/ After School Professional Development Program
Zoe- Souliotis-Foley, Director

Course Syllabus Template

All Courses = 36 Hours; minimum 6 sessions

Spring 2015: February15, 2015– June 26, 2015

Please complete a full course syllabus using this format. The number of sessions held will depend on how you allocate the 36 hours. This syllabus will be uploaded to the ASPDP web site. Please be sure it is in a word or PDF document format.

Title of Course:Understanding Culture and Race
Course Code:P13-158
Course Location:On-line,
Instructor’s Name:Sophia Thwaites
Instructor’s Telephone #: 800-728-0032 / E-mail:
Course Begins:February 15, 2015 / Course Ends: June 26, 2015 / Total Hours:36

Course Description

Interactions in classrooms and schools that recognize and respond to the cultures that shape the student and teacher are crucial to student learning and teaching success. In Understanding Culture and Race, participants study the building blocks of culture and why cultural differences can obstruct effective interactions between students and teachers. They learn how acknowledging cultural behavior and expectations should inform curriculum development, instructional and assessment strategies, and classroom management.

Participants learn how culture shapes both the student and the educator. They learn to interpret, understand, and incorporate culture into the education setting and study how culture shock can affect a teacher’s interpretations of behavior, discipline decisions, and assessment of a student’s ability to learn. The course provides a framework that participants can use to pursue their learning about culture, behaviors, and expectations in their classrooms and school environments. Participants will also increase their capacity to develop their students’ awareness of these issues and their skills at negotiating them.

Calendar
Session # 1
Date: self-paced Time: self-paced
Number of hours for this session: 1.5
Topics: List session topic and material, e.g. handouts. Indicate midterm and final exam date.
Setting Learning Goals
KDS has implemented a topic at the beginning of the course, Setting Learning Goals, that instructs participants to read the syllabus that contains a course and unit descriptions and then to develop student learning goals related to the domains and components from Charlotte Danielson’s Framework for Teaching (at may also consult the NYC Teacher Effectiveness site (at and the NYC CCSS (at (Participants may also draw from existing classroom data they have collected from pretests and assessments or know anecdotally.)
Objectives: Specify instructional goals and standards for each session.
  • To set goals for participant and his or her students

Method of Instruction: List the method of presenting: Classroom video or interactive hands-on activity. Include strategies to meet diverse learning needs (differentiated instruction).
  • Reflection prompts

Classroom Practice: Specify what skills and strategies the participant will bring back to his/her classroom.
Resources (readings, artifacts, internet sites, videos, etc): Provide the title, author, edition, publisher, cost, and where it is available. If there is a guest speaker, include the presenter’s name and affiliation.
Guest Speakers:
Calendar
Session # 2
Date: self-paced Time: self-paced
Number of hours for this session: 1.75
Topics: List session topic and material, e.g. handouts. Indicate midterm and final exam date.
Introduction to Cultural Competency and the Heart of Culture
In this unit, Dr. Kelley argues that educators need a theoretical understanding of culture, which leads to cultural competence, engaged students, and higher student achievement. Participants learn such key terms as worldview, epistemology, ontology, and cosmology and how each can affect a classroom’s culture.
Objectives: Specify instructional goals and standards for each session.
Objectives:
After completing this unit, educators will know:
  • Worldview and its three types
  • Epistemology, ontology, and cosmology and their relationship to worldview
  • The importance of the above when teaching students from different cultures
Framework standard:
Domain 3: Instruction
3c: Engaging Students in Learning
Method of Instruction: List the method of presenting: Classroom video or interactive hands-on activity. Include strategies to meet diverse learning needs (differentiated instruction).
  • Video
  • Reflection prompts
  • Discussion forum

Classroom Practice: Specify what skills and strategies the participant will bring back to his/her classroom.
Student Learning Outcomes:
After completing this unit, educators will apply the following skills:
  • Recognize the impact of worldview on teaching and learning
  • Understand Pennington’s model of culture
  • Recognize the impact of epistemology, ontology, and cosmology on teaching and learning

Resources (readings, artifacts, internet sites, videos, etc): Provide the title, author, edition, publisher, cost, and where it is available. If there is a guest speaker, include the presenter’s name and affiliation.
Guest Speakers:
Calendar
Session # 3
Date: self-paced Time: self-paced
Number of hours for this session: 1.75
Topics: List session topic and material, e.g. handouts. Indicate midterm and final exam date.
Eight Sectors of Culture, Part 1
In this unit, participants explore how different aspects of worldview and culture can affect a teacher’s practice and the critical relationships between the teacher and his or her students. She begins by focusing on beliefs values, and attitudes; schema; temporality; and space.
Objectives: Specify instructional goals and standards for each session.
Objectives:
After completing this unit, educators will know:
  • How beliefs, values, and attitudes; schema; temporality; and space—all aspects of our worldview—influence how educators view and interact with students
  • Different aspects of culture that shape identity
  • Different aspects of culture as tools for understanding, learning from, and tapping into students’ cultural anchoring
  • To expand educators’ social, environmental, and behavioral approaches to teaching and interaction with students within and across cultures in the school setting
  • To increase educators’ ability to recognize culturally based behavior and actions to enhance their skill in developing curricular and behavioral learning platforms and social responses effective and appropriate to students’ cultural frameworks
Framework standard:
Domain 3: Instruction
3c: Engaging Students in Learning
Method of Instruction: List the method of presenting: Classroom video or interactive hands-on activity. Include strategies to meet diverse learning needs (differentiated instruction).
  • Video
  • Reflection prompts
  • Discussion forum

Classroom Practice: Specify what skills and strategies the participant will bring back to his/her classroom.
Student Learning Outcomes:
After completing this unit, educators will apply the following skills:
  • Recognize and manage how their own and their students’ beliefs, values, and attitudes; schema; temporality; and space play out in the classroom
  • Employ expanded social, environmental, and behavioral strategies

Resources (readings, artifacts, internet sites, videos, etc): Provide the title, author, edition, publisher, cost, and where it is available. If there is a guest speaker, include the presenter’s name and affiliation.
Guest Speakers:
Calendar
Session # 4
Date: self-paced Time: self-paced
Number of hours for this session: 1.75
Topics: List session topic and material, e.g. handouts. Indicate midterm and final exam date.
Eight Sectors of Culture, Part 2
In this unit, participants continue to explore how different aspects of worldview and culture can affect a teacher’s practice and the critical relationships between the teacher and his or her students. The four sectors of culture Dr. Kelley focuses on in this unit are myths, religion, and expressive forms; social and communication networks; interpolation patterns, and language.
Objectives: Specify instructional goals and standards for each session.
Objectives:
After completing this unit, educators will know:
  • To understand how language, religion, myths, expressive forms, interpolation patterns, and social networks—all aspects of our worldview—influence how educators view and interact with students
  • To understand different aspects of culture that shape identity and use that knowledge to understand one’s cultural anchoring
  • To understand different aspects of culture as a tool for understanding, learning from, and tapping into students’ cultural anchoring
  • To understand why knowing how to recognize culturally based behavior and approaches provides educators with a tool for understanding themselves and their students
  • To expand educators’ social, environmental, and behavioral approaches to teaching and interaction with students within and across cultures in the school setting
  • To increase educators’ ability to recognize culturally based behavior and actions to enhance their skill in developing curricular and behavioral learning platforms and social responses effective and appropriate to students’ cultural frameworks
Framework standard:
Domain 3: Instruction
3c: Engaging Students in Learning
Method of Instruction: List the method of presenting: Classroom video or interactive hands-on activity. Include strategies to meet diverse learning needs (differentiated instruction).
  • Video
  • Reflection prompts
  • Discussion forum

Classroom Practice: Specify what skills and strategies the participant will bring back to his/her classroom.
Student Learning Outcomes:
After completing this unit, educators will apply the following skills:
  • Recognize and manage how their own and their students’ language, religion, myths, expressive forms, interpolation patterns, and social networks play out in the classroom
  • Employ expanded social, environmental, and behavioral strategies

Resources (readings, artifacts, internet sites, videos, etc): Provide the title, author, edition, publisher, cost, and where it is available. If there is a guest speaker, include the presenter’s name and affiliation.
Guest Speakers:
Calendar
Session # 5
Date: self-paced Time: self-paced
Number of hours for this session: 1.75
Topics: List session topic and material, e.g. handouts. Indicate midterm and final exam date.
Article: “Studying Students Studying Calculus: A Look at the Lives of Minority Mathematics Students in College”
In this unit, participants read the article “Studying Students Studying Calculus: A Look at the Lives of Minority Mathematics Students in College,” in which author Uri Treisman describes the evolution of a project he developed at the University of California, Berkeley, to address the high rate of failure of black and Hispanic students in calculus. After reading the article, they respond to reflection questions that follow.
Objectives: Specify instructional goals and standards for each session.
Framework standard:
Domain 3: Instruction
3c: Engaging Students in Learning
Method of Instruction: List the method of presenting: Classroom video or interactive hands-on activity. Include strategies to meet diverse learning needs (differentiated instruction).
  • Text
  • Reflection prompts

Classroom Practice: Specify what skills and strategies the participant will bring back to his/her classroom.
Resources (readings, artifacts, internet sites, videos, etc): Provide the title, author, edition, publisher, cost, and where it is available. If there is a guest speaker, include the presenter’s name and affiliation.
“Studying Students Studying Calculus: A Look at the Lives of Minority Mathematics Students in College” –available through the eClassroom
Guest Speakers:
Calendar
Session # 6
Date: self-paced Time: self-paced
Number of hours for this session: 1.75
Topics: List session topic and material, e.g. handouts. Indicate midterm and final exam date.
Dimensions of Worldview
In this unit, participants study the relationship between worldviews and their own and their students’ classroom behavior. Dr. Kelley explores individualism and collectivism, masculine and feminine cultural patterns, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, fatalism, and face in this context.
Objectives: Specify instructional goals and standards for each session.
Objectives:
After completing this unit, educators will know:
  • How worldviews play out in the classroom
  • Additional influential structures connected to worldview that contribute to cultural behavior, expectations, and learning that they must consider when teaching and working with students
Framework standard:
Domain 3: Instruction
3c: Engaging Students in Learning
Method of Instruction: List the method of presenting: Classroom video or interactive hands-on activity. Include strategies to meet diverse learning needs (differentiated instruction).
  • Video
  • Reflection prompts
  • Discussion forum

Classroom Practice: Specify what skills and strategies the participant will bring back to his/her classroom.
Student Learning Outcomes:
After completing this unit, educators will apply the following skills:
  • Respect their own and their students’ worldviews and modify content and instruction accordingly

Resources (readings, artifacts, internet sites, videos, etc): Provide the title, author, edition, publisher, cost, and where it is available. If there is a guest speaker, include the presenter’s name and affiliation.
Guest Speakers:
Calendar
Session # 7
Date: self-paced Time: self-paced
Number of hours for this session: 1.75
Topics: List session topic and material, e.g. handouts. Indicate midterm and final exam date.
The Impact of Culture Shock on Teaching Practice
In this unit, participants explore what culture shock is, how it can manifest in the classroom, and how to manage those manifestations. Dr. Kelley takes participants through the stages of culture shock, positioning adaptation or acculturation as the ultimate target.
Objectives: Specify instructional goals and standards for each session.
Objectives:
After completing this unit, educators will know:
  • Culture shock as a normal reaction to sustained exposure to unfamiliar cultures
  • The stages of culture shock
  • How to anticipate culture shock, thus limiting its power over interactions with and perceptions of students
Framework standard:
Domain 3: Instruction
3c: Engaging Students in Learning
Method of Instruction: List the method of presenting: Classroom video or interactive hands-on activity. Include strategies to meet diverse learning needs (differentiated instruction).
  • Video
  • Reflection prompts
  • Discussion forum

Classroom Practice: Specify what skills and strategies the participant will bring back to his/her classroom.
Student Learning Outcomes:
After completing this unit, educators will apply the following skills:
  • Recognize and negotiate the stages of their own potential culture shock
  • Recognize and help students negotiate the stages of their culture shock

Resources (readings, artifacts, internet sites, videos, etc): Provide the title, author, edition, publisher, cost, and where it is available. If there is a guest speaker, include the presenter’s name and affiliation.
Guest Speakers:
Calendar
Session # 8
Date: self-paced Time: self-paced
Number of hours for this session: 5
Topics: List session topic and material, e.g. handouts. Indicate midterm and final exam date.
Midterm
The goal of this midterm is to explore your own ontology, epistemology, cosmology, or worldview for its impact on your performance in the classroom. For this assignment you will choose one of the terms, define it in your own words, and describe how it influences your instruction, assessment, classroom management, and relationship with students. Be sure to illustrate each assertion with several examples.
Please do the following:
  1. Define one of the following terms in your own words: ontology, epistemology, cosmology or worldview.
  2. Explore how the concept you chose to define influences the following in your classroom:
  3. Instruction.
  4. Assessment.
  5. Classroom management.
  6. Your relationship with students.
Include several examples for each assertion.
Objectives: Specify instructional goals and standards for each session.
Method of Instruction: List the method of presenting: Classroom video or interactive hands-on activity. Include strategies to meet diverse learning needs (differentiated instruction).
Classroom Practice: Specify what skills and strategies the participant will bring back to his/her classroom.
Resources (readings, artifacts, internet sites, videos, etc): Provide the title, author, edition, publisher, cost, and where it is available. If there is a guest speaker, include the presenter’s name and affiliation.
Guest Speakers:
Calendar
Session # 9
Date: self-paced Time: self-paced
Number of hours for this session: 1.75
Topics: List session topic and material, e.g. handouts. Indicate midterm and final exam date.
Insights into Race and Racism
In this unit, participants explore race and racism, how they can manifest in the classroom, and how to effectively limit the impact of those manifestations. They watch the film Ethnic Notions in order to generate discussion and comprehension of a range of issues involving the representation of race in culture media.
Objectives: Specify instructional goals and standards for each session.
Objectives:
After completing this unit, educators will know:
  • How notions of race shaped by society affect educators’ perceptions of students and students’ perceptions of themselves
  • How such notions of race can interfere with teacher effectiveness
  • The components of racism (in order to limit the phenomena ’s power in the classroom)
  • The different intensities of bias and prejudice (in order to affect their related behaviors)
Framework standard:
Domain 3: Instruction
3c: Engaging Students in Learning
Method of Instruction: List the method of presenting: Classroom video or interactive hands-on activity. Include strategies to meet diverse learning needs (differentiated instruction).
  • Video
  • Reflection prompts
  • Discussion forum

Classroom Practice: Specify what skills and strategies the participant will bring back to his/her classroom.
Student Learning Outcomes:
After completing this unit, educators will apply the following skills:
  • Recognize and mitigate racism and its effects in the classroom

Resources (readings, artifacts, internet sites, videos, etc): Provide the title, author, edition, publisher, cost, and where it is available. If there is a guest speaker, include the presenter’s name and affiliation.
Guest Speakers:
Calendar
Session # 10
Date: self-paced Time: self-paced