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Education Teacher Education Course Descriptions (BEd/DipEd) Foundational Studies (FOUN)
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Foundational Studies (FOUN)
Foundations courses deal with broad issues and with the intellectual and theoretical underpinnings of the education enterprise. Traditionally, Foundations courses are drawn from disciplinary areas such as philosophy, psychology, sociology, anthropology and history. Those courses indicating PJIS are for all students, PJ for Primary-Junior students only, and IS for Intermediate-Senior and Technological Education students only. A selection of our FOUN courses is offered each year. Only courses offered in 2009-10 are listed below.
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FOUN 416/0.5 Catholic Education      (PJIS)
Designed to introduce teacher candidates to the Catholic education tradition in Ontario. Topics include the history of Catholic education in Ontario, the philosophical underpinnings of a Catholic school system, the critical assessment of values embedded in the curriculum including development of a curricular philosophy which reflects the particular requirements of the Catholic education system, and the support systems presently available for Catholic teachers in the schools of Ontario.  While this course is recommended for those IS subject specialists who are not likely to be teaching religion in a Catholic secondary school, it will provide candidates with the tools to integrate a Catholic vision of education into all subject areas.
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FOUN 441/0.5 Issues in Grading and Evaluation (PJIS)
Policies and practices associated with grading and evaluation play a very important but highly controversial and problematic role in today's schools. Candidates are encouraged to examine and critically assess a variety of contemporary policies and practices as well as proposals for reform, including the purposes and functions of grading and evaluation, the nature and role of standards, subjectivity in evaluation, alternative systems of assessment, portfolio assessments, and other approaches to documenting student accomplishment, as well as report cards and parent teacher conferences. Insights from the literature and candidates' practicum experiences are applied to problems facing classroom teachers. Candidates are encouraged to develop applications relevant to their own concerns with teaching and learning.
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FOUN 442/0.5 Ethics and Education (PJIS)
This course will consider some of the ethical problems and issues faced by teachers and educational institutions in early 21st century liberal-democratic nations such as Canada. These include the traditional questions of ethics, such as the nature of freedom, authority, duty and obligation, right and good, as well as professional autonomy and responsibility, teaching for human rights and social justice, and the role of environmental ethics in educational practice. This course is predominantly case-based and includes readings from philosophy, education, case law and regulations, the Standards of Practice, and disciplinary proceedings.
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FOUN 446/0.5 Science and Teaching as Investigative Arts (PJIS)
There are a number of accounts of the nature of scientific inquiry. Each offers a different view of the origins of scientific knowledge and how it changes over time. Using a hands-on investigative approach, this course explores these views and their implications for the teaching and learning of science. Topics include the nature and role of basic concepts (such as force, heat and light) in the historical development of scientific thinking and in children's learning of science, the relationship between scientific and non-scientific explanations of natural phenomena, and the role of observation and theory in scientific inquiry. Candidates are encouraged to develop and adapt investigative activities and materials for the classroom using the insights drawn from this course.
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FOUN 448/0.5 Aesthetic Education (PJIS)
Examines a number of problems that are of particular concern to teachers of the arts. Tries to discover the sources of our appreciation of works of art so that we may be in a better position to bring others - most notably our students - to share in that appreciation.
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FOUN 455/0.5 Philosophy of Professional Practice (PJIS)
Keyed to the Standards of Practice of the Ontario College if Teachers, this course provides philosophical perspectives on professional knowledge, teaching practice, leadership, and community. The course aims to develop criteria for critiquing educational activities that can also function as the basis for a genuinely professional approach to ongoing professional learning, and community involvement.
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FOUN 463/0.5 Culture, Language and Education (PJIS)
The situated, cultural aspects of human learning and development in relation to formal education. Learning contexts are studied at ecological, social and psychological levels. Language processes are emphasized, including bi/multicultural issues. By considering the mutual making of community and self through ethnic, linguistic, institutional, recreational, family and other cultures, candidates are encouraged to expand their teaching repertoires.
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FOUN 464/0.5 Learning and Development in Childhood (PJ)
An overview of learning and development from infancy to pre-adolescence. Topics such as cognitive processes, individual differences, motivation, classroom learning and socio-cultural contexts are considered in relation to modern schooling. As well, aspects that may impact on learning such as socio-cultural contexts, mental health issues and support systems are discussed.
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FOUN 465/0.5 Learning and Development in Adolescence (IS)
An overview of learning and development in adolescence with emphasis on classroom applications from Grade 7 to 12. Topics such as communication, management, development, learning, and exceptionalities are presented in the context of modern schooling.
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FOUN 467/0.5 Psychological Processes of Reading and Writing (PJ)
Designed to develop an understanding of reading and writing processes. Emphasis on how pedagogical and curriculum decisions are affected by theoretical views of these processes. Prime focus is to demonstrate the developmental nature of language.
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FOUN 469/0.5 Psychology of Learning Problems (PJIS)

This course considers aspects of psychology relevant to the education of children, adolescents and adults with learning problems or learning disabilities in the areas of reading, spelling, writing and mathematics. Issues related to diagnosis and remediation are addressed. This course is recommended for students with a background in psychology. Students should have taken or be taking at least one course beyond the introductory level and have studied topics such as human learning, cognitive processes and individual differences.

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FOUN 490/0.5 Seminar in Social Class, Gender and Race (PJIS)
The goal is to develop a critical understanding of the implications for children's educational experiences of the effects of social class background, sex/gender differences and racial background by focusing on three questions: How is school experience affected by the cultural context of children's lives? How do schools respond to real or imagined differences among students? How does the culture of the school, the attitudes and expectations of teachers, the concepts conveyed by the "hidden" curriculum contribute to the way children experience school? A critical perspective is developed which teachers might use to better respond to the diversity of student needs.
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Education Teacher Education Course Descriptions (BEd/DipEd) Foundational Studies (FOUN)
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