Study-Unit Description

Study-Unit Description


CODE EPE1013

 
TITLE The Art and Science of Learning and Instruction

 
UM LEVEL 01 - Year 1 in Modular Undergraduate Course

 
MQF LEVEL 5

 
ECTS CREDITS 6

 
DEPARTMENT Early Childhood and Primary Education

 
DESCRIPTION Teaching is both an art and a science. On the one hand, the teacher needs to be well versed in the theories and the evidence produced over the past centuries on how to nurture and develop students' knowledge and skills, while at the same time the teacher should also have the artistic capabilities to select from a vast repertoire of techniques and methods in order to meet individual differences and engage all children. This unit will take on, a mainly, socio-cultural approach that is informed by cognitive and neuro-scientific research. After going through the different pedagogical approaches, techniques and innovations student-teachers will engage with the recent development sin the fields of learning and instruction.

Study-unit Aims:

This study-unit intends to introduce students to the discipline of instructional design and to the broader concept to sciences of education while providing them with knowledge and skills of how to meet individual requirements in the classroom. Students will develop a repertoire of strategies based in situated and distributed learning approaches.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Knowledge & Understanding
By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

- identify key contributions of philosophers, psychologist, and educationalists over the past two and a half millennia;
- discuss and identify how the theories of situated learning, distributed cognition, Aptitude x Treatment x Interactive teaching can be applied when developing individual lessons and schemes of work;
- identify and discuss the theories and evidence that informs the planning of learning activities and development of resources;
- identify and discard neuro-myths.

2. Skills
By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

- identify and develop a repertoire of strategies that may be used in the educational settings;
- create environments that are conducive for learning;
- use different classroom management techniques;
- make informed decisions when choosing which resources to use it;
- meet individual and class learning requirements.

Main Text/s and any supplementary readings:

Main text

- Marzano, R. J. (2017). The new art and science of teaching. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Supplementary reading

- Hardy-Vallée, B. (Ed.). (2009). Beyond the brain: Embodied, situated and distributed cognition. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
- Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge university press.
- Sousa D.A. & Tomilinson C.A. (2018) Differentiation an the Brain, Second Edition, ASCD.

 
STUDY-UNIT TYPE Lecture and Independent Study

 
METHOD OF ASSESSMENT
Assessment Component/s Assessment Due Sept. Asst Session Weighting
Examination (2 Hours) SEM1 Yes 100%

 
LECTURER/S Erika Galea
Adrian Mario Gellel (Co-ord.)

 

 
The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints.
Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice.
It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years.

https://www.um.edu.mt/course/studyunit