MSMUS 445-446 — Practicum in Classroom Pedagogy

1 credit per semester
Fall and Spring
Alice Jones, Adrian Rodriguez

This year-long course is a foundational professional development workshop that provides theoretical and hands-on opportunities for students to develop their knowledge of teaching and learning strategies, lesson planning, classroom management techniques, and the foundation and expression of their own teaching philosophy. The fall semester explores what teaching consists of, including defining students’ pedagogical values, developing a practice of observation and reflection through the lens of Bloom’s taxonomy of learning, and understanding how learning progresses. The spring semester focuses on how learning happens and the teacher’s role in crafting experiences that allow students to reach classroom goals, including the alignment of pedagogical values with pedagogical actions, developing a practice of observation and reflection through the lenses of social-emotional learning and culturally responsive pedagogy, and the development of original pedagogical materials. The capstone of the course is a teaching portfolio, developed over the course of the year, that includes pedagogical materials, a teaching philosophy statement, reflective writing, and a self-directed unessay project. Practicum in Classroom Pedagogy is required for all first-year Community Engagement MAP and Morse Teaching Fellows. Spring term-only registration is possible with advance permission from the instructors.