Due wednesday 9pm est

INITIAL POST: 200 words

Topic: Both Van Brummelen and the internet provide many resources to aid in worldview, philosophical, psychological and developmental education and curriculum planning. What are some of your favorite resources from this course? Explain why those sources are your favorite.

FIRST REPLY TD: AT LEAST 100 WORDS, REPLY TO THE READING BELOW

The LU Library was my biggest resource. I was almost always pleasantly surprised to find that when I could not obtain an article through other means (without payment), I likely could obtain it through LU at no cost.

The ERIC website was also helpful. Through the articles I was able to access on ERIC, I was able to expand my knowledge of the theories presented in the Miller text. The articles were less helpful in the definitions of the theories but extremely beneficial in understanding the application of the theories to actual research projects. I will be completely transparent by saying that these theories were all entirely new to me and although Miller’s text explanations were relatively thorough, I often struggled with equating the theories to specific lessons. I simply have never been taught to think of “theories” when planning lessons.

My favorite resource of the entire course is the Van Brummelen book. While its text was very simply written, it still gave a successful explanation of each topic covered and I never finished a chapter feeling lost or confused about whatever worldview it was explaining.

Happily, I was also able to draw on my notes and projects from my master’s courses to help me with formulating a theoretical framework for my research questions and project.

My particular theoretical framework for my research questions/project is Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). I found that simplypsychology.org has great explanatory information about the theory. One article I found also included an example of a college student’s learning process in tennis class that involved the use of the ZPD. That information was particularly useful in that it tied the theory very specifically to an actual learning experience that can be translated into other school subjects.

With regard to curriculum planning, a very helpful website I located was http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/support/pages/curriculum.aspx. I was fond of this Canadian education department’s website because it gave specific examples of how to plan a “whole school curriculum” that would include unit plans such as the ocean plan presented in Van Brummelen’s book. The process of planning a school wide program that is applicable and beneficial for the youngest, the oldest, and everyone in between in the student body is extremely interesting and I would be hard pressed to ensure that I included every single aspect of the plan (i.e. philosophy, age appropriateness, reporting, assessment, unity, consistency, participation, etc.) without a valuable resource created by people that had already “been there/done that.”

SECOND REPLY, AT LEAST 100 WORDS REPLY TO THE READING BELOW

My favorite resource that i like was the library component of this course. There are so many things to choose from and so many topics that will cover almost anything. looking through to find the most appropriate article, can be challenging, but when you take your time, you are bound to find something. i also looked the webmail feature as well. it is important for your professor to get in touch with you. I had some instructors you would not even hear back from when I attended another program, but her you get a quick response on what you need to do or they will just shoot an e-mail to say happy Thanksgiving and that really means a lot.

I like these resources because that is how you stay in touch with people a good majority of the time and I am one to say, that I do check my e-mail on a daily basis because, I do want to know what is going on. I also I wished I had taken a little more advantage of the writing tools, because that is helpful when it comes to writing, i love to write, but I want to make sure what I write comes out good. I know that for the next time, i will dedicate to learning more about the writing tools and what it has to offer. I also did not have to much time to get to the other links that were there, but i know in time that I will.

I really enjoyed this course and I can really say that i did learn alot through this process, because it really gets you thinking so that you can learn more.