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Current Initiatives (2004-05)
At present, members of the Institute are currently working to articulate a
coherent academic curriculum for a grade 6-9 middle school program that will
honour the ideals of a liberal education while at the same time taking proper
account of the needs and capacities of middle school students. The specific
project is to design an instructional program that effectively captures and
incorporates what we have come to regard as the three essential components of an
academic course: baseline literacy, narrative framework (why we teach the
subject), and application & extension. The motive here is, on one hand, to
ensure that students are being equipped with the knowledge they need to make
their way in the world (baseline literacy), while on the other to find a way to
connect the subject matter to the student (application and extension) by, in
part, making the connection to the larger narrative framework. Our aim is to
have a draft of this program created by the Spring or Summer of 2005.
A second project involves reworking and further developing the “Practical
Reasoning” course that is currently taught at
Island Pacific School. This course
offers an introduction to argument for grade six and seven students. Some of the
material covered includes the obstacles & guarantors of critical discourse,
distinguishing types of claims, understanding argument forms (i.e. deductive &
inductive reasoning), and basic fallacies. The revisions contemplated include
exploration of new content and strategies that will enable younger students to
more easily grasp (and retain) important conceptual distinctions.
Future plans in the area of Research and Curriculum
Development include the following:
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to complete a curriculum document and framework for
instructional design that directly addresses the question of how best to
ensure that middle school students attain the baseline knowledge they need to
make sense of the world, while at the same time ensures genuine engagement on
the part of students. (It is expected that this document may serve as a
template for educational curricula at other levels.)
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to continue to explore the question of how best to
teach “critical thinking” or “practical reasoning” to students
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to determine how to evaluate
the extent to which ILE programs aimed at ensuring the acquisition of core
knowledge and skills, or enhancing intellectual engagement, or teaching
students “critical thinking” or “practical reasoning” are successful in their
goals
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to create, on the basis of that determination, an
appropriate system of evaluation
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to determine how best to address the goal of
“inviting students to participate in a moral narrative” that would have them
seriously consider the question of how one ought to live
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to develop, on the basis of that determination, a
consistent approach or a framework that can be applied in schools (and,
perhaps, in colleges or universities).
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to determine how to evaluate
the extent to which ILE programs (or frameworks) aimed at inviting students to
participate in a moral narrative are successful in their goals
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to create, on the basis of that determination, an
appropriate system of evaluation
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to incorporate and\or sponsor any other research
directly related to a better understanding of the theory & practice of a
liberal education
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