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Course Overview Canadian History: The Colonial Period is a second-year survey course which introduces students to the history of Canada from the pre-contact era to Confederation by examining social, economic, and political change in this period through a study of the pre-contact period, the rise and fall of New France, and the creation of British North America. Among the topics investigated are the impact of European culture on the First Nations, the nature of New France society in comparison to that of France, immigration to BNA, the development of Responsible Government, and Confederation.
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The Students Most of the students who take HIST 253 are "beginners" which means that they do not have much experience with the discipline of history, and certainly a limited amount of experience writing research papers. Many are not history majors and this may be the only history course that they take in their university career. In past offerings of the course, students were required to write a research paper (typically 10 pages due near the end of the course) Given the range of students, it is unrealistic (we have learned) to expect students to write a research paper as a major component of their course assessment. We felt that it was more valuable to teach them the skills they would need to know to write a research paper. We designed the assignments to occur throughout the term, modelling for them the steps they need to take when researching and writing a paper. In the course syllabus you can see how we spread the assignments over the course of the term to do this.
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Redesigned Course The redesigned course introduces students to the history of Canada in the period before Confederation (1867). The main objective of the course is to teach students to think critically about history using a variety of sources (primary and secondary). We approached this course differently than others in three ways. First, we incorporated a task-based approach to our teaching. This meant that we wanted to engage the students with the course content prior to their coming to class. To do this, we incorporated One-Minute Summaries of the course readings into the requirements for the course. Students were expected to complete the readings for the week before the first class for the week (on a Tues/Thurs. schedule students would submit the OMS on Monday). In the OMS, students briefly identified the most important points from that week's readings, and one question that they wanted to ask the instructors. The OMS were not graded per se but factored into students' participation grade. Second, we incorporated collaborative work into the course requirements. Students worked in groups of 3-5 to give a presentation and write a short research paper, as well as to discuss films viewed in the class. We felt that it was important for the students to learn to work collaboratively in the class because we wanted to foster a community of learners around the study of Canadian history. In doing so, we wanted to reinforce the learning that typically occurs in small-group tutorials that are traditional to the study of history. Finally, rather than assign a major research paper in this course, we chose to incorporate a smaller research component (completed in small groups) and smaller assignments which "stepped" students through the process of completing a research paper. We felt that it was important for students to learn the skill-set of a historian and to understand "what historians do" before they could be expected to complete a major research paper on their own.
Promoting Collaborative Learning
Here is one of the collaborative tasks students were asked to complete and some of their reflections on working in groups.
History 253 Course Syllabus
This is the course outline for HIST 253 from Fall, 2003
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Issues There were two main issues that we encountered in redesigning this course. The first was that students needed to learn how to learn in a course that was very student-centred. Asking students to take an active role in their own learning seemed to be quite foreign to them. We viewed this as an opportunity to really engage them in a new and meaningful way with the course content. Rather than always lecturing (the role of the "sage on the stage") we encouraged discussion and questions during our lecture time slots. We also took the opportunity to introduce them to various "representations" of history through viewing of Canada: A People's History and through visuals such as maps and pictures. The use of OMS also helped to create an enviroment where students could ask questions and their questions were often used as talking points for the lectures. The other issue was the expectation that students would work in groups. We found that students were overwhelmingly opposed to group work at the beginning of the course, mainly because they had had negative experiences in the past. We overcame their concerns by providing a workshop on how to effectively work in a group at the beginning of the term, and by assisting groups who were struggling when needed. By supporting the students in their learning about how to work effectively in a team, we were able to overcome their initial concerns. While students were somewhat unsure about the approach of the course in the beginning, they overwhelmingly reported that, by prompting them to take responsibility for their own learning, the course was one of their most positive learning experiences.
Promoting Responsible Learning
At the end of this course, students were asked to assess their own learning experience and how they would apply their learning in other contexts.
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Summary of Significant Findings While students initially reported that they felt there were too many assignments and "babysitting" in the course, by the end they appreciated the overall course design. There is evidence that students have also transferred their learning to other learning contexts (academic, workplace, community) and that they felt more prepared to undertake study in history in future terms.
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