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Lorem Ipsum Dolor Spring 2016
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culture during the Great Depression. Acting as a successful team of
museum curators, the students were no longer students, burdened
by the compliance and conformity generally thrust upon them. Even
though we were just pretending, the students took on the task
of
curating this museum with the gravitas of true professionals. Brian
Edmiston (2014), who has done extensive work in this field, sheds
light on this phenomenon. When working as experts in a fictional
context, "People may develop not only deep expertise in relation to
whatever curricular areas shape goals and intended outcomes but
also a changing view of their selves and their agency" (p. 233). To
be clear, the task was imaginary in nature, but the amount of self-
determination the students were able to exercise was very real.
For example, there was no need to require a research
component for this unit. The students collaboratively determined for
themselves what needed to be researched and did so without
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