EDP 394L,  Spring, 2006
European Rescued Scholars:
20th Century European Psychological Theorists Influences on Contemporary American Psychology

http://WWW.USERS.muohio.edu/shermalw/edp394LS06/edp394LS06_syl.html

Lawrence W. Sherman ,Ph. D., Professor
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION AND ALLIED PROFESSIONS
CENTER FOR HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, LEARNING AND TEACHING
154 MCGUFFEY HALL
MIAMI UNIVERSITY, OXFORD, OHIO 45056
PHONES: OFFICE = 513-529-6642; HOME = 513-523-2458
E-MAIL:SHERMALW@MUOHIO.EDU , FAX: 513-529-3646
URL for Personal Home Page is: http://www.users.muohio.edu/shermalw

 
ON-LINE CLASS DISCUSSIONS 1st Day Powerpoint Slides
WEEKLY CALENDAR OF ASSIGNMENTS Link to the Leo Strauss Reviews
Duggan and Drury, (1948) tables Picture of Class members
Excel list of rescued scholars
David Brooks article on human capital

1. COURSE DESCRIPTION:

The objective of this class is to learn about 20th Century European psychological theorists who influenced contemporary American psychological theory and practice. With the rise of Nazi Germany and its associated anti-Semitic policies many European intellectuals immigrated to the United States in the 1930s.  Their “intellectual capital” considerably influenced American social psychological theory in such diverse areas as developmental psychology, education, business, industrial/organizational (I/O) psychology, social policy and politics. While this course will focus primarily on Kurt Lewin as one such example, other theorists will be discussed including Fritz Heider, Kurt Koffka, Wolfgang Kohler, Heinz Werner and others.  The second half of the class will focus on other “rescued” European scholars ranging from Einstein and Fermi to Freud and others.

This class attempts to accomplish the Mission and Vision of the School of Education and Allied Professions:

"The EAP community, while committed to fulfilling traditional academic roles, endeavors to develop expanded roles consistent with our vision. We are committed to integrating our teaching, scholarship and service."
 
 

2. OBJECTIVES

The objective of this class is to learn about 20th Century European psychological theorists who influenced contemporary American psychological theory and practice. With the rise of Nazi Germany and its associated anti-Semitic policies many European intellectuals immigrated to the United States in the 1930s.  Their “intellectual capital” considerably influenced American social psychological theory in such diverse areas as developmental psychology, education, business, industrial/organizational (I/O) psychology, social policy and politics. While this course will focus primarily on Kurt Lewin as one such example, other theorists will be related including Fritz Heider, Kurt Koffka, Wolfgang Kohler, Heinz Werner and others.  The second half of the class will focus on other “rescued” European scholars ranging from Einstein and Fermi to Freud and others.

During the 1930’s the Emergency Committee In Aid of Displaced Foreign Scholars rescued nearly300 European scholars of which approximately 207 were from Germany and 10 of these were psychologists (Duggan & Drury, 1948). Kurt Lewin was one of these psychologists who was placed by the committee in an American university. American universities, including Miami University, played an important role in providing academic positions for these displaced individuals. From their academic posts at these universities, these individuals continued their research and began to influence their associated disciplines. Since Kurt Lewin will be a primary example of the European influence upon American psychology, his social psychological concerns associated with marginalization and the resolution of social conflict through principals of group dynamics will be emphasized, especially as related to anti-Semitism in the European and American experience.

3. TEACHING STRATEGIES.

In as much as the roots of contemporary cooperative learning pedagogy are anchored in Lewin’s Group Dynamics movement, a variety of cooperative learning activities will be integrated into this class. With the realization that many of the Luxembourg students will neither be psychology nor education majors, other disciplines will be drawn upon to demonstrate similar European influences upon other disciplines in America (physics, philosophy, the arts). Since Kurt Lewin’s theories are often suggested as the basis for cooperative learning (see Sherman, Schmuck & Schmuck, 2004) the class will also be based on  pedagogical approaches associated with cooperative learning.  Experiential activities based on Lewin’s group dynamics research will be used to learn about cooperation.  Lectures, readings, and video taped materials will also be used to deliver information about rescued European scholars.

We will employ the use of networked Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) using an established ON-LINE DISCUSSION CHAT ROOM RESOURCE where 5 periodic written "postings" will be made which will require reactions from class members to each other's postings. This element will have participants "critically engaging" each other's thinking. Also, this aspect of the class will be completely open and available for inspection throughout the entire class, by everyone in the class, as well as anyone able to access the WWW. This class will be a "sun-shine" class where much of the work generated by class members will be available to the entire campus.  The Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) will be a mainstay for reflection and discussion of class activities and readings, both in class and out of class. A central address file will be created in which all messages will be open to all class members specifically for their critical reactions to each other's weekly writings/reflections. Students will be required to constructively engage a partner in a discussion of their comments. TWO points will be assigned to each of these five required reflections/reactions. A "portfolio" (notebook), primarily based on these postings, will be organized, reflected upon and turned in at the end of the class.

4. Tentative Weekly Outline of class activities:

Week
 Activities I
 Activities II
Week 1
 Introductions
View video tape: The Exiles
Read Background paper by Sherman et al
 Group Activities:          
Week 2
 Read Marrow book: preface and ch1 - ch 7, "The German Years"
Preface
chapter 1
chapter 2-3
chapter 4
chapter 5
chapter 6
chapter 7
 See Video on Einstein
Week 3
 Read chapters Marrow book: ch8 - ch 17, "The American Years"
chapter 8     chapter 9    chapter 10    chapter 11    chapter 12
chapter 13    chapter 14    chapter 15  chapter 16   chapter 17
 Group Activities:
Week 4
 Read chapters Marrow book: ch 18 - ch22 and Epilogue
chapter 18    chapter 19    chapter 20    chapter 21   
chapter 22 and Epilogue
 Group Activities
Week 5
 Paper Presentations
 Paper presentations
Weel 6 Summarize class
 Final Exam: turn in portfolios     


5. ESSENTIAL READINGS, TEXTS AND COURSE MATERIALS.

The primary text for this class is:

Marrow, A. F. (1969).  The Practical Theorist: The Life and Work of Kurt Lewin.  New York: Basic Books.

Individual papers from the Kurt Lewin Conference (2004).  Supplied by me (the instructor):
Sherman, L., Schmuck, R., & Schmuck, P. (2004). Kurt Lewin’s contribution to the theory and practice of education in the United States: The importance of cooperative learning. A symposium presentation to the International Conference on Kurt Lewin: Contribution to contemporary psychology. Bydgoszcz University, Bydgoszcz, Poland, September 10-12, 2005.

Additional resources:

Boyers, R. (editor), (1972). The legacy of the German refugee intellectuals. New York: Schocken.

Brooks, D. (2005). Psst! 'Human Capital'. New York Times, November 13, 2005. OPED piece in the "week in review section".

Coser, L. A. (1984). Refugee intellectuals. Society, 22(1), 61-69.

Duggan, S. & Drury, B. (1948). The rescue of science and learning: The story of the emergency committee in aid of displaced foreign scholars. New York: MacMillan Company.

Fermi, L. (1971). Illustrious immigrants: the intellectual migration from Europe, 1930-41. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Fleming, D. & Bailyn, B. (1969). The intellectual migration: Europe and America, 1930-1960. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Hoch, P. K. (1983). The reception of Central European refugee Physicists of the 1930’s: U.S.S.R, U.K., U.S.A. Annals of Science, 40(3), 217-247.

Garrett, A. C. (1996). European science and scholarship in exile: Conformity and disparity.  History of the Human Sciences, 9 (4), 139-150.

Gatzke, H. W. (1984). Exiled in Paradise (book review). Political Science Quarterly, 99(2), 386-387.

Gifford, S. Émigré analysts in Boston 1930-1940. International Forum of Psychoanalysis, 12(2/3), p. 165-173.

Heilbut, A. (1983). Exiled in paradise: German refugee artists and intellectuals in America, from the 1930s to the present. New York: Viking Press.

Kaplan, R. (1990). The Exiles (video tape). Santa Monica, CA: Connoisseur Video Collection.

Lilla, M. (2004). Leo Strauss: The European (book review). New York Review of Books, 51(16), 58-60.

Lilla, M. (2004). The closing of the Straussian Mind (book review). New York Review of Books, 51(17), 55-59.

Martin, K. (1998). The emigration of German Sinologists 1933-1945. Journal of the American Oriental Society, 118(4), 507-530.

Muller, T. (2002). Bearing witness to the liquidation of western Dasein”: Herbert Marcuse and the Holocaust, 1941-1948. New German Critique, Winter 2002, Issue 85, 133-165.

Strauss, H. A. (editor). (1978). Jewish immigrants of the Nazi period in the USA.  New York: K. G. Saur.

Von Klemperer, K. (1985). Exiled in Paradise (Book review). American Historical Review, 90(5), 1294-1298.
 
Walker, M. (1997). Forced migration and scientific change: Émigré German-speaking scientists and scholars after 1933 (book review). Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 33(3), 280-281.

6. REQUIREMENTS AND EVALUATION DEVICES.

A. 30%] 1 final exam (test)
B. 20%] weekly postings [5 REFLECTIONS/5 REACTIONS POSTINGS
C. 25% Individual or Group GI Paper (depending on class size).
    Specific “rubrics” will be developed to evaluate this paper.
D. 25%] ORGANIZED ELECTRONIC PORTFOLIO OF class artifacts.
    Specific “rubrics” will be developed to evaluate this paper.
   100% = total weighted points AND Grades WILL BE AS FOLLOWS:

The following “absolute” grading scale will be applied to "percentage" scores based upon a point system associated with each of the above activities (1 test, postings, paper, and portfolio):

A+ > 98 A = 94 - 97.99 A- = 91 - 93.99 B+ = 88 - 90.99 B = 85 - 87.99 B- = 82 - 84.99 C+ = 79 - 81.99 C = 75 - 78.99 C- = 70 - 74.99 D+ = 67 - 69.99 D = 64 - 66.99
D-= 60 - 63.99 F = LT 60

!!INCOMPLETES AND ATTENDANCE!!:


Any incompletes not made up by the end of the semester will automatically result in an incomplete for the course. Also!!!when the incomplete is made up after the semester is over, regardless of what grade you might have achieved in the class, it will be lowered "one whole letter grade"!!! Classroom attendance will be closely monitored and a maximum of one unexcused absences will be allowed. You will be "docked" THREE (3) whole percentage points from your total percentage score at the end of the class for each unexcused absence after the first absence!