In educational settings students present a variety of challenges to educators. Not only are they diverse in terms of learning ability, educational readiness, and learning styles; educators must also be prepared for the uniqueness each student presents through their socio-cultural background. Psychology addresses some of these challenges through its focus on learning, development, and motivation. Additionally, psychology provides effective approaches to the process of student education for students whose diversity includes, gender, ability, SES, ethnicity, language, etc.

This course integrates psychological theory and practice relating diversity, learning, motivation, and development into the educational process for English and Pre-Algebra middle school students. It will afford WSU students the opportunity to apply psychology to education through tutoring Washington Terrace Elementary and\or Mount Ogden Middle School middle school age students whose diversity includes gender, ethnicity, SES, motivation, and educational experience.

Class objectives include the following:
   1. Students will have first hand experience tutoring middle school students in math and reading skills

   2. Students will reflect on their experiences as a tutor, through journal writing and reading research to gain insight into the nature of the process learning process and their role in supporting it.

   3. Students will gain an appreciation of the research strategies used to study informal learning.

Readings:  A set of readings will be available on the web site on the Readings page.

Course Requirements : Grading is based on 2 presentations of scholarly journal articles, class and tutoring session attendance, class and tutoring session participation, observation journal, data collection, 1 final paper, 1final presentation.

Course Sturcture:  The over-arching question which will be a theme running throughout our discussions, is, "How do students learn in school and how can we promote their learning". Your course experience will be geared for you to experience and think about this questions. Although some of the answers to this question will come from your experience at Mount Ogden Middle School/Washington Terrace Elementary, additional answers will come from a series of readings which will emerge though our weekly meetings. At these meeting, you will first be asked to discuss your activities over the past week highlighting issues you have recorded in your personal journals. Then we will address the reading(s) assigned for the week. Before the end of the meeting, we will discuss the issues to focus upon in the readings for the next meeting.

Attendance:  More than one excused absence from class adversely affects grade. If you miss a class, you are responsible for finding out about any information you missed in class.  Students missing more than 2 excused tutoring sessions will fail this course.

Grading:  Your grade will derived from five sources of assessment. First and foremost is on-site assessment of your work on site by the Mount Ogden Middle School/Washington Elementary faculty. This will include your involvement and attendance as a volunteer. The second is the creation of the Multicultural Math Center. This will be achieved with assistance form the teachers in both schools and will be evaluated by them. Thirdly will be your performance in the practicum discussions in class regarding the readings. This will include your involvement, attendance, and engagement in the weekly discussions with us during which time we review relevant theory/research. Fourthly is your data collection and research involvement. Finally, your grade will depend on two written assignments. The first assignment is to keep a journal reflecting your weekly experiences as a tutor. The second assignment is a final paper, due at the end of the semester, which involves applying the reading and discussions to your actual experiences.

Observation Journal:  A weekly journal will be kept by each student. Entries will reflect tutoring experiences including successes and challenges as well as observations regarding middle school students’ academic and social behavior. Tutoring goals will also be reflected in the journals.

Research: All students will be involved in some data collection and assessment of the children they work with.

Final Paper and Presentation:  Students will write a 20 APA-format page paper based on their learning of theory and application in the tutoring setting. This paper will reflect the integration of material and practice in applying psychology to education. Students will then have the opportunity to present this knowledge to psychology faculty and peers. For a free APA format template go to http://www.gwinn.us/apastyle/template.html