Syllabus

Course Description

In this course you identify a current social or educational issue that concerns you, e.g., you want to know more about it, advocate a change, design a curriculum unit or a workshop, and so on. You work through the different phases of research and engaging others on that issue--from envisioning a manageable project to communicating your findings and plans for further work. The classes run as workshops, in which you are introduced to and then practice using tools for research, communicating, and developing as a reflective practitioner. The class activities and course as a whole provide models for guiding your own students or supervisees in systematically addressing issues that concern them.

Prerequisites

If you are a CCT student, you should integrate perspectives from your previous CCT courses and will end up well prepared for--or well underway in--your synthesis project. Students from other graduate programs and the honors program will find this course helpful for development of dissertation/research proposals and initial writing about their topics.

Required Textbooks

Writing with Power. Elbow, P. (1981). New York: Oxford University Press.

A Pocket Style Manual. Hacker, D. (2000). Boston: Bedford/St. Martins - or equivalent pocket manual on writing.

"Phases of Research and Engagement"

Grading

80 points or a B+ is earned automatically for 9 Written items marked OK/RNR (=OK/ Reflection-revision-resubmission Not Requested) and 15 Participation items fulfilled. If you don't reach the automatic B+ level, count each writing OK/RNR as 6.5 writing points and each participation item as 1.5 participation points.Overall course points are converted to letter grades as follows: The minimum grade for A is 95 points, for A- is 87.5, for B+ is 80, for B is 72.5; for B- is 65; for C+ is 57.5; and for C is 50 points.