HEAL: EDUC 820 assignments

Dear HEALers:

I hope the EDUC 820 assignments will allow you to begin the process of inquiry into the topics and concerns of health education and active living that most interest you.

Below is the wording of the assignments.

1. Active living: practices and reflections. (20%). Engage in a self-chosen practice or set of practices and keep a journal of your experiences over the semester. The reflection should address: purposes, applications, enabling conditions, life-course factors and social determinants, as well as provide a rich description of the practice/s in terms of personal commitment to it/them. Length is 5-8 pages to be submitted at the final class of the semester.

2. Seminar and class presentation of course readings (20%). Select a chapter reading, preferably from either of the course texts, as a point of departure for addressing a significant HEAL topic. Data and resources pertaining to the topic and reading will be assembled for presentation during class time. Provide a detailed article critique to be submitted the week following the seminar date. Presentations will be grouped in terms of common foci.

3. Major paper (60%). Define and explore a HEAL topic through a series of written submissions. First, the topic will be indicated through first-person description of an event, incident or encounter that illustrates the issue, or question at hand. Second, a review of the research literature will be conducted to flesh out the issue or question. And third, the curricular and pedagogical implications of pursuing the issue or question will be detailed. The three parts of the major paper will be written over the course of the semester with the final version due the last class. Paper length should be 15 pages approximately.

We will discuss evaluative rubrics in the coming class sessions.

Assignment one should be quite straightforward. For some, this will be focused on specific physical activity programs and preferences, while for others it allows consideration of the broad range of lifestyle and quality of life choices that fall under the banner of 'active living.' The purpose of this assignment is to 'walk the talk' as well as provide a very practical base for considering how active living can be promoted, while taking into account the enabling and determining conditions that make certain active living 'choices' possible.

Assignment two will need some more discussion at our next class meetings when we will figure out how we can cover our course texts while allowing the HEAL topics of most interest to you to come through.

Assignment three offers the invitation to start right away. I used my article on "Operating on a child's heart: A pedagogical view of hospitalization" as an example of a writing 'assignment' that covers, to some extent, the three parts of the major paper. It is just that – an example, nothing more. Your task is to define your own HEAL topic, most likely drawing from your work sphere, although you may, as I did in my paper, find your topic in events that occur elsewhere.

Don't try to over-analyze the event, situation or encounter that is the experiential point of departure for your major paper. Just begin by narrating what you saw, responded to, or otherwise participated in, by crafting a few descriptive paragraphs.

If you need some inspiration, go to Max van Manen's website: http://www.phenomenologyonline.com/sources/textorium/
Here you will find a slew of papers, on a range of curricular, pedagogical and health-related topics, that use first-person, phenomenological analysis.

Bring your beginning draft to our next meeting times and we will create a writer's workshop to assist in this formative stage of creating the major paper.

Cheers,

Stephen.