Foundations of Education

"There is a beautiful moment during the graduation ceremony in certain Waldorf schools which sees each child of the youngest class lead hand-in-hand into the auditorium, a member of the graduating class of the school. Each graduating seventeen-year-old, having dedicated nearly a decade-and-a-half of one's life to the school, is ceremoniously led single file into the auditorium by a four-year-old child who is just now embarking on a similar journey. This rite of passage, which is repeated year after year, is first and foremost a ritual which celebrates the accomplishments of each member of the graduating class, but it serves also as a temporal marking off of the significance of 'this place called school.' For all those who attend the ceremony, this moment is a cherished reminder of the sanctity of this place, its significance, purpose, and legacy." (Hutchison, David. (2004). A Natural History of Place in Education. New York: Teachers College Press, p. 9.)


Welcome to the EDUC 1F95: Introduction to the Foundations of Education course. This is the website for the course.

The students in EDUC 1F95 include concurrent education students who are enrolled in Brock University's Primary-Junior (P/J), Junior-Intermediate (J/I), and Intermediate-Senior (I/S) teacher education programs. Most P/J and J/I students complete this course in the first year of their program. Most I/S students complete this course in the second year of their program. Some students in the course are not in the concurrent education program. They are completing the course out of interest. A special welcome to these students.

To experience success in the course, it is essential that you familiarize yourself with important elements of the course - especially those resources which outline in detail the requirements of the course.

Complete the following tasks:

1. Log into Brock University's learning management system (LMS) (I.e., D2L Brightspace). Familiarize yourself with its features, particularly those on the "Content" and "Discussions" pages.

2. In the LMS, review the course outline in detail. (The course outline is available on the LMS's "Content" page.) Direct any questions you may have to the teaching assistant (TA) assigned to your seminar and online forum group. The names and contact information for the TAs are listed in the course outline.

3. In the LMS, navigate to the Week 1 forum (under the "Discussions" page) and answer the following forum question which is a graded task:

Note the action tag at the end of the above forum question (in brackets). You are required to post an answer to the question between Monday and Sunday. Also note the required word count of between 125 and 175 words. More details about action tags plus the grading criteria that is used to assess your forum contributions can be found in the course outline.

4. Review the Brock University Undergraduate Calendar entry for your concurrent education program, paying particularly attention to the descriptions for the courses you will complete in the program:

• Concurrent BA (Honours)/BEd (Intermediate/Senior)
• Concurrent BA Child and Youth Studies (Honours)/BEd (Primary/Junior)
• Concurrent BA(Honours)/BEd Junior/Intermediate
• Concurrent BSc Integrated Studies (Honours)/BEd (Junior/Intermediate)
• Concurrent BPhEd (Honours)/BEd (Intermediate/Senior)
• Concurrent BPhEd (Honours)/BEd (Junior/Intermediate)
• Concurrent BSc (Honours)/BEd (Intermediate/Senior)

If you are not a concurrent education student, choose a course from the Educational Studies calendar entry.

5. In the LMS, navigate to the Week 1 forum and answer the following forum question which is a graded task:

Note the action tag at the end of the above forum question. You are required to post an answer to the question (ideally between Monday and Thursday) and respond to another student's answer (ideally between Friday and Sunday). Also note the required word count of between 125 and 175 words total (I.e., your post and response added together).

6. Review the information at the BU4U website. In particular, explore the following:

• Academic Integrity
• Learning Services
• Student Accessibility Services
• Personal Counselling Services
• BU101 Course

7. Return to this course website and navigate to the "Intro" page (via the menu bar at the top of the page). Review the introduction to the course website.

8. Navigate to the "Weekly Poll" page for this week. The last page for each week is a poll.