CI

CI-5055-Paideia Seminars

DEFINITION

Mortimer Adler (1902-2001) created an approach to learning known as the Paideia Seminar. Paideia (py-dee-a) is a Greek word meaning, "teach the children." It was developed to bring classic literature and critical dialogue classroom. Paideia seminars are anti-authoritarian and entirely democratic in that they require all participants to read, to think, and to speak without fear of bias in a group.

Paideia is an active learning strategy designed to teach all students to think and to recognize the value of life-long learning. To this end, the Paideia classroom combines three instructional techniques: didactic instruction, coaching of academic skills, and Paideia seminar discussion. Together, these three types of instruction have been proven to enhance the literacy, problem solving, and thinking skills of students at all grade levels and abilities. Paideia is also known to enhance school climate and culture, leading to a safer overall environment for learning.

The goals of a Paideia Seminar are to:

Participate in a democratic classroom culture.
Construct their own meaning from text based on new and prior knowledge.
Increase understanding of ideas, values, and issues as presented by the work at hand.
Think deeply and more clearly.
State and defend positions.
Be courteous
Overcome fears of reading difficult literature.
Take responsibility for their own learning through the seminar process.
Be exposed to the greatest writing and works of art we know.

SEQUENCE OF EVENTS

The leader (instructor) will assign a chapter or passage for the entire class to read. Refer to syllabus for weekly timeline.
Participants are seated in a circle or square or have access to the Paideia Discussion Board.
Participants should post any closed end questions about the text. (For example: What does the word ____ mean?)
Leader will address all closed end questions before the seminar begins (Vocabulary, Story line, character descriptions, etc.) .
Leader will ask questions to provoke conversation, not to give "right answers."
Leader will not state opinions as students will often wait for you to give the "right"
answer.
Leader will allow participants to talk to each other (post ideas on the Discussion Board) without interruption.
Participants will be allowed to work through conflicts on the Discussion Board.
Participants need time to think about responses.
Participants should refer to the text. This is the most difficult part
Read (listen) carefully!

Day	Paideia Seminar: Chapter	Gate
1	Chapter 1: Student Motivation: The Teacher's Perspective	A1
2	Chapter 2 - “Establishing a Learning Community in Your Classroom”	A2
3	Chapter 3 - “Supporting Students' Confidence as Learners”	A3
4	Chapter 4 – “ Goal Theory”	A4
5	Chapter 5 – “Rebuilding Discouraged Students’ Confidence and Willingness to Learn”	A5
6	Chapter 6 – “Providing Extrinsic Incentives”	A6
7	Chapter 7 – “Self-Determination Theory of Intrinsic Motivation: Meeting Students’ Needs for Autonomy, Competence, and Relatedness”	A7

LITERATURE SELECTION

Brophy, Jere. (2004). Motivating Students to Learn. Second Edition. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

DIRECTIONS

Students will read assigned chapters from Jere Brophy’s Motivating Students to Learn on a weekly basis as noted by the syllabus. Then students will be responsible for posting questions on the Paideia Discussion Board on the ASULearn Forum site about the text when clarification is needed. Following the clarification of questions, each student will post a key or poignant phrase and a rationale for citing it. After the initial postings, students will engage in a discussion about the postings.

RUBRICS

Paideia Active Learning Rubric
Seminar Response Chart

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

For directions and strategies for implementing and evaluating this strategy in your classroom visit the following websites.

http://curriculumfutures.org/instruction/a06-07.html

http://www.paideia.org