Monash University Handbook 2010 Undergraduate - Unit

Synopsis

The unit provides students with an understanding of how to engage with young and adolescent learners across discipline areas through their literacy and numeracy practices in and out of school. By linking theory and practice, the unit offers a sociocultural perspective on literacy and numeracy as social practices that evolve in multiple contexts and play key roles in mediating learners' identities, understandings of the world and ways of their engagement in classroom learning.

Objectives

Upon successful completion of this unit students should be able to:

1. recognise the centrality of language and literacy in mediating learning in and out of school and the importance of ties between home and school practices;
2. develop an understanding of literacy and numeracy as social practice, and become aware of relationships between identity and learning;
3. develop an understanding of the relationship between language and identity;
4. be familiar with a range of theories that reconceptualise a traditional understanding of school literacy and numeracy and their pedagogical implications;
5. be able to analyze the literacy and numeracy practices in classrooms and other school settings;
6. be sensitive to sociocultural diversity in school communities and begin developing a professional capacity to recognise, respond and teach to difference; and
7. be familiar with a range of policy and curriculum initiatives and their pedagogical implications.

Assessment

Assessment task 1 - critical narrative (2,000 words or equivalent; 50%)
Assessment task 2 - academic essay (2,000 words; 50%)

Chief examiner(s)

Dr Scott Bulfin

Contact hours

2 hrs per week

Prerequisites

Must have passed units in {EDF1303, EDF1304, EDF2004, EDF2005} OR (Must have passed units in {EDF1303, EDF1304, EDF2003, EDF3002})

Prohibitions

{EDF3001, EDF4112}