21A.150
Teaching and Learning: Cross-Cultural Perspectives
Explores the diverse ways that people teach and learn in different countries, disciplines, and subcultures (computer gamers, magicians, jazz musicians, etc.). Compares schooling to other forms of knowledge transmission, from initiation and apprenticeship to recent innovations in online education. Students discuss various learning theories and apply them to a variety of in-class activities using qualitative methods to conduct original research on topics of their choice. Limited to 15.
Fall 2014
Topics
- Introduction
- Social Learning
- Apprenticeship as a Research Topic
- Apprenticeship as a Research Method
- Initiation Ritual and Rites of Passage
- Schooling
- Social Reproduction
- Imitation, Improvisation, and Creativity
- Language Socialization
- Acquiring Expert Registers
- Personhood and Identity
- Cognition and Perception
- Techniques of the Body
Prerequisites & course information
Prereq: None U (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-S
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Fall 2014
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.