REFLECTION EDU
5011 Barb
Flathers
Chronologically speaking- here’s what I learned throughout
this class EDU 5011, Educational Studies taught by Jacqui Gale & Doug
Boardman.
Follow the guiding question and 3 themes we studied-
Background and personal experience, School policy & law & Learning
environment. Self-study helped me understand how my past will help me become a
great teacher in the future. For School policy, we examined and presented a UDL
lesson from our group. For Law, our group studied Charter Schools. And for the
Learning Environment, I focused on analyzing a learning environment.
Schools have always been focused around general themes
through the past 100 years. Themes such as- Assimilation, Adjustment, Access & Achievement.
- Assimilation was the national focus 1900-1920, when immigrants were “Americanized”
- Adjustment period of 1920-1954 was when Piaget, Mann & Dewey were into “kid-focus”
- Access 1954-1983- was the era of Personal rights, Civil rights and special needs.
- Achievement- 1983-present is focused politically, and on Standardized testing & The Common Core.
The timeline of public education is full of repetitions. The tests might have different names, but they all come back to the same themes. And then there are the 3 R's: Rigor,
Relevance & Relationships.
One of the books we used for the class, Educational Foundations had many good reads in it. Each chapter was written by a different author & had relevance to our course. There were many great quotes that I enjoyed. Here are some of my favorites:
“Education is suffering from
narration sickness”.
Pg. 107 “
In this (banking) view, the person is not a conscious being; he or she is
rather the possessor of “a” consciousness; an empty “mind” passively open to
the reception of deposits of reality from the world outside”.
Pg. 119 “The path to simplicity is
littered with complexities”.
Pg. 126 “Student’s
standardized test scores provide little guidance for teachers and are among the
most useless (and harmful) pieces of data, in terms of helping teachers and
future teachers, to say nothing of useless in helping students actually be
successful”.
“How
schools undermine family support systems undercut children’s faith in their
parents as educators… erode parents’ willingness to assume their
responsibilities as their children’s most important educators”.
Here are some other ideas that I have walked away with:
- View schools as economic, cultural and social sites that are inextricably tied to the issues of power and control. Schools are places that represent forms of knowledge, language practices, particular social relations and values. Struggle over what forms of authority, forms of moral regulation, types of knowledge, versions of the past and future should be passed to students.
- Make the Pedagogical more Political. Move schools into the political sphere. Help students develop a deep and abiding faith in the struggle to overcome economic, political and social injustices and to further humanize themselves. Give students an active voice in their learning.
- · Schools are not neutral sites; Teachers cannot assume the posture of being neutral either.
One of our assignments was designed for small group work. Our group focused on Charter Schools. Charter school
movement is considered to be dynamic and strong with many successes as well as
ongoing challenges regarding- facility problems, re-regulation, state and local
resistance, and inadequate funding. Charter school concept is sound. It
encourages innovation and creativity without bureaucratic barriers in exchange
for measurable and positive student learning outcomes. Currently there are no
Charter Schools in Vermont.
One class, we broke into groups by focus area and discussed and posted what the issues in our field will be. The few of us are not focusing in Special Ed or Classroom teaching discussed issues in our field of Higher Ed. We discussed what the past, present & future of education look like: in the past- education was offered only to men. In the present, it is all about testing, testing, testing. In the future, we anticipate learning will be uploaded via some tiny microchip into each student’s brain. Other issues we discussed were- keeping up with current research, getting published, working with the community- town/gown collaboration, grant writing, advising students- First year of college and transitioning from High School to College.
Our next small group project was on UDL (Universal Design for Learning). UDL is the next buzzword in public education. It follows UBD (Understanding by Design) & DI (Differentiated Instruction). UDL has 3 Principles with 3 guidelines each. Many websites exist to assist with keeping all of this readily available for teachers. UDL is used in conjunction with the VT Standards and Common Core to create lesson plans. This assignment was hard for me, as letting go of control is not something I am used to doing, and settling on an answer that everyone in our group agreed on was not easy. Our group worked through a difficult time assimilating, planning and organizing to come out with a pretty amazing finished project. I also enjoyed the presentation night of class, when all of the groups displayed their completed assignments to the class.
For Analyzing the Learning Environment, we each needed to
find an article to bring to class. We did an article swap with them. I found
the work of Patricia Carini and shared a portion of her book. It was a chapter entitled
“Descriptive Review of a Space” by Patricia F. Carini (April 1994)
In the article, Carini details the presentation of the space according to headings:
·Physical
presence of the space
·Tenor
and ambience of the space
·Connections
and social life of the space
·Preferences,
values, and standards embodied in the space
·Modes
of learning and thinking fostered by the space
She summarizes major strengths and
vulnerabilities of the space - Questions, comments, dialogue - Drawing out
implications and connections - Summary and evaluation of the process.
I found this to be the most informative resource of the entire
semester! Carini helped me to understand that there is so much rich detail to
be looked at- and that every inch of space (and school and child) can be viewed
following this same process. Sort of a microscopic view of the world. With it, I was able to look at the classroom I
observed in a much greater detail that I could ever have before. I gained
insight and knowledge about viewing each part of the process in slow, careful
detail.
My final assignment for the class was the “Analyzing the
Learning Environment” paper. It is also used for licensure Entry #1 for many
students. I worked diligently for many weeks, days & hours on the final
piece. I feel that it was a fairly accurate accounting of the teacher and the
classroom I observed.
This course changed the way I view public education. The areas I found most intrigue with were Vermont Laws and through the analyzing of the learning environment, Descriptive Reviews. I realize now that the education system we current follow is in need of much care, focus and major overhaul. Students are not learning. There is discrimination still occurring between different areas and poverty levels. It all boils down to giving teachers better abilities to take to their new classrooms, good salaries so they want to stay and the respect they deserve without having to teach to the tests.
