A Pathfinder as a Course Coordination and Teaching Tool

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A Pathfinder as a Course Coordination and Teaching Tool

Introduction

The challenge for those of us teaching different sections of the same course, is to be able to deliver course content and assess outcomes in a way that is consistent across all sections. Robust, collaborative, course coordination that allows teachers to share resources, experiences, and knowledge has the power of transforming course coordination.

A Pathfinder as a Course Coordination and Teaching Tool will provide the opportunity for effective knowledge gathering and sharing among all participants and for the development of "Communities of Practice" that are able to deliver consistent learning experiences in multi-section courses. Mark Stone and Harriet Dismore of the University of Plymouth describe communities of practice as follows:

"Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly’ (Wenger, 2007). A CoP is formed by people who engage in a process of collective learning in a shared area of interest and requires the following characteristics: the domain; the community; the practice. The domain is the area of interest; the community is formed by the relationships (conversations, discussions, etc.) between members; and the practice is what community members do with learning derived from their interaction."

For this pathfinder I have selected a third semester course in the Interior Design Program at FIT. The course is an introduction to Methods and Materials for Interior Construction.

Unit One: Sample Pathfinder

Target Objective

To develop a Pathfinder Template that will define the structure of the research to be constructed and shared by faculty teaching multi-section courses.

Unit Two: Course Coordination and Educational Quality

Target Objective

To invite learners to re-envision course coordination and educational quality through the lens of a pathfinder that will hold the shared resources of a team of faculty teaching several sections of the same course.

Unit Three: Formal Curriculum vs. Enacted Curriculum

Target Objective

Learners will be able to identify the resources, digital and otherwise, that will support the curricular conversation or enacted curriculum in their classrooms.

Unit Four: Quality, Quantity, and Relatedness in the curriculum

Target Objective

Learners will be able to contribute and share quality resources of substance that will contribute to the relatedness in the curricular conversation.

Unit Five: Instructional Scaffolding

Target Objective

Learners will identify resources in the pathfinder that will serve as instructional scaffolding in the construction of new knowledge.

Unit One: Course Coordination and Educational Quality

Target Objective

To invite learners to re-envision course coordination through the lenses of a pathfinder that will hold the shared resources of a team of faculty teaching several sections of the same course.

Resources and References

Darling-Hammond, Linda et al. Powerful Learning: What We Know About Teaching for Understanding. San Francisco, CA:

Jossey-Bass/John Wiley & Sons, 2008. Print.

Gagné, Robert M. et, al. Principles of Instructional Design. Fifth ed. Belmont, California: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2005.

Print.

National Research Council. "1 Learning: From Speculation to Science." How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and

School: Expanded Edition. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2000. 1. PDF file.

<http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=9853>.

Newmann, Fred, M., Marks, Helen M., Gamoran, Adam. "Authentic Pedagogy and Student Performance." American Journal of

Education 104 (August 1996) JSTOR. Web. 24 February 2012.

<http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1085433?uid=3739256&uid=2&uid=4&sid=56076740213<.

Partnership for 21st Century Skills. The Intellectual and Policy Foundations of the 21st Century Skills Framework. October 2007.

PDF file. Web. 29 March 2012.

<http://www.education.rec.ri.cmu.edu/roboticscurriculum/research/21st%20Centery%20Skills%20Framework.pdf>.

Partnership for 21st Century Skills. 21st Century skills, Education & Competitiveness. Resource and Policy Guide. 2008.

PDF file. Web. 29 March 2012.

<http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/21st_century_skills_education_and_competitiveness_guide.pdf >

Project Based Learning for the 21st Century. Buck Institute for Education. Web. 29 March 2012.

<http://www.bie.org/>.

Stone, Mark and Dismore, Harriet. "GEES learning and Teaching to 2020:Supporting Diverse Communities of Practice Across an

HE and FE Network". University of Plymouth. 7-9 July 2010.