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I have survived my first few days of classes at the University of Regina.  It is definitely a strange feeling being in third year courses with students who have known each other for the past 3 years, and to know no one and hear references to other courses that I have not taken.  It’s definitely a unique experience being a BEAD (Bachelor of Education, After Degree) student.  In my last degree, a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Alberta, I avoided most science courses because I did not want to do labs, but now I have a course teaching me how to teach science staring me down. Even though I have only attended one class, I know I will enjoy this course and I am looking forward to seeing what is involved when teaching science. and am interested to see how my personal view of science courses will be changed by this one course.

A concept we discussed on the first day of class was that of Cooperative learning. I have enjoyed reading the articles posted on the course website about cooperative learning because it is interesting to read about the concept.  I have taken numerous courses at the U of A that had a cooperative component to them, although it was commonly referred to as Team Based Learning.  The concept is similar from what I can gather so far, except the team based learning had individual tests/assessments followed by the team completing the same assessment.  The team assessments showed how important it is for team members to work together and the scores on the team assessments were generally higher than the scores individuals received on their personal assessments. I am very interested to see how the team based/cooperative learning will work with the content in this course, and I am excited to see how different professors view and implement cooperative learning.

A recurring theme in a lot of my courses at the U of R is that of inclusion, or an inclusive classroom.  I feel as though a large number of the people in my cohort have had these terms and the concept of inclusion drilled into their head over the past few years, and this is something I will have to define and determine for myself. At this point in time, from my past experiences and from what I have heard other students talk about, an inclusive classroom is a very large concept.  To me it could be called an engaging classroom, where there is involvement from all students, everyone feels welcome, no one is left behind, different abilities are worked with, different cultures and beliefs are discussed, and students are taught to be accepting of others.  The inclusive classroom would have students actively involved in not only the learning process, but the teaching process as well. Depending on the school and the make up of students in a classroom, each inclusive learning community or inclusive classroom will look different, but the concept is similar, everyone is accepting and willing to learn about others while teaching others about themselves.  In Canada, specifically Saskatchewan, it appears as though inclusion relates to Aboriginal or First Nations people.  An inclusive classroom with Aboriginal people may invite those students to share their culture with the other students, it would allow the aboriginal students to share the views and beliefs from their culture, and the teacher may even invite chiefs or elders into the classroom to teach the class about a different view.  Differing worldviews need to be considered in the inclusive classroom, because without these views of the world, there would be a lack of diversity in the classroom.