Dr. Jim Shuman
St. Lawrence University News
Submitted by jshuman on Wed, 08/13/2008 - 13:52.
Associate Professor and Chair of Education
Courses I teach regularly:
Undergraduate
EDUC 301, Principles of Teaching in Secondary Schools
EDUC 485, Dynamics of School Teaching (student teaching seminar)
Graduate
EDUC 500, Research Project in Education
EDUC 565, Constructivist Design in Education
EDUC 599, Curriculum Development
My research interests:
Constructivism in Education
Constructivism in Teacher Education
Curriculum Development
Teacher Education Policy/Accreditation
Sample student projects I have supervised:
"Development of a Curriculum for 7th Grade Mathematics"
"Applying Payne's Theory of Social Class to Elementary Literacy"
"Peer Mediation Programs in North Country Schools"
Examples of presentations, exhibitions, performances and published work:
Shuman, J. & Wang, Y., "Applying constructivist practices in professional development and teacher education: The work of the Learner Centered Resource Collaborative." NYSATE-NYACTE State-wide Meeting, Albany, NY. October, 2008.
Shuman, J., & Flynn, P. "The Constructivist Design Model© for professional development." JPACTe, 2,1. Fall 2006
Shuman, J., Vermette, P., & Konkoski-Bates, B. “Constructivist teacher education: Collaboration, reflection and the development of powerful disposition and Understandings in new teachers." Pre-conference Professional Clinic, American Association for Colleges of Teacher Education National Meeting. March 2005
Aspects of my teaching that students find most effective and interesting:
Students enjoy my classes when I model hands-on, practially-based approaches to good teaching.
Some ways I connect with students outside the classroom:
I help to coordinate the week-long Constructivist Design Conference, held on campus each summer for teaching professionals and students of education at St. Lawrence. At the conference, we network with educators from across the North Country, New York State, New England, and other parts of the US and Canada. In my teaching, I don't limit myself to the classroom on campus. I work with student teachers both on campus and directly in the public schools as well.
Examples of connections between my research and my teaching:
Because I am immersed in constructivist approaches to teaching, "I practice what I preach (i.e., profess)." Much of my teaching demonstrates "best practices" for my students -- in planning, instruction, and assessment techniques.
My teaching philosophy:
Psychological research in memory, cognition, and human learning over the past half-century fundamentally supports a theory of learning known as constructivism, which includes the following tenets, elaborated more fully by Flynn, Mesibov, Vermette, and Smith in their 2008 book, Captivating Classes with Constructivism.
- Learners integrate prior experience with new information through the processes of assimilation and accommodation by being engaged in learning activities to make meaning. They learn better when the learning environment is safe and caring, and when there is a balance between supports and challenges to their meaning-making.
- Teachers facilitate effective learning through a combination of planned activities and spontaneous interventions focused on cognitive achievement - analyzing and synthesizing information to transform current understandings into new knowledge. They do so by utilizing research-based strategies to help learners prepare for learning appropriately, engage with other learners meaningfully, demonstrate outcomes in authentic ways, reflect critically on outcomes, and develop ownership of their own knowledge.
- Schools provide the environment and resources to support effective student learning for all learners, ongoing teacher learning and professional development, and continual engagement of the local community in the educational process.
The mission of teacher education programs in institutions of higher education is to support the development of effective schools by preparing new teachers who are well-educated in the liberal arts, their subject fields, and research-based pedagogy, who are caring and student-centered, and who are competent and highly qualified to join the teaching profession. This mission is accomplished through active partnerships with the institution's academic departments and the region's public and private schools. Teacher education programs are obligated to identify, publish, and uphold their goals, implement effective research-based instruction, and operate as learning organizations utilizing continual analysis of outcomes against the high standards of the teacher education profession.
Ways I offer service to my discipline and/or the University:
Member, National Accreditation Panel, Teacher Education Accreditation Council, Washington, DC
Member and Past-President, New York State Association of Teacher Educators
SLU Representative and former Executive Board Member, New York Association for Colleges of Teacher Education
My current projects:
Co-Editor, Journal for the Practical Application of Constructivist Theory in Education (JPACTe).
A new book: Constructivism in Teacher Education, with Paul Vermette and Chandra Foote, Niagara University