UWW0941  [3 Credits]
New Approaches to Teaching
Joyce Rubin

The most critical component in any educational program is the teacher. Teachers continuously make decisions that affect the lives of their students. To do this effectively, teachers need to bring to the classroom a solid foundation in both current theoretical knowledge about learning and behavior and specific content knowledge about the subject to be taught. Additionally, they must meet the needs of students who may have traditionally been excluded from the educational system. Competent teachers have a repertoire of instructional skills and strategies that enable them to meet the different needs of their students and facilitate student learning. They demonstrate their knowledge as they plan for instruction, consider management options, implement teaching strategies and evaluate the outcomes of their planning through reflective teaching. This course is designed to introduce new approaches to teaching that are based on research in the fields of psychology and education. Through a variety of readings and activities students will have the opportunity to apply their understandings and skills as they make educational decisions.

The goals of the course are:

• To examine several current theories that impact classroom instruction.
• To consider the application of each theory in developing effective curriculum and instructional strategies.
• To define what we mean by "differentiated curriculum and instruction."
• To identify characteristics of students who are considered "exceptional."
• To synthesize our knowledge by rewriting existing curricula to better meet the needs of individual students.

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This course explores the history, theory, and practice of communication in organizations. It focuses on the challenges of cultural, national, organizational, and personal differences in pursuing effective business communication, with an emphasis on the role of technology. Topics covered include: workplace listening, nonverbal communication, group dynamics, leadership, problem solving, and decision making. Applications in business writing and oral presentations provide each student with a practical understanding of the importance of communication in today's global marketplace.

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This is a 1-credit course.

This 1-credit course will cover the skills needed to find, evaluate, and use relevant sources of information. Students will learn how to conduct scholarly research using print and electronic resources in the library and the Internet. Topics will include research strategies, exploring library databases, finding images, effective searching with Google, evaluating and citing sources, avoiding plagiarism, and developing a bibliography.

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This course will be a multidisciplinary examination of theories and knowledge of human bio-psycho-social development through the full range of the life cycle. The course draws on research from biology, psychology, sociology, anthropology, and political science to study the impact/influence of biological, psychological, social, and cultural systems on human behavior. Students will explore the range of social systems in which individuals live (families, groups, communities, and organizations) and study the importance of ethnicity, culture, gender, disability, and other elements of diversity in human development.

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The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle described humans as "political animals" (zoon politikon), implying that our political behavior is somehow rooted in our biological nature. Later, other thinkers including Locke, Hume, Rousseau or Descartes, among many others, proposed concepts of human beings as "rational creatures" whose habits and behaviors are acquired through social learning and not determined by biology. Human character was considered a "blank slate" (tabula rasa) completely formed by culture and environment. Contemporary evolutionary psychology looks at human character as a product of mutual interaction of our genes and culture. In the course, students will concentrate on the "natural" -- biologically determined -- aspect of human political behavior. They will first look at the "political behavior" of other animals and then discuss the reasons why each individual is unique, consider the sexual differences in behavior, study the history of the human family, the evolutionary basis for social cooperation in small groups and the "nature of the state" from the perspective of evolutionary psychology.

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American Folklore and Folklife is a multi-disciplinary study of American culture via the lens of our stories, songs, dance, music, festivals, rituals and so many other behaviors of everyday living and the world around us -- the "threads" which exist between past and present, the material and non-material cultural artifacts which provide meaning and understanding of the culture in which we are participating throughout our lives. Since each one of us represents "the folk," our study will selectively explore several realms of folk lore and life, and it is expected that each student will incorporate his/her personal life as an integral part of the course. Specific topics of our study will include family and community life and lore, folk music and its link to our current popular culture, culture-wide folks (ex. Norman Rockwell, Woody Guthrie, and others) who have influenced our society across the years, and specific eras and its cultural artifacts that have shaped our way of life (ex. The Great Depression, "The Roaring 20s," "Going West" and "The Road"), and so much more. All of our lives will come into the academic field of play!

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Caught between the often cold and brutal reality of life in the American West and the heat of opportunity in a potentially rich environment, the history and literature of the American West, like its people, can be characterized as being "between a chill and a sweat." This course will examine the evolution of American Western literature -- and, in many ways, the evolution of the West, itself -- from the dime novel mythologies to the stark recitations of everyday life. Using novel, memoir, autobiography, biography, and film, we will travel through the culture, conquest, community, economy, and environment of the West.

*An editorial in the Thunder Mountain newspaper, which chronicled the economy and community of Roosevelt, Idaho, in the 1890s, observed that the people of Roosevelt, along with most people in the West, lived "between a chill and a sweat." The threat of economic collapse and the potential riches in "them thar hills" made life unpredictable at best and unnerving at worst.

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UWW0348  [3 Credits]
Introduction to the Philosophy of the Black Experience
Charlesworth Ephraim

The starting point for this course, which is specifically designed for students in the humanities and the social sciences, will be a reading of George G.M. James, Stolen Legacy. Because the course will assume that, from the beginning with what is called "the black jeremiad," the essential posture of the philosophy of the Black Experience is one of protest, it will examine selected writings from, inter alia, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois, August Meier, Marcus Garvey, Booker T. Washington, Frantz Fanon, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, David Walker, John Henrik Clarke, C.L.R. James, Aime Cesaire, Walter Rodney, and Molefi Asante.

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