Below is my summary of learning for this class, and wow did I ever learn a lot! I had such an amazing semester, thank you to Katia and all my incredible classmates. Enjoy 🙂

I have always enjoyed math. My dad is a math teacher, and I always felt as though math just came naturally to me. It was my favourite subject, and I often found myself helping my friends in school who were not good at it. Now that I am in university, studying to become a math teacher, my ideas about what mathematics is are being challenged. This presentation by Dr. Gale Russell has really opened my eyes and made me rethink everything I thought I knew about mathematics. First of all, mathematics is not universal. Many of us view mathematics as universal because we are only ever exposed to one Eurocentric…

Whether or not we realize it, everyone is exposed to single stories throughout their schooling. This is mainly due to a lack of diverse representation in many aspects of learning. Sadly, it often seems as though only the stories of white heterosexual male characters matter, since I think everyone can agree we read a countless number of different stories with characters who fit this description. Just the fact that most high school students spend at least a couple months every year reading Shakespeare proves this to be true. While there may have been one or two stories with a main character who was female, a person of colour, neurodivergent, gender…

Hello, I am sorry to hear you have not received much support in your attempt to integrate Treaty Education during your internship. Please remember that your efforts are important and necessary, even if you have been made to feel otherwise. The idea that Treaty Education is unnecessary in schools where there are no Indigenous students is a huge misunderstanding of the purpose behind Treaty Education as a whole. I would encourage you to try bringing up the subject again with your Coop, and share your point of view with her. It is likely she views Treaty Education as a way of teaching Indigenous culture, when in reality this is not…

In this document, the Graduate Student Instructor Teaching & Resource Center from the University of California explains three major theories of learning: behaviourism, cognitive constructivism, and social constructivism. Behaviourism is based upon the understanding that people learn through external reinforcements and positive or negative consequences. This theory believes that behaviour is learned through repetition and association. For example, when students are repeatedly rewarded by their teacher for studying, then they will learn to study. Cognitive constructivism, also known as cognitivism, views learning as an active process in which knowledge is constructed through the use of symbols. This theory focuses on the mental processes behind the acquisition and retention of information…

In the article, What Kind of Citizen?, Joel Westheimer and Joseph Kahne outline three of the most prevalent versions of citizenship called the personally responsible citizen, the participatory citizen, and the justice-oriented citizen. The article explains the differences between each of these versions of citizenship through an example about a food drive. They define the personally responsible citizen as the type of person that would donate food to the food drive. Next, they describe the participatory citizen as the type of person that would organize the food drive. Lastly, they describe the justice-oriented citizen as the type of person that would question why people are going hungry and act to…

In order to address the ways in which our education system is intrinsically homophonic, transphobic, biphobic and oppressive towards queer and trans people, we must first vocally acknowledge the issues within the system that cause it to be this way. Only then can we begin to make a conscious effort towards changing the ways in which we teach in order to make them more inclusive and representative of all individuals. In Deepening the Discussion: Gender and Sexual Diversity, the Saskatchewan Ministry of Education provides a detailed explanation of many important terms and concepts related to gender and sexual diversity and proposes a number of steps schools and teachers can take…

Prior to reading Levin’s article on curriculum policy (2008), I was completely unaware of the politics behind the establishment and implementation of curriculum. Levin explains that there are a number of groups who influence curriculum development. There are multiple levels of government involved in the development of curriculum, and individuals in office can have a significant impact on what elements of the curriculum are included. Curriculum development also seeks the input of teachers, administrators, parents, post-secondary educators, and subject experts. Levin states that experts are traditionally given the most authority in developing a curriculum, which can cause issues for teachers because “the product will be something that can be used…

According to the Western ‘commonsense’ understanding of learning outlined in Preparing Teachers for Crisis: What It Means to Be a Student (Kumashiro 2010), being a good student requires learners to behave and think only in certain ways (page 21). A good student must be able to do as they are instructed, listen to their teacher without question, and sit quietly whenever told to do so. Being a good student means that you try your very best to learn, understand, and interpret things in the exact way your teacher shows you to. In summary, a good student is expected to follow all instructions and learn all the material provided by their…

In the article, Curriculum Theory and Practice, Smith outlines a number of approaches to curriculum, including the Tyler rationale. The Tyler rationale focuses on: predetermining what students need to learn and creating objectives that outline what they should learn selecting and organizing methods to teach these objectives to the students specifying how to evaluate if the students met each objective It is a highly systematic approach with a great deal of focus on organization and managed learning. The approach looks to determine whether pre-specified changes are seen in each student’s behavior and uses this to determine if the student was successful in their learning. I experienced this approach throughout my…