EDUCATION STUDIES & TEACHER EDUCATION

EDST 180: Psychology of Learning (PSYC 180)
An introduction to the science of learning and how it applies to educational contexts. Topics include brain structure and development; types of memory and learning processes; approaches to building knowledge, skills, and understanding; and factors that drive more powerful and successful learning. Each student will arrange their own practicum of three hours per week in a school class or similar learning environment.

EDST 450: Topics in Education Studies: Educating for Creativity
In this course we explore the nature of creativity and the role of creative thinking in diverse areas of study, work, and everyday life. We also examine critiques of traditional education’s impact on the development of creativity and look for approaches that show greater promise.

EDUC 430: Educating All Learners
This teacher certification course focuses on two aspects of K-12 teaching: (1) helping learners develop academic and disciplinary literacy, and (2) planning instruction for a variety of learners, including students with disabilities, English learners, and students with gaps in knowledge or needing greater challenge. Each student will arrange their own practicum of three hours per week in a grade 5-12 school class that includes students with unique learning needs.

EDUC 650: Student Teaching
Student teaching is a full-time, full-semester (18-week) internship of practice teaching in K-12 schools. Lawrence student teachers are present for the full school day and  engaged in planning, instruction, assessment, and other school duties. Through a combination of modeling and practice, student teachers learn how to be a teacher, developing the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in their chosen profession.

EDUC 660: Advanced Methods in Teaching
This weekly seminar engages students in critical reflection on their student teaching experience. Student teachers explore concerns related to teaching and learning as well as issues of school organization, education policy, and teaching as a profession.

COGNITIVE SCIENCE & LINGUISTICS

COSC 300: Topics in Cognitive Science: The Making of Scientific Facts
In this seminar we examine scientific facts: what they are and how they are constructed and contested.  Readings include physician Ludwik Fleck’s Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact (1935), physicist-historian Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), and anthropologist Bruno Latour and sociologist Steve Woolgar’s Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts (1979).  We also explore the practices of scientists at Lawrence and consider the role of facts in disputes over science education and climate change.

COSC 345: Distributed Cognition and the Extended Mind (ANTH/PSYC 345)
The new science of the mind treats cognition as a distributed process involving the brain, body, and world. This seminar explores the role of material settings and tools, bodily engagement, social interaction, and cultural processes in human reasoning, problem solving, and learning. Students will write short papers examining aspects of cognitive activity in real-world settings.

COSC 545: Gesture Studies (LING/PSYC 545)
Gesture studies is an interdisciplinary field that examines the use of the hands in communication and cognition. In this seminar we discuss contemporary research on gesture, including gesture types, gesture production and perception, gesture development, relations of gesture to thought and language (spoken and signed), and functions of gesture in human interaction, problem-solving, and learning. Students explore topics of personal interest in a project and presentation.

LING 150: Introduction to Linguistics
Introduction to theory and methods for analyzing the structures of human language, including sounds (phonetics & phonology), words (morphology), phrases & sentences (syntax), and meaning (semantics).

LING 470: Cognitive Linguistics (COSC 470)
Cognitive linguistics is a subfield of linguistics and cognitive science that studies conceptual structure, language, and meaning in relation to general cognitive mechanisms. Topics include cognitive and construction grammars, categorization, construal, image schemas, mental spaces, conceptual metaphors, and conceptual blending. In this seminar, we read and discuss seminal articles in the field and pursue further study on topics of interest.