Running head: SUBMITTED CURRICULUM 1

Submitted Curriculum

Eric Glasby

Northern Illinois University

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Table of Contents

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………… p. 3

My Teaching Style………………………………………………………………………….p. 4-7

Cognitive and Social Constructivism Theories…………………………………………….p. 8-14

Lesson Plan #1…………………………………………………………………attached separately

Lesson Plan #2…………………………………………………………………attached separately

Lesson Plan #3…………………………………………………………………attached separately

Rationale…………………………………………………………………………………..p.15-16

Teaching Resources……………………………………………………………………….p.17-20

a. Please note two resources for this class are attached separately as well
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Introduction

Thank you for taking the time to assess my developed curriculum. For context, our

curriculum is structured around the idea of teaching a fine arts focused UNIV 101 course. This

course is structured to have constructivist methods utilized and focus on goal setting, reflection,

and creating direction for first-year students at Northern Illinois University. Please note, some

attachments are separate do to the formatting of those documents. This will be noted within the

table of contents. I appreciate your time as you assess this document.

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My Teaching Style

Eric Glasby

Northern Illinois University

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As an aspiring educator, I have found that the development of my style of teaching is a

powerful tool for the development of my students. My personal approach to teaching stems from

three personal core values. My three core values are the holistic development of the student,

creating a friendly, inclusive - learning environment, and creating equal levels of authority

between myself as the instructor and students who are learning. These three tenets reflect my

personal values as an individual and intended to empower my students. My students are

empowered through the development of their leadership skills and improving these skills through

different learning opportunities.

The first value I have as an instructor included the holistic development of a student. I

believe the holistic development of a student includes separate but connected topics of personal,

academic, and leadership development. My instruction style is developed based around the

expectations of my role as a student affairs paraprofessional. I work as a graduate residence hall

director. Through this position, I am charged with developing 11 community advisors as student

leaders and oversee a residence hall of over three hundred residents.

As a graduate hall director, I am charged with the responsibility to educate my 11 student

leaders on tangible work-related skills and develop them as people. These skills are then

translated through each community advisors (CA) work, where each CA then leads their own

communities of approximately 30 residents per CA. As each hall director has is held

accountable of teaching these skills to their staff, the method of instruction is up to each

individual graduate hall director.

My own method of instruction is focused on the holistic development of each student

leader. I define holistic development as the consistent assessment and pursuit of the student’s
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goals, aspirations, and the development of areas of needed growth. This is developed through

1:1 meetings with myself and each community advisor, through staff meetings, CA fall and

winter training, as well as experiential learning opportunities by each CA leading their own

communities. It is a challenge to develop a whole person as only one instructor, however I take

this charge because I believe that the development of a person either educationally, personally, or

through developing tangible skills are interconnected, not separate categories. A student whom

can identify their core values as a person, identify their goals as a student leader, and can identify

their own personal needs will help a student be a more effective leader and efficient learner.

My second core value is creating an inclusive learning environment for my students.

This incorporates having students feel safe within their learning environment. I firmly believe

that student must feel comfortable and secure within their learning environment.

To create an inclusive environment, I embrace the concepts of creating a brave space for

students to begin discussion and dialogue. Many of my methods do not coincide with

behaviorist styles of teaching. How I approach educating others included begins through

formalizing mutual expectations between myself as the educator and the class. We remove

hierarchical titles and all become equal within this one learning space. My goal is to be the

facilitator of the learning environment, not the sole leader of the experience. The intended goal

is to help my students to become independent thinkers. I wish to help them become comfortable,

self-confident and to guide them to formulate their own identity and voice.

My third core value is becoming a facilitator within the learning environment. This

includes creating equal roles of authority within the classroom. I believe that this is important

because many students are lectured at within a course, have to raise their hand for permission to

speak, and are told what is right and wrong in some lessons. These experiences are important to
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note within my opinion because students can have difficulty formulating their own thoughts and

ideas. As an educator it is important to realize the potential of each student and respect their own

agency as learners.

Within my own undergraduate student experience, I found this time while I am in classes

I was processing so much internally. This included my personal identity as an individual, my

socioeconomic situation and not being able to afford school, and a way to help my family while

in school. I believe in helping students learning how to develop their own thoughts and ideas can

help promote personal and leadership growth as well.

In summary, these three core values describe my teaching style. I believe it is important

to focus on these three values because it reflects both my personal preferences as an individual

and my own approach for communicating the lessons with my preferred methods. Within my

graduate hall director role, I have to develop student leaders. Within housing, we have specific

responsibilities to complete programming, housing protocols to check residents in and out,

however helping develop themselves as whole people will help them better their leadership skills

and personal classes. In conclusion, this matters to me because I hope to help make a difference

and be impactful through my preferred teaching style.

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Cognitive and Social Constructivism Learning Theories

Eric Glasby

Northern Illinois University

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Foundation of my curriculum

As a student affairs paraprofessional and a future educator, I desire to inspire my students

to achieve their fullest potential. The method instructor’s use to build upon their student

potential is through the development and implementation of an intentional curriculum. As a

future instructor, I seek to create a curriculum that will outline outcomes and intended goals for

my students. The foundation of my curriculum is created through the application of cognitive

constructivist and social constructivist learning theories. I will define both these theories,

overview what is constructivist theories carried both by Piaget and Vygotsky’s differing

perspectives, the rationale behind the selection of these two theories for my curriculum, and

outline how these theories will be applied within my curriculum.

Cognitive constructivism

Cognitive constructivism is defined as learning that focused as a personal, individual

process (Powell & Kalina, p. 241, 2009). This is different from social constructivism, where

social constructivism focused on external learning factors (Powell & Kalina, 2009). Both

cognitive and social constructivism required instructors to be intentional with communicating

important ideas to help them create connections within the material (Powell & Kalina, 2009).

Cognitive constructivism was created by Jean Piaget, whom was an European

psychologist (Palinscar, 1998). Piaget’s focused on constructivism that detailed the individual

learning process to build their own knowledge (Powell & Kalina, 2009). Piaget defined

cognitive construction as a concept that people cannot be given information that they will

immediately understand, instead that a person must create their own knowledge (Powell &

Kalina, p. 242, 2009). Piaget’s theory defined that cognitive socialism was found through the

development of four different and important stages (Palinscar, 1998).

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The process behind Piaget’s theory on cognitive constructivism is summarized as a

concept of finding “equilibrium” (Powell & Kalina, 2009). The process of assimilation and

accommodation through the four stages are where a student will go from stages of disequilibrium

to find equilibrium from learning their own concepts (Powell & Kalina, 2009). In summary,

Piaget’ theory focused on the individual and the articulation of knowledge building through a

personal process for each student (Powell & Kalina, 2009).

Social constructivism

A soviet psychologist by the name of Lev Vygotsky developed social constructivist

theory (Palinscar, 1998). Social constructivism is defined as a well-practiced and acclaimed

learning method within the classroom that benefits the student (Powell & Kalina, 2009). Unlike

Piaget’s theory on cognitive constructivism, Vygotsky believed that social interaction was key to

student learning (Powell & Kalina, 2009).

The concept of social constructivism is based on the social connections and interactions

made between the student and the learning environment (Powell & Kalina, 2009). According to

Vygotsky, this was combined with a critical learning process (Powell & Kalina, p.242, 2009).

As social constructivism focused on external learning environments, this differed from Piaget

concepts that focused on the internal process of learning (Powell & Kalina, 2009). This

seemingly small difference highlights how these learning theories differ, however work to create

a holistic learning experience for a student (Powell & Kalina, 2009).

A major component to this theory is the concept of zone of proximal development (ZPD)

(Powell & Kalina, p. 244, 2009). ZPD is defined as a concept where a student learned within a

helping classroom or learning environment (Powell & Kalina, 2009). ZPD is where a student

will act first within the learning environment then received the assistance (Powell & Kalina, p.
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244, 2009). This is important because Vygotsky defined social constructivism as a concept

where the student would learn through what the action alone then the concept was reinforced

through the assistance from the instructor (Powell & Kalina, 2009).

ZPD was supported through a concept of learning identified as scaffolding (Powell &

Kalina, 2009). Scaffolding is a comprehensive process that articulated that when one level of

knowledge of was achieved, the next level of understanding was assisted by the instructor

(Powell & Kalina, 2009). This assistance would help the student in the development of the

concept through their own internal process (Powell & Kalina, 2009).

Another important concept was the understanding of cooperative learning (Powell &

Kalina, 2009). Cooperative learning created deeper meaning for their students (Powell & Kalina,

2009). This concept was through learning from the instructor both within a one-on-one setting,

within the group dynamic in the classroom, and through learning with other student peers

(Powell & Kalina, 2009). Vygotsky believed that this process of cooperative learning would be

stimulated through social interaction within the learning environment (Powell & Kalina, 2009).

Rationale of theory selection

Like many educators before myself, I reflect upon instructors whom made an impact

(Palinscar, 1998) (Powell & Kalina, 2009)within my own development as a student. Each of

these instructors utilized methods of teaching that was impactful upon my own development as

an undergraduate student. Upon reflecting on my different educators I worked within in housing,

orientation, honors, music, and communications, I found that I learned and most employed

constructivist methods within their classrooms or learning environments.

Cognitive and social constructivism are foundational methods utilized by different

educators within the classroom. The curriculum I seek to develop will depend on the successful
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implementation of both these theories. Ultimately, I chose both Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories

as my theoretical framework because of the combination of both external and internal learning

processes (Powell & Kalina, 2009).

As a graduate hall director, I must understand that student will learn in different ways.

Our learning environments are not within the classroom. However, I must be able to facilitate

successful training sessions for my Community Advisors or (CAs). Outside of training my staff,

I am charged with the development of both a fine arts living learning community and the

implementation of social and educational programming. With all these different learning

opportunities this is how my students will learn through the application of Piaget’s and

Vygotsky’s theories within my curriculum.

Theory implementation within curriculum

The application of both Piaget’s theory and Vygostky’s theory will be pivotal if my

curriculum is to be successful for my students. With Piaget’s theory I intended to utilize the

concepts of focused reflection and development of my students (Powell & Kalina, 2009). For

example, training my residence assistant’s to be able to respond to crisis situations will require

students to reflect on their role, purpose, and process to respond to different crisis situations

(Powell & Kalina, 2009). This training example will require an internal processes of learning

(Powell & Kalina, 2009). The Resident Assistant will need to formulate the best response in

working with their residents for them individually (Powell & Kalina, 2009). Not every Resident

Assistant will respond to a crisis in the exact same manner.

Within Vygotsky’s social constructivist methods, I intended to apply both scaffolding and

cooperative learning practices (Powell & Kalina, 2009). Scaffolding will require for me to train

my staff materials within an comprehensive manner, but spread-out through a specific time
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period. For example, I plan to implement this method through a design period of summer

training or three weeks for Resident Assistants (Powell & Kalina, 2009).

Another key concept is the application of cooperative learning. I plan to implement

cooperative learning through guiding them as the instructor on vital roles within the RA position.

A specific example would be guiding students through the important topic of diversity training

(Powell & Kalina, 2009). Every student leader will reflect upon their own experiences, I will

need to assist in facilitating the important conversation of privilege and important topics within

the subject of diversity and social justice (Powell & Kalina, 2009).

Summary

In conclusion, my curriculum will host the theoretical framework around Piaget’s

cognitive constructivist theory and Vygotsky’s social constructivist theory (Powell & Kalina,

2009). These two theories will be the foundation of my curriculum because the balance between

cognitive constructivism and social constructivism focused on both the internal and external

processes of the learner. My curriculum will require my lessons to be conducted outside of the

classroom. I will apply these theories to both train my resident assistant staff as a graduate hall

director and to formulate programming for our residents. The balance between both cognitive

and social constructivist methods will create its own form of harmony within my teaching

environment.
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References

Palinscar, A. S. (1998). Social constructivist perspectives on teaching and learning . Annual

Review of Psychology , 49(1), p.345-375. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.49.1.345

Powell, K., & Kalina, C. (2009). Cognitive and social constructivism: Developing tools for an i

effective classroom. Education, 130(2), p.241-250. Retrieved from

http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=2f2cf79c-0027-4a90-9abd-

64a728aacec3%40sessionmgr4010&vid=1&hid=4109
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Resources

Rationale behind my formal assessments

Lesson Plan#1:

With my assessments within lesson plan# 1, I looked to have our students to achieve the

skills of self-reflection, meditation, and ability to begin proactive planning. This would be

assessed through the students completing a reflection essay. It is a two-page paper where

students can work to write down their past history and establish their perceived goals. The major

component of this paper is to have an informal tone and to create a space where they can answer

the question and articulate their dreams in a written format.

Lesson Plan# 2:

This is where we will begin to create priorities and break down the larger goals

established within the first paper. This is establishing defining long-term goals and completing

SMART Goals. This formal assessment would be completed in class and completed by the

students. First, we would establish a long-term goal from the paper and then utilize that dream

and establish this as a long-term goal. After filling out the long-term goal sheet, we would move

to the SMART Goals worksheet.

This formal assessment will measure with how each student creates identifiers and steps

that can help achieve these dreams. It will help the students learn how to chunk and see small

steps can achieve long-term goals.

Lesson Plan#3:

After playing Resource Jeopardy, the students would have to complete a quiz that I

created. This quiz outlines different resources and achieves the goal that a student will learn to

identify a need and look to get help to resolve that need through the on-campus resources. This
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is measured through critically thinking through each question, finding the identifiers within each

question of the multiple-choice answers, and identify an office that fits that description. In

attempt to be fair, I looked to pick offices and different situations that had different functions so

students would have an easier time identifying different needs. There is one fun question to

increase confidence and an essay question that can help demonstrate this process of identifying a

need and learning how to independently reach out for support.

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Writing Prompt

UNIV 101 Class

For this assignment, you will complete a reflection paper on your past experiences up

until now. I will request that you highlight what was your dream in high school and what was it

that you wished to achieve both professionally and personally. As you begin this course and

learn about different resources, begin developing your college identity, and look to establish long

term goals. These goals should outline and answer the question, why did you decide to go to

college? This assignment will help to document what was your dream is and give us the building

blocks to expand upon future assignments.

Please make this paper no less than two pages, double space, times new roman font.

With this paper being a reflective paper, you may utilize this as an opportunity to write in a

personal, informal manner. Please note not all papers will be written in this tone in this course or

future academic course in the future, however we look to achieve the primary goal within this

paper. Why did you decide to go to college? Good luck and let me know if I can help. I cannot

wait to read your responses!

Class, you rock!

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NIU Resources Quiz

Name:________________________
ZID #_________________________

1. When a student is looking for assistance with academic concerns, time management, and
place to stop the running from office to office or the “huskie shuffle”. This office is
known for helping students achieve academic and co-curricular success during their time
at NIU. What office would best assist this concern?

a. The Orientation Office

b. Athletics Department
c. Office of Student Academic Success
d. The Housing Office

2. What student resource would be best to help you determine if you are switching your
major? This student resource provides one-on-one meetings with a single advisor and
helps you explore your options here at NIU.

a. The Academic Advising Center

b. The Housing Office
c. The Orientation Office
d. Athletics Department

3. You are looking to pay a portion of your student tuition here at NIU. What office would
best assist to process your financial transaction?

a. The Housing Office

b. The Bursar’s Office
c. The Scholarship Office
d. The Orientation Office

4. A student is stressed from rigorous, academic classes, transitioning into a new living
environment on campus away from home. This student is also struggling from ending a
romantic relationship with their partner from their hometown. This student lives in
another state, what office would be a good resource to help a student through this difficult
time? This office is known for one-on-one consultation or group meetings, free services
that help process these matters in an individual and personal way. This office would be?

a. The Counseling and Consultation Office

b. The Scholarship Office
c. The Orientation Office
d. The Athletic Department
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5. You are looking to pay for your tuition next semester, however you looking to acquire
additional financial support outside of your own income and family resources. You
decide to go to this office, which is known for helping student’s find money opportunities
on campus. This office would be?

a. The Scholarship Office

b. The Orientation Office
c. The Bursar’s Office
d. The Housing Office

6. Please take a moment and write about you may need assistance with a specific need that
is either academic, personal, or co-circular that a student resource can help find a solution
on campus. Please name the office, your need that wish to have accomplished, and how
you imagine or how this office helped you during your time at NIU?

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7. The NIU’s Huskies mascot is the?

a. A Huskie, duh
b. It’s totes a huskie
c. 1.huskie, 2. Huskie, 3. Huskie
d. Probs a huskie
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Answer Key:

1.C
2.A
3.B
4.A
5.A
6.An essay question where a student can identify a student resource on campus, a need they
have, and demonstrate understanding of how specifically the office can help them.
7.Any Answer, Fun give me question