed to cultivating love of the truth, in the conviction that the truth about reality is created by God, not by us. Yet we can learn to know it because it has been clearly revealed to us by God, who speaks through his creation and his Word with a single voice.

For this reason we are committed to cultivating a love of inquiry, understanding, and sound judgment, embracing all study as a joyous expression of our love of God and his creation.

WISDOM AND VIRTUE We are committed to an education that is not merely an accumulation of facts or a study of what others have thought, but primarily cultivation in thinking, feeling, judging, choosing, and acting for a complete life which loves God and our neighbor.

Furthermore, we are committed to cultivating Christian faith, believing and following our Lord Jesus Christ and being renewed in his image.

STEWARDSHIP AND SERVICE We are committed to cultivating the talents God has given us, using them in both work and play, with diligence, excellence, and delight, for the glory of God and the benefit of his world.

We are committed to cultivating obedience to the Word of God and serving our neighbors in love, humility and generosity.




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THE MASTER OF ARTS IN TEACHING With a Concentration in Classical Education

STATEMENT OF VALUES The proper goal of education is not just knowledge but the lifelong love of learning, the cultivation of a habit of the heart that desires wisdom and finds goodness and beauty in seeking the truth. The duty of teachers is therefore first of all to be themselves lovers of truth and wisdom—master learners—so that they may also invite their students to share this love and enter into the life of learning. Flowing out of this conviction, the Master of Arts in Teaching, with concentration in Classical Education at Eastern University has three main foci: 1. Classical education begins with human nature and identity—what it means to be human. Our

answer to this question determines how we understand what it means to learn, which determines in turn how we view the work of teaching. Positively, this means that this degree program begins from the fundamental questions of human nature, the meaning and purpose of life, and the nature of the truth, beauty, and goodness. These questions frame all the discussions throughout the program.

Education is an “art” in the classical sense of the term, because it is a skill like any other. Since it is a skill that entails learning and teaching (and always in that order), both teachers and students can improve their ability to learn, and their ability to teach. Students are thus learners apprenticed to those who have, by training and study, become master learners.

2. As it is commonly conceived and practiced in North America “classical education” encompasses a

wide range of philosophies and practices. One reason for its growing popularity is dissatisfaction with the general state of formal education, especially the “industrial” model of education common to government-run schools and the broader system of which they are a part. This program stands opposed to this model of education, and thus embodies an implicit (and occasionally explicit) critique of that system, not for the sake of critique or argument, but for the sake of pursuing the highest ends of the human person and human society.

This program thus focuses on the art and skill of asking meaningful questions about our practice as teachers so that we can grow not only in our understanding of what we teach, but of why and how we go about it.

3. In all of its courses this program presupposes the inestimable and intrinsic worth of the human

person, created in the image of God and fully revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. Because of this assumption our program will give elevated attention to students with learning differences and disabilities who also bring the gift of their humanity to the classroom. Moreover, this assumption also requires giving serious consideration to the idea that the human person, made in the likeness of God, has a telos proper to its nature; and any serious consideration of education requires a diligent study of the ethical formation of each child toward the sumum bonum.




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MAT COURSES

Difference and Human Dignity EDUC501: Issues in Special Education Overview: In order to approach this topic, we will explore the notion of human dignity inherent in different understandings of what it is to be a person. Always in view will be how these varying understandings of dignity and personhood treat persons with various disabilities—physical and mental. Are they kept, in philosopher Raimond Gaita’s phrase, ‘fully among us’? Or do our very definitions of personhood exclude certain human beings. How do theological reflections affect our understanding of disability and the possibilities for grace and revelation contained therein? Are there secular means for keeping the disabled ‘fully among us’? Possible Texts: Aristotle, Politics Bk. 7. 16-17; Gaita, A Common Humanity (selections); Kittay, Cognitive Disability and Its Challenge to Moral Philosophy (selections); Vanier, Becoming Human (selections) The Young Person EDUC507: Child, Adolescent, and Educational Development Overview: A Great Books course that explores philosophical and theological understandings of childhood from antiquity to present, with special focus on questions of education. How did different eras view children and adolescents? When did our current understandings emerge and why? Are they helpful? What paradigms of personhood are present in various understandings of the nature of children and childhood? Possible Texts: Augustine, Confessions (selections); Homer, Telemachia (selections); Piaget, The Psychology of the Child (selections); Plato, Republic Bk. 2-3; Rousseau, Emile (selections) Teaching English as a Second Language EDUC512: TESOL Methods and Field Experience Overview: This course provides an overview of the full range of the methodology for teaching English as a Second Language (ESL), especially appropriate for the K-12 classroom teacher who has non-English speaking students in the classroom. It aims to enable students to incorporate the appropriate ESL or EFL strategies in their teaching and adapt their materials and instructional methods to meet English language learners’ needs and accommodate their learning styles. Course topics include techniques and strategies for improving second language learners’ listening, speaking, reading, writing, and communication skills, the role of the teacher, the needs of the learner, language testing and assessment, materials design, use of new technology in language teaching, and the development of lesson plans, including the selection and uses of texts and other materials. Classroom Management EDUC 582: Methods of Classroom Management Overview: This course approaches classroom management with the understanding that students are human beings with a natural affinity to learn and persons worthy of respect. Our methods of management stem




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from our understanding of the human person, and so this course will build off of previous coursework that explored the concept of personhood, leading to the rejection of the industrial model of education and focusing instead on developing management skills rooted in joy-based inquiry and the formation of good character and personal habits. Possible Texts: Dreikurs (selections); Faber & Mazlish, How to Talk so Kids will Listen and Listen so Kids Will Talk (selections) Funk & Fay, Teaching with Love and Logic (selections); Mason (selections) Reading with the Great Books EDUC 603: Reading Strategies for Middle and Secondary Content Areas Overview: (I) We will begin by studying ancient and medieval understandings of reading and writing as character-forming capacities of the human soul that address both matters of content and taste, and which are therefore ways of liberating the soul for a rich and ethical life. (II) We proceed to consider the differing forms of thought and language that are proper to a good life as outlined in the classical disciplines, which are not so much ways of mastering bodies of knowledge, but rather ways of perfecting the natural capacities of the human soul for a complete life. (III) We conclude by conducting subject-specific seminars on the use of masterworks in arts and letters, the natural sciences, and mathematics. Possible Texts: Aristotle, Rhetoric and Poetics; Cicero, On Invention; Douglass, Narrative (selections); Longinus, On the Sublime; Plato, Republic II (selections); Wright, Black Boy (selections) Student Teaching EDUC610: Student Teaching Overview: Observation and teaching in an approved classroom with guidance and evaluation. At least 12 weeks of full-time student participation is required. Evaluation and Assessment EDUC682: Evaluation and Assessment of Students in Inclusive Classrooms Overview: This seminar on assessing and evaluating students addresses three main topics: (1) the ethics of assessment and evaluation; (2) its history and philosophy, purpose, function, and use; and (3) various approaches to evaluation and assessment. Ancillary presentations address certification-linked topics related to formal assessment, including methods of identifying, screening, evaluation, referring, placing exceptional students, and using Individualized Education Plans [IEPs] to meet student needs. Educational activities include creating a case-based IEP, and evaluating and administering formal and informal assessments. Possible Texts: Dickens, Hard Times (selections); Holt, How Children Fail (selections); Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (selections); Plato, Euthyphro, Meno, Republic I, and Symposium (selections) Inclusive Education EDUC 684: Inclusive Education with Field Experience




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Overview: This course examines the concept of inclusive education from the perspective of the humanities and considers the historical, economic, and social context for the development of mainstream educational curricula. Students will learn about disability categories under the Federal IDEA law and analyze critically the construction of these categories of disability and their transformation over time. Through guided research and field experience, students will study and employ the teaching practices of classical educators and evaluate their success with different kinds of learners. Topics to be addressed include the Great Books and diversity, multiple intelligences and universal design. Possible Texts: Bronte, Jane Eyre (selections); Huxley, Brave New World (selections); Kafka, The Metamorphosis; Pomerance, The Elephant Man; Vanier, Made for Happiness (selections) History of Education I & II: Ancient and Medieval & Modern HONR 500: History of Ancient and Medieval Education & HONR 501: History of Modern Education Overview: There are two required courses in the history of education. The first (HONR500) explores antiquity to the Medieval Era, emphasizing ancient Greek, ancient Roman, early Christian, Medieval, and Renaissance influences on education. The second course (HONR501) discusses the history of education during the Modern era (1500-present), emphasizing the Reformation, Pietism, Enlightenment, the nineteenth-century development of the nation state and the research university, the rise of the social sciences, and the more recent developments of the twentieth century. Relying primarily on original documents, in each course students will explore educational structures and philosophies throughout the centuries. An assumption of these courses is that education is a process by which a society shapes its future members. These courses focus on education as a historical phenomenon with an interest in understanding the kinds of citizens Western societies have sought to form; and it gives special emphasis to Christian notions of the human person, civil society, and the preparation of persons to participate in society. By understanding dominant pedagogies and models of education from a historical, philosophical, and theological perspective, teachers will develop the ability to think critically about the education of their own students, pulling from a myriad of tools and philosophies rather than simply the current educational moment they are situated in. By learning the trends and changes in education throughout the ages, students will be stronger educational leaders as they understand how and why education is structured as it currently is. Possible Texts (I): Aristophanes, Clouds (selections); Augustine, The Teacher; Bruni, On the Study of Literature (selections); Erasmus (selections): Piccolimini, The Education of Boys, On Liberal Education (selections); Plutarch, Nine Greek Lives: Solon, Moralia: The Education of Children (selections) Possible Texts (II): Adler, Paidea Proposal (selections); Brown v. Board of Ed. (selections); Chesterton, Orthodoxy; Dewey (selections); Eliot, Notes Toward a Definition of Culture; Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education (selections); Mann (selections); Mather, On the Education of Children




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Classical Teaching in Your Discipline HONR 509: Teaching Your Discipline Classically Overview: This course reviews classical methods and materials appropriate for teaching adolescents. Students will develop their understanding of classical pedagogical techniques and develop their teaching skills through mentoring, observations, and seminars. This course includes field experiences in the major academic area in middle/secondary schools. Possible Texts: Joseph, The Trivium (selections); MacIntyre, Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry (selections); Mason, Toward a Philosophy of Education; Pieper, Leisure, The Basis of Culture (selections)

Documents

Templeton Honors College - Great Hearts Academies...Templeton Honors College Templeton Honors College 1300 Eagle Road St. Davids, Pennsylvania USA 19087-3696 Tel: 610-225-5022 Fax: