LAI 615

PRIORITIES

  • Cohort-building (right-sized PhD program)

    • Communicate with advisors
    • Which faculty are in each specialization?
    • Which courses are in each specialization?

  • Breadth

  • Professional socialization

    • Dialogism: Participating in fields and shaping fields
    • Writing and the production of new knowledge
      • But it’s not just your opinion.
      • Modes of writing
        • Review. Read and summarize an article from the list of optional readings.
        • White paper. Summarize what’s known about a topic and propose a new idea. A white paper is like a research proposal but more speculative. Typically a research proposal would frame a research question and propose a way of studying it. White papers only do the former.
        • Response.
        • Personal reflection.
    • Alignment with your own goals
      • current students further along
      • looking at outcomes

  • Lots of guest speakers

  • Practices. A PhD is not doing school.

    • Reading
    • Writing
    • Dialogue
    • Apprenticeship (required office hours!)

  • LS concentration

  • Inbound trajectory of practice. Help students feel they are participating in the production of knowledge. (Is there some kind of expo at the end? A “hello world”?)

  • Powerful tools

  • How could we make use of the infrastructure of conference submission and peer review, while removing the

  • We could get students to “role play” disciplinary literacies (they could edit little journals. But instead of accepting/rejecting, they are responsible for giving feedback. Some responses may be given a star. Top responses become course readings.

Students could have a short writing task due every week. Each week’s writing task must reference at least two articles

CURRICULUM

OUTCOMES

  • Put together draft curriculum
  • Speak with Rachel
  • Erin can work the angle in the program director’s meeting.

Curriculum Conversations 2021-02-26

What would be appropriate course goals for 615?

Async modules (Logan Rath)

  • Network of current student affiliations with programs and advisors
  • Understand course titles of other LAI courses

Notes from Padlet

Course objectives

  • Orientation to various epistemologies
  • Unwritten Rules
    • how to write academic CVs
    • what does it actually mean to be an academic?
    • here’s how to navigate large conferences AERA
    • how not to burn out?
    • importance of conferences
    • how conference proposals are written
    • what do students need to know and do in order to make themselves marketable during grad school and during early-career years?
    • what other avenues exist for folks who do not want to pursue academia?
    • how to do a data dive; how to effectively use scholarly search engines so you don’t end up reproducing work
    • how to find and use a mentor text
  • (Devi) an opportunity to reflect on what sort of factors do we always need to be critically conscious of in order to always be reflexive in our research/academic work (this would set us up for future courses)
  • Affinity spaces and groups
    • connect with others who have similar disciplinary, research or theory interests
  • Foundational and historical perspectives
    • Theory, research, practice
    • Learning sciences
    • Curriculum & instruction
  • Cohort and community
    • establish and develop community of scholars; provide guidance on introduction to profession, research, and learning sciences and education

Course content

  • Overview of methods. Intro to qual / quant / DBR , etc. (maybe an example study that could mimic the articles one would have for a
  • Include justice & equity in LS oriented readings Consider chapters from: Esmonde, I., & Booker, A. N. (Eds.). (2017). Power and privilege in the learning sciences. Routledge.
  • Guest speakers. Career Trajectory, career planning, what jobs/career paths are available? what is needed to prepare for those?
  • Build a cohort
  • Guest speaker with equity focus. Invite a scholar to speak to and interact with the LAI 615 students around issues related to equity, diversity, justice, and inclusion and the connection of these topics to the learning sciences. Perhaps there are LAI faculty who would share how they see their research addressing both the learning sciences and racial justice and equity.

Constructing academic identity

  • Recognizing funds of knowledge
  • Finding voices

Development Log

Call with Erin Kearney, 2021-02-22

History of LAI 615

  • Yunjeong at the beginning
  • Sam designed the class and taught it in the early years
  • 2 sections of the same prep?
  • Once you teach them, students want you on their committees.
  • In the last year, students have paid attention to the curriculum.
  • Rachel did some revision toward better representation on the reading list
  • CISL created to address enrollment issues
  • Potential for co-teaching
  • Working on LS curriculum
  • Rework the admissions process
  • Aiming to make it online.

Conversation with Monica Washington 2021-04-29

2021-06-14 Talk with Sameer

Sameer and I spent a morning chatting earlier this week. One recurring theme was faculty commitment to equity and justice. He indirectly expressed disappointment that our colleagues’ articulated commitments are not always matched with action. In the context of our graduate students, we talked about the importance of personalizing the PhD program and our engagement with research.