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Week 7: Is an M.Ed. project right for me?

I really appreciated the guest speaker, Lisa Tsumura, that Lorayne had arranged to have in class this week.  Her talk echoed every thought that I have had about whether I want to pursue a project in my Masters program or if I only want to do the course only option.  I've already done the thesis route as I have my Ph.D. in Biochemistry so I really don't want to go through that again (it was a fantastic experience but I know the amount of time and effort that needs to go into it).  I am quite intrigued about the project idea though and Lisa (and this course) has given me a lot to think about. 


Exploring Ideas

As I've been changing my approach to my teaching practices this year, I'm beginning to identify various issues within my subject area.  Chemistry, or any science for that matter, is traditionally taught in a very teacher-directed manner, likely because there is a lot of content to learn in such a short period of time.  As I've been moving away from this model to one that is more student-centred, I am meeting a lot of resistance from both students and parents.  I've even come up against comments such as "I can't learn this way" or "can't you just teach us the traditional way" to "you're not teaching or doing your job".  Just from the conversations that I've had this year, with colleagues as well as with others taking this course, I've seen that other subject areas can easily integrate student-centred approaches so why is it that science can't be taught in a similar manner?  Why is there so much resistance in science against student-centred learning approaches?  Are these perspectives and views actually present?  And if so, how can I, and other science educators, go about changing this?  I have so many questions swimming around in my head and I'm wondering if this is the beginning of a project idea...


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