It's over for now. So, how did I get here, what did I learn here and how can I use it in the future?
A Final Paper Submitted for Educational Psychology 500.
Abstract
In this paper we will be reviewing material learned in Educational Psychology 500 and reflecting on it in a personal manner. The goal will be to look at personal experience, personal style and professional approach. This course has been a valuable tool in helping me recognize strengths, weaknesses, positives and negatives of my teaching ability, teaching goals and teaching tools and techniques. As has been shown in the text, there is an extensive amount of material gathered over the years that looks at, diagnoses and dissects educational psychology and learning (Slavin, 2006). The goal here is to personalize that knowledge and learn how to use it most effectively to become an even better educator.
***
In this first section of the paper, we will be looking at personal events and circumstances that moved me towards the field of education and teaching. In the second section, we want to consider some of the things that I personally have gained from the course and the personal analysis tools offered. Then thirdly, we will be looking at a specific area chosen from the text, that being student assessment, and how that should be offered for typical learners and learners who may have learning disabilities (LD) or who are English Language Learners (ELL).
- So What Brought Me Here?
From some of my earliest days, I was taught to be a teacher. My mother, who had been a full-time teacher in a one room school house in an Alaskan village when I was a baby, was a substitute teacher in our local school by the time I started schooling. Around seven years of age, my mother accepted Christ. Soon she found the ministry of Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF), which is a bible centered, worldwide organization whose purpose is to evangelize boys and girls with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, (cefonline.com, 2008) Then she also discovered the evangelistic ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ, to be another ministry she wanted to devote herself to. So even as a young lad, I was exposed to CEF and Good News Clubs and as a young teen I often helped teaching lessons or leading singing in the club. I was even taught how to present the well known Bill Bright tract, "The Four Spiritual Laws" (Campus Crusade, 1968). With exposure like this, it wasn't hard to see that I was probably headed towards some sort of career that was related to education and evangelism.
Along with this exposure, I had the influence of some good and godly men who were mentors and trainers to me. It is with fondness that I think back upon the ministry and the impact of Bob Coombs, Dave Griffin, Elmer Klassen and Herbert Peeler in my own life. While they were not prophets in the biblical sense, their ministry to me was prophetic. I often think of them and compare them to the saints listed in Hebrews 11, of which is said, "…the world was not worthy of them…" (Hebrews 11:38, New International Version). Though these men never achieved worldly fame or notoriety in Christian circles they chose to follow the Master fully. In actuality, they were men who ministered somewhat in obscurity, seeking to do their own work, but, God's work. Their ministries had great influence on me, for in them, I saw dedication to and love of teaching and spreading the Word of Life. It was through the impact of their lives and ministries that my life was shaped to be a life that was destined for ministry and service over a life dedicated to worldly success and fortune.
The next thing that brought me into full-time Christian school teaching was that I was simply asked to become a teacher in the school my children were attending. We as a family had moved to California in 1994 simply on faith, believing that the Lord was calling us to come and help in a ministry here with a former pastor. Needless to say, it was a big shock to move from rural Idaho, where we had been involved in pastoral work to metro Los Angeles. But in our hearts we knew God had a plan and a purpose for us. While we worked alongside our former pastor, in a voluntary capacity, we continued to look and pray for ministry that could help meet our financial need. The second year that my children were enrolled in their new Christian school, the pastor who oversaw the school asked me if I would like to teach sixth grade. Of course he asked me this at the end of August and the school year was less than two weeks away! So for six years I successfully ministered as a teacher in three Christian schools, unfortunately two of which closed while I was working there.
In 2004, after the last school which I worked at shut down, life became even a bit rockier. I did a few odd jobs but ended up gravitating back to education. So for the last three years, I have worked as a tutor in two secular programs then the past year I was affiliated with a Lutheran school. While my previous teaching experiences have been a mostly up and sometimes down, my last experience was a real negative. As was spoken of in a previous paper, I worked this past year at a Lutheran school. This was a sad and very negative experience since they let many good people go since they wanted to work towards accreditation and only have credentialed teachers. At the end of June, I along with about six other employees was laid because of this very late decision by the school board and the minister of the church. While I had only been there one year; but was looking forward to this coming year, other teachers had been there as long as ten years. So with minimal warning we were all laid off quite abruptly without any unemployment benefits or even a reference letter. The truly sad part about this was that California does not require private schools to be accredited or have credentialed teachers (California Department of Education, 2008). In fact the regional accreditation organization, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), states quite clearly that accreditation is not an issue or a problem for children who are in elementary or middle schools (acswasc.org, 2008). So, even though the school boards intentions in the long term may have been good, why such as hasty or quick house cleaning? Why not give every employee fair warning of what the new system will be and give them to do what I have now decided to do? That would allow them within a given framework to work towards California State licensure. Why do I bring up this up? Primarily because I was hurt and wounded by a Christian organization and Christian people and the wound is still fresh. But also because it was this bitter pill that finally gave me the kick in the seat of the pants to enroll at Liberty to further my education and perhaps work toward teacher licensure. While I personally reject the way this was handled, I am trying as much as I can to turn a real bummer into a real plus. You perhaps are familiar with the old saying, "When life gives you lemons, make lemon-aid". It's a good adage, but the squeezing of the lemons can sometimes be painful! So here I am, now enrolled in Liberty trying to turn this souring experience into a good and sweet one.
II. So What Have I Learned So Far?
Since the
days of the
ancient Greeks philosophers have had an interest in learning styles (Lemire, 2001) Famous Greek physicians such as Hippocrates and Galen, wondered how and why people were so different one from another. Their assumptions had them looking at the basic elements and liquids of the body. They surmised that these four primary substances; black bile, yellow bile, phlegm and blood or as they called them the four humors were the cause of differences in human natures (Wikipedia, 2008). Later Galen went on to develop the four psychological or character temperaments; the sanguine or humor blood, is a generally lively, light hearted person, the phlegmatic or humor phlegm is a person who is calm and unemotional, the choleric, or humor yellow bile, is the fiery, decisive, quick tempered person, and finally the melancholic or the humor black bile, is a person who is dark, moody, and pensive. These theories of human nature and temperament endured from ancient Greece till the 19th Century. It was only when Rudolph Virchow introduced the world of medicine to cellular pathology and the knowledge that sickness came from disease and not from the four humors or temperaments that medical science moved away from the ancient teaching of the Greeks (Columbia Encyclopedia, 2007).
So what is the purpose of bringing this up? Well it is my opinion that just as the debate about the four humors came and went so to do I believe that eventually we will view learning styles in a much different way than we do now. After all the theory of individual learning style was only introduced in the 1970's. As a relatively new form of psychology, some would hold that there has been utter failure to find a relationship between children's learning style and a methodology that enables them to learn better (Stahl, 2002). So while it is interesting to wonder if a child is a visual or a tactile or an auditory learner, is it true that, that and only that style is the only way or the primary way that children can learn? Even though I do find looking at my own navel rather interesting from time-to-time, I still must ask, do tests such as Parkers tests or other tests accurately reflect on the type of learner I really am? In my instance for example, I saw a good increase in my study skills, but my learning styles test was rather balanced with most results being quite close to each other. My interpretation would be that while I may lean to being an auditory learner with some tactile learning thrown in, is this the only kind of learner I am?
A far more interesting thing to reflect upon is the wonder of the human brain. With the development of the Functional MRI (fMRI), scientists and researchers can now look at what is actually occurring in the brain while activities such as stress or happiness or learning are actually taking place (Willis 2007). The past twenty years have provided extraordinary progress in the understanding of the nature of learning and learning's connection to neuroscience and brain activity (Willis, 2007). It would make sense that the next twenty years or more would provide even more evidence that learning is more closely related to neurology and neuroscience than it is to individual learning styles. As more and more educators understand the significance of this science, more and better ways to reach and teach students can and should be made possible. As Sylwester (2006) so aptly puts it, "teachers who fail to understand the purpose of the brain and how it works, may as well be teaching a grove of trees rather than a room full of students". It seems that so many educators fail to recognize that student behavior and learning is directly related to the definitive properties of the brain and neuroscience. These are concepts I personally find much more interesting than individual learning styles in one sense because they so clearly validate the Psalmist in the 139th Psalm, when he declares, "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made, your works are wonderful". (Psalm 139:14).
- So What Will I Take With Me?
Perhaps it's because it was the last unit so it's
freshest in my mind, or perhaps it's that the last unit got me thinking about my own style of grading. Whatever reason, it made me wonder what I can do to improve my grading techniques? When assessment reforms came about in the 1990's many believed that it was the very foundation of school reform ( Cizek, 1995). While I could not go that far, I can certainly agree that I need to look and perhaps reform my own testing and classroom assessments based upon research. Having not had any real or current pedagogical training my own grading assessments have historically been mainly norm-referenced. While they gave a grade to my students, I always struggled with the question if this was the right grade for this particular student? But I didn't know or properly understand testing, so I was only doing at the time what I believed to be the best.
Unfortunately, I must admit that while I cared for and tried to nurture the children with LD in my classroom, I really didn't understand criterion-referenced assessment or even differentiated instruction. It seems clear to me now that assessment training needs to be not only studied but taught to teachers (Tognolini & Stanley, 2007), as regular part of a teachers training and ongoing professional development. My challenge will be the same as others, who face this challenge of criterion-referenced testing, in answering the question of what are the appropriate performance standards (Oescher, Kirby, & Paradise,1992), which will need to be made? As well, how will I in the future successfully differentiate instruction for children who need differentiated instruction?
This course along with my other course Education 524, Learning Disabilities: Characteristics and Interventions, have given me some real tools as to how to better serve the students to whom I minister. Some of the information I have learned in these two courses this summer have helped me come up with some possible tools that can help me serve all students who are entrusted to my care. Following are some ideas that I think will be possible and necessary for me to make in my future teaching:
- Know and understand the needs of your students. While it is easy to say this, sometimes, it's hard to do. Yet, to be able to teach that student fully, how can you effectively assess what they have learned or are learning unless you truly know and understand them? Perhaps in my haste to teach the big picture, I sometimes forget the small detail. I have to remember that I am not painting a large or full mural; I am simply weaving a piece of fabric into that student's life. While it is more than likely true that I know my subject, I have to ask, do I know my audience (Beaver, 2005)? Do I know my students well enough to know what needs to be differentiated for them? While I did not knowingly realize that I was doing differentiated instruction in my last class with my students who are LD, I do now, and I know I need to keep improving in that area. I need to more carefully consider the needs of all the students. Do I understand their current knowledge base and what measures I need to take to effectively assess them? Am I grading them appropriately? Previously, I thought so, but now I realize that I need to make better accommodation for students with LD or ELL. Through this course and my other one, I have sincerely found areas that I need to challenge in my own thinking and doing. I need to ask the are big questions about my skills and assessments, and I need to fully comprehend and appreciate, my students and their needs to become an even better teacher.
- Know yourself and your strengths and weaknesses. Sun Tzu, in The Art of War says, "Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril. When you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal. If ignorant both of your enemy and of yourself, you are certain in every battle to be in peril" (DeSutter, 1994). Obviously students are not our enemy, but this strategy strengthens the two points just given. First know your students and secondly know yourself. As a teacher, it's important to recognize and be able to admit what makes you a great teacher, and what areas still need work. If I through my continuing education learn to think better, work better and teach better then I believe that I am getting an even better sense of self. Probably the greatest benefit of knowing self is developing an even better confidence to do the best you can as is pointed out by Sun Tzu. One thing, I have learned so far from my courses, is that I didn't know as much as I thought I did!
- Plan, plan, plan, and don't forget to plan! Probably the greatest tool that I never have used effectively is the lesson plan book. After I did a project in the other class I mentioned, I realized that I am a great planner, if I really do take the time to thoroughly plan. Instead of looking at lesson planning and differentiating instruction and proper assessing of students as a chore, rather consider yourself to be a choreographer of lesson planning (Bird, 2007). Perhaps one of the most interesting concepts I read about in this course was the idea of "lesson study". Lesson study is where teachers collaboratively plan, observe and analyze each others lesson plans (Lewis, Perry, Hurd, & O'Connell, 2006). It would interest me someday to work in a collaborative teaching setting in which we as teachers could assess and evaluate one another's lessons or lesson plans. While we did this in college in speaking, education and preaching classes, it would be practical and beneficial, at least to me to have my peers evaluate my lessons. Lesson study could in my opinion lead to great planning and great teaching.
So What Now?
As you can see, hopefully I have learned some good lessons from the class and from life. The goal now will be to translate the head knowledge into heart knowledge so that it can become hand knowledge. Larry Richards and Gary Bredfeldt said it wonderfully in their book Creative Bible Teaching (1998), "The old adage that we 'learn by doing' is true. Somehow, when we begin to live out what we have learned, we are interested in learning more. The heart is like a sponge. Fill it with knowledge of the Word that remains unapplied, and it becomes stagnant. But use the knowledge and the heart becomes ready to soak in more. Application has a way of motivating learning". May this be true for me, my fellow students and for you Dr. H.
References
Bredfeldt, G. and Richards, L. (1998) Creative Bible Teaching, Chicago, IL, Moody Publishing
California Department of Education (2008), Private Schools Frequently Asked Questions, Retrieved August 19, 2008, from http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/ps/cd/psfaq.asp#psfaqs24
Campus Crusade for Christ (1968), The Four Spiritual Laws English, Retrieved August 19, 2008 from http://www.campuscrusade.com/fourlawseng.htm
Child Evangelism Fellowship (2008) History of CEF, Retrieved August 19, 2008 from http://www.cefonline.com/content/category/8/31/75/
DeSutter, P. A. (1994) Sun Tzu, Clausewitz, and the Importance of Knowing Yourself and the Enemy, Retrieved August 19, 2008, from http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA440962
Humorism. (2008). In Wikipedia the free encyclopedia. Retrieved August 19, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humorism
Slavin, R. E. (2006), Educational Psychology Theory and Practice, Boston, MA, Pearson
Stahl, S. A. (2002). Different strokes for different folks? Taking sides: Clashing on controversial issues in educational psychology (pp. 98-107). Guilford, CT, USA: McGraw-Hill.
Western Association of Schools and Colleges (2008), Some of Our Most Frequently Asked Questions, Retrieved August 19, 2008, from http://www.acswasc.org/faq.htm
Willis, J. (2007). Preserve the Child in Every Learner. Kappa Delta Pi Record, 44(1-Fall 2007), 33-37. Retrieved July 2008 from, http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=27172850&site=ehost-live,
No comments:
Post a Comment