Analysis of Teaching

  EDG 5325

Prof. Joseph D. McNair

 INSTRUCTOR BIOGRAPHY:

Joseph D. McNair is a native of Augusta, Georgia. In a career spanning twenty-seven years, he has taught and/or administered at every level of public education in the United States and in Nigeria.  At an earlier stage in his career, Professor McNair held California-based positions of Director of Early Childhood Education, middle school Assistant Principal, elementary/middle school Principal, and district level Manager of Programs and Personnel.  In the1980's, Professor McNair enacted a mid-career shift to the professorate and obtained a multi-year appointment as Assistant Professor of Education at Ahmadu Bello University in Northern Nigeria, the largest university in Black Africa.  Since returning to the United States in 1990,  he has continued to work in the postsecondary education sector, holding joint appointments at Florida International University as Adjunct Professor in the College of Education and Director of the James L. and John S. Knight Excellence in Education Project:  For Our Children in Urban Settings (F.O.C.U.S.) Professional Development Component.  However, his principal appointment from1991 to the present has been that of Associate Professor of Education at Miami-Dade Community College, North Campus, in Miami, Florida.  Professor McNair's academic background includes an undergraduate degree in Political Science (Gonzaga University) anda masters degree in Educational Administration (Antioch College), and additional doctoral level course work taken  at  the University of San Francisco and Ahmadu Bello University,  Nigeria.  His academic and experience-based expertise has been highly sought by and generously shared with educators in domestic and international settings. In Nigeria, Professor McNair worked closely with a team of consultants assisting the Nigerian Government with its transition to a 6-3-3-4  education system design.  In South Florida, he has been the architect of multi-institutional collaborations for the improvement of public education, working in partnership with  nine Dade County public schools as well as volunteer and advocacy social service agencies.  Professor McNair's service to the educational community has included conducting numerous workshops throughout the state of Florida on issues of diversity, the development of multicultural awareness and consciousness, and the establishment of Professional Development School (PDS) partnerships.  Through these varied contributions, he has established a reputation of being an important community resource and a leading advocate for multicultural education and increased retention of underrepresented groups in higher education. He has been successful in providing quality training of preservice interns in developmentally appropriate practices,  multicultural and "understanding" pedagogies. Professor McNair has spent his entire teaching career motivating countless numbers of students to maximize their potential for achievement. He was awarded the 1995 JM (Jim Moran) Family African American Achievement Award in Education and the 1997 Mitchell Wolfson Endowed Teaching Chair for excellence in teaching. He was in addition a 1998 nominee for the The Green Family Foundation's American Family Values Award, the recipient of the  Innovation of the Year award from the League of Innovations in the Community Colleges in 2000, 2001 and the nominee for  The David R. Pierce Award For Faculty  Use Of Technology, from the American Association Of Community Colleges (AACC) 2002 .

Note: Please submit all or most of the assignments by e-mail. Bring a hard copy to class to submit just in case something goes wrong with your e-mail. Save all reflections to a floppy disk or a CD for your records.

Week One:

Registration, Introductions and Overview

Register For Class [Class registration will begin next week 9/15/03]

Overview of the 1st 4 weeks

Presentation of Web Site

The Name Game

Readings

Assignments: 

Write a one page reflection paper on behaviorism/objectivism.
Take the two (2) hemispheric dominance (right/left brain tests) and write a one page reflection on your results.

Week Two:

Discuss: concepts, constructions and pedagogies of Behaviorism/Objectivism

Applications of behaviorism/objectivism in current practice

Introduce Constructivism

Share results of brain hemisphere measures

Self-disclosing surveys

 Readings

Assignments: 

Write a one page reflection paper on Constructivism
Take the Impulsivity Test and the Mindstyles TestWrite a one page reflection paper on the two measures.

     Note: both of these tests must be printed  before taking.  They are not online

 

Week Three:

Discuss: concepts, constructions and pedagogies of Constructivism

Applications of Constructivism in current practice

Introduce Transpersonal Education

Share results of Impulsivity and Mindstyles measures

Self-disclosing survey

Matters of concern and consequence

Readings

  Assignments: 

Write a one page reflection paper on Transpersonal Education.
Take the Perceptual Modalities Preference Survey and the Language System Diagnostic Test (LSDI) Write a one page reflection paper on the two measures.

 

Week Four:

Discuss: concepts,                            constructions and pedagogies of Transpersonal Education

Applications of Andragogy and Transpersonal Education in current practice

Results of PMPS and LSDI measures

Matters of concern and consequence

 Readings

  Assignments: 

Write a one page reflection paper on Andragogy

Take the Learning style Survey for College Students and 
the Teaching Style Questionaire  and write a one page reflection on the two measures

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