For the Course Reflection Essay, the following questions are examples of topics the essay can be on.

Please use several of the articles in the Course Readings. Remember to show your grasp of the various articles by using direct quotes, including parenthetical citations in APA style, and a reference list at the end of the essay. You are encouraged to use a few academic sources outside the Course Readings.

Questions

● Having taken this course, how have your conceptions of education changed? How about conceptions such as knowledge and its acquisition, curriculum and pedagogy, citizenship education, and/or moral education? Are certain kinds of knowledge privileged, and why?

● Have you become a more responsible and reflective learner through this course? What is it to be a responsible learner? What is reflection, and what does reflection do to us in becoming responsible learners?

● We have critiqued the technicization of teachers—that is, teachers seeing themselves and working as technicians of information transmission. Instead, we have been advocates for such time-honoured teacher qualities as being present to the students’ realities (who they are and what their existential needs are in the moment). Discuss how being present involves being totally alive and receptive to the moment.

● Many authors speak passionately against the traditional treatment of separating intellect from emotion, and devaluation of the latter and privilege of the former in learning. Are there problems with this separation and is it important to integrate both intellect and emotion into our educational practice? What are the implications of doing so? Include your own experiences of the intellect-emotion within education.

● What have you learned about philosophical inquiry? What has been your experience engaging in philosophical inquiry during this course? Should we, as practicing or future educators, encourage and enable our students to engage in philosophical inquiry.

● Some say we teach who we are. It’s not just what we know (content) students learn when we set out to teach. They learn from the whole being that a teacher is. In this sense, we teach far more than we intend to. We teach intolerance if we threaten students with zero tolerance for undesirable conduct. We teach students lack of caring and duplicity if we talk about important ideas but do not live them. We teach students that thinking is not important if we don’t provide opportunities to engage in reflection, discussion, and dialogue. What has been your experience with the phase “We teach who we are”? Reflect on your educational experiences.

● For some, competition is an evil to avoid; for others, it’s a distasteful necessity with which to cope or work. Yet there are some for whom it’s a natural and good human motivator. What is your own critically examined view on competition? How should we deal with it in education?

● In this society, we are used to thinking in terms of “What’s in it for me?” rather than in terms of “What can I contribute to it?” The difference between these two attitudes has to do with the usual privileging of rights over responsibility. Ours is a rights-based social ethic. Reflect on how this applies to your attitude in learning. Also, how would you work with students who brought the same attitude to learning in your class?

UNIT 1: Concept of Education
WEEK 1
● Unit 1 Commentary: Broadening Philosophical Horizons
● Whietehead, A.N. (1967). The aims of education. In The aims of education and other essays (pp. 1-14). New York, NY: The Free Press.
In The aims of education and other essays (pp. 1-14). New York, NY: The Free Press.
● Bauman, Z. (2005). Learning to walk on quicksand. In Liquid life (pp. 116-128). New York NY: Polity Press.

WEEK 2
● Orr, D.W. (1994). What is education for? In Earth in mind: On education, environment, and the human prospect (pp. 7-15). Washington, DC: Island Press.

WEEK 3
● Martin, J.R. (1994). The ideal of the educated person. In Changing the educational landscape: Philosophy, women, and curriculum (pp. 70-87). New York, NY: Routledge.

WEEK 4
● Bai, H. (2009). Reanimating the universe. In M. McKenzie, P. Hart, H. Bai, & B. Jickling (eds.), Fields o green: Re-storying culture, environment, and education (pp. 135-151). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.

UNIT 2: Knowledge
WEEK 5
● Unit 2 Commentary
● Claxton, G. (1997). The speed of thought. In Hair, brain, tortoise mind: How intelligence increases when you think less (pp. 1-14). New York, NY: The Ecco Press.

WEEK 6
●Zajonc, A. (2006). Love and knowledge: Recovering the heart of learning through contemplation. Teacherse College Record, 108(9), 1742-1759. Retrieved from http://www.tcrecord.org/

UNIT 3: Curriculum and Pedagogy
WEEK 7
● Unit 3 Commentary
● Eisner, E.W. (1985). Five basic orientations to the curriculum. In The educational imagination: On the design and evaluation of school programs (2nd ed., pp. 62-82). New York, NY: MacMillan.

WEEK 8
● Rasmussen, D. (2011). Some honest talk about non-indigenous education. Our Schools Our Selves, 20(2), 19-33. Retrieved from http://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/ourschools-ourselves
● Apple, M.W. (1993). Cultural politics and the text. In Official knowledge: Democratic education in a conservative age (2nd ed., pp. 44-63, 190-194). New York, NY: Routledge.

UNIT 4: Ethics and Education
WEEK 9
● Unit 4 Commentary
● Nussbaum, M.C. (1995). The literary imagination. In Poetic justice: The literary imagination and public life (pp. 1-12). Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

WEEK 10
● Chinnery, A. (2008). Premodern postures for a postmodern ethics: On resistant texts and moral education. Philosophy of Education Yearbook, 43-50.

WEEK 11
● Bai, H. (2001). Cultivating democratic citizenship: Towards intersubjectivity. In W. Hare & J. P. Portelli (eds.), Philosophy of education: Introductory readings (Rev. 3th ed., pp. 307-319). Calgary, AB: Detselig