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1.  After reading the provided articles
for this course and textbooks from previous courses, democratic education seems
to allow all stakeholders the opportunity to participate in the decision-making
process. Thus, students and school staff should not be the only ones involved
in school-based decisions; parents and other community members need a voice as
well. Various texts support this statement. For example, Mathews (2008) discusses
the importance of involving community members by stating, “Citizens are more
disposed to take ownership of decisions they have helped to make rather than
decisions that have been made for them” (p.561). Reading the article by Mathews
also reminded me of chapter 5 in the textbook Contemporary Issues in Curriculum

by Allan C. Ornstein, Edward F. Pajak, and Stacey B. Ornstein. This textbook was used

in the course CUR 501 Curriculum Trends and Issues and the chapter was titled

“No Community Left Behind.” During this chapter, Philip C. Schlechty discusses the importance of
the community to develop strong schools. In fact, Schlechty (2011) believes
that communities would unite around setting expectations for schools if control
was given to local communities, and building a strong community is needed to
develop good schools. The sense of community is also prevalent in the article
written by Brodhagen. Brodhagen (1995) describes how various members of the
community supported the learning environment. Students were active participants
in the classroom, but parent and community member support helped to create a
successful environment that valued the learning process.

2.  Based on the readings and discussions
held in class, my new learning about 3S understanding is that it helps students
to value and appreciate their learning because the focus is not merely on
subject matter understanding. Self and social understanding are also valued.
This allows the students to participate in authentic learning tasks and make
learning meaningful. The article written by Brodhagen (1995) supports the
positive responses to the meaningful activities the students completed.
Although students participated in the curriculum development, they were able to
meet the required curricular standards (such as reading and writing standards
through research).

References

Brodhagen, B.L. (1995). The situation made us special. In Apple, M.W. & Veane, J.A.
(Eds.), Democratic Schools (pp. 83-100).
Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Henderson, J.G. & Gornik, R. (2007).  Transformative curriculum leadership, (3rd ed.). New Jersey:
Pearson Education.

Mathews, D. (2008). The public and the public
schools: The coproduction of education. Phi Delta Kappan, 89(8),
560-564.

Schlechty, P.C. (2011). No community left behind. In
A.C. Ornstein, E.F. Pajak, and S.B. Ornstein (Eds.), Contemporary issues in
curriculum (pp. 118 - 125). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

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1.)
Democratic
education in my opinion means getting students involved in the decision-making
process that affects what and how they learn. Students become accountable for their learning through their individual
interests and styles of learning.

2.)3S understanding is a balanced content to what
is taught and making real life connections to apply what was learned to new
situations.  It involves understanding of
content, self-reflection of understanding and applying knowledge to social
inquiry.

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1.  When I think about the democratic education I think about teaching, molding, and developing students who can participate in society and become active citizens.

2.  The 3S undertanding is a a highly affective way of teaching because it ties all of the needed elements together to create educated citizens.  From the subject matter, to the students ability to interact and learn from one another, creates the ability to allow students to develop an understanding of a democratic society.  Mock trials are a perfect example.  Teaches students about the subject matter, what court is about; students then work together to create a trail to determine an individuals innocence or guilt, and the tie in to the democratic piece since it is a part of our courts/law in the US.

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1. When I think of democratic education, I think of it in terms of teaching the students how to interact with the curriculum in a way that helps them to become good citizens.  As a social studties teacher, I think I am constantly looking for ways to teach kids how to be good active participants in a democratic society without always using the avenues that are most commonly utilized.

2. When I think of 3S understanding, I think of it as a way to have the students intertwine what their learning to how they best learn while incorporating basic skills of good citizenship.  I think most teachers do this on a regular basis without truly realizing they are doing it.

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1. To be completely honest I am still trying to grasp a complete understanding of democratic education. After reading about democratic education I believe that students and teachers come together in collaborative roles to meet the needs of each learner. Students play a step in the decision-making process. With the help and instruction from their teachers students will determine how they use what they have learned.

2. I believe that 3S understanding plays an important role in education. I feel with the flexibility of the PE and health curriculum it is easier for me to implement some of the aspects of 3S understanding. The whole idea of the curriculum is to help students better understand themselves, where they belong in society and how they will use the knowledge that we teach them to make society a better place.

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1) Is it wrong to admit, that either I don't feel like I have a great understanding of this yet, or it is a lot to think about in terms of our current curriculum? I'm equating Democratic education to teaching students material and then integrating learning challenges and experiences in which students are responsible for applying the skills learned. As I read the chapter, I found myself thinking democratic education as transdiciplinary teaching, where lessons are taught around a theme and students attempt to discover answers and come to understandings about questions created through discovery. (?)

2) In terms of teaching for 3S understanding, it is important to provide experiences for students to demonstrate a deep personal understanding of the subject matter first. It is not until we help students get to this point, that we can expect them to participate in a deeper self and social understanding of the material. Unfortunately, while teaching material we often have so much to do to get students to the deep understanding that the self and social understanding are put on the back burner as we move to a new standard.

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1. As a government teacher, and from the readings thus far I have come to realize that teaching about democracy is not enough.  We need to teach our kids how to "do" democracy which is certainly easier said then done.  My curriculum plan is an attempt to accomplish this lofty goal.

2. The 3S understanding is, in my opinion, a wonderful model on which to base our curriculum.  However, I find that it will be difficult to accomplish many of the ideas in this model without a MAJOR reform movement in all academia.  This would mean lowering class sizes, giving teachers more "real" collaboration time, and removing many of the barriers that exist today.  Including, but not limited to SLOs, HSAs, MSAs, SATs, etc.

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1) looking at a democratic education does not only mean that I am fair and just in how I teach the curriculum but this implies my "moral standard for personal conduct." Teaching democratically reflects on my whole person and sets a culture for my classroom...that is slightly overwhelming.

2) I think I can see how the deep comprehension of the subject matter scaffolds the self and the social understanding so that they hinge on the subject. Self inquiry and the social understanding, at this point of my understanding, seem to flow in and out of one another. That may be because I don't get it completely so they all flow together evenly but that is where I am as of now.

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Brooke-    Double click on a space to add a post it note

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Brooke-    Double click on a space to add a post it note

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Your task is to post something new (without repeating other's ideas :) you are learning about

1. democratic education and  2. 3S understanding