Educational Beliefs and Practices Reflection

Here I explain my beliefs about the direction in which I want to steer education, how I plan to measure said learning, and the opportunities I plan to give students in order for learning to occur.

Each person’s capacity to think critically is what sets humans apart from every other species on the planet. We can ruminate about the way things are, the way they should be, the way we want them to be, and how to get where we want to be. We can assess the state of the world and discuss with each other how to meaningfully impact change that would make the world better. Without education, this way of being would not be possible. Teaching is important to me because I believe it’s important for every human being to be able to get in touch with their unique and personal values and connect that with information about the world in order to bring about a new way of thinking that may not have existed before. This is why we study history; to study the people who, for better or worse, used their agency to change the world in the way they thought it needed to be changed. We study language and literature to connect with the human experience and to learn how to communicate what we feel in our hearts and what we know in our brains. We study math to quantify and understand the universe and learn how to measure it. We study science to understand the processes of earth so that we may live in harmony with it, rather than against it. All of these things are so important to understanding what it means to be alive with billions of other humans. An education transforms people’s lives, and allows them to think for themselves and become the person they were ultimately destined to be.

I believe the purpose of professional educators at the secondary level is to provide students with opportunities where they can acquire knowledge through self-directed learning experiences that eventually inform broader, more abstract concepts that shape their character, their values, and their perception of the world. According to research conducted by Mary Helen Immordino-Yang (and others) at the USC Rossier School of Education and the Center for Affective Neuroscience, Development, Learning, and Education, researchers have found that “adolescents’ proclivity to engage with such thinking [transcendent and abstract] predicts key, large-scale brain networks’ increasing interconnectivity over time and that this neural development is, in turn, associated with personal and social well-being in young adulthood” (Immordino-Yang et. al). When adolescents can connect the concrete skills educators are trying to teach them in school that are necessary to understand and interact with abstract concepts, they are more willing to learn the concrete skills, thus making them more applicable and practical. Immordino-Yang describes this as “the internalization of interactions with the world and the construction of skills for acting in the world.” In fact, researchers, using an open-ended interview approach with the participants, were able to “capture developmentally characteristic ways of thinking” among a diverse group of 14-18 year olds, and found that “every participant produced transcendent construals during the interview, and therefore was capable of transcendent thinking” (Immordino-Yang et. al). Research shows us that students are capable of thinking about broader systems and ideas, and that they use these ideas to inform the actions they take. Why does transcendent thinking matter? It is because increased levels of this specific kind of brain activity lead to adolescents generating “culturally relevant meaning of their social world, and to build identity” along with “improved academic performance and persistence in school, increased sense of life purpose, and improved biological markers of health” (Immordino-Yang et. al). When students choose what they work on and what they research, they are more likely to voluntarily and happily acquire real-world skills if that helps them to better understand the themes influencing their lives. If the purpose of a liberal arts education is to create civic-minded and critically thinking citizens, then we must promote this style of teaching that brings about transcendent thinking and creates spaces for self-directed learning. As professional educators, it is imperative that we present students with situations where they must think about what they think, and why they think what they think, and how to interact with reality in order to better understand the issues that we face in society. We are crossing paths with these students at a time where their brains are developing “the disposition to build complex, values-based inferences about the personal, social and ethical implications of the situations we encounter, and to become curious about the reasoning behind complex societal systems” (Immordino-Yang et al.). As a society, one of the main goals of secondary education is to create a safe space for children to learn how to become adults and to participate meaningfully and productively in society. By creating these situations for them to learn, we are allowing for ”the iterative, recursive process of bringing together perceptual and motoric representations in the brain [that] forms a major component of learning and memory, as well as a basic mechanism for social interaction and learning (Immordino-Yang).

A learning outcome I want to foster in my students is critical thinking. In a world where access to information is mainly found through social media and media news organizations, critical thinking is needed now more than ever. Being able to parse through biased information paraded as fact is one of the key principles that allows a person to think freely and make their own ideas about the world, rather than regurgitate widely held opinions that are usually based on information that likely doesn’t come from a credible source, and is only disseminated to push forward an agenda. I want them to be skeptical, to uncover the truth through digging deeper which leads them to an empirical understanding of dense concepts. I want them to be open-minded, to understand that there are more perspectives that exist outside of their own and that those perspectives should be embraced rather than shot down or labeled. I want them to question everything, to realize that it’s not possible to know everything yet we embark on a quest for knowledge and wisdom anyway. I want them to notice the problems in their lives and in the world and be able to creatively solve those problems; to be able to think about ways in which something could be done differently that would benefit their communities or society at large.

One of the instructional strategies I will use is the Socratic method. This process has been used since the beginning of Western thought, and is known for its ability to induce critical thinking using discussion and open-ended questions based on texts that are thought-provoking. By using this method, I expect that students will participate in the discussion by sharing their ideas they prepared for the discussion, and talk meaningfully amongst themselves about their perspectives. Participating can also be listening, absorbing information, and reflecting on what was gleaned from the discussion afterwards. Through hearing other’s perspectives and interpretations of the text, students can see how every person’s experience causes them to have a different reading and influences the details they notice and what themes they take away from what they read. There is a chance for students’ ideas to be challenged, therefore strengthening them or changing their mind entirely. The second instructional strategy I will use is inquiry-based learning. I like this method because it begins by sparking curiosity in students. Once that initial investment is created, students are much more likely to engage themselves in the learning process rather than having to be forced to do so. This would be a great strategy for my classroom because it’s how I live my life. I am constantly seeking out information in an attempt to answer questions that I have about the nature of reality and about abstract concepts that perplex me. I would be able to model the enthusiasm and curiosity needed to propel this process forward. This type of self-directed learning and discussion creates the best learning experience because an appreciation is created not just for acquiring knowledge, but for the process of learning itself. Life is rife with questions, and the answers generally lead to a better world and experience.

The first assessment tool I would use to measure student mastery would be daily journal entries to track what the students are thinking about and where their interests are carrying them. By giving them time each day to reflect on what’s going on in their brains or in their lives, I will be able to see how best to guide them in their endeavors and nudge them along in ways that will be meaningful and productive for them. Writing expressively and journaling as a daily practice is not only good for the kids’ mental health, but it also allows me to see as their teacher what matters to them and how that manifests in their lives. By being able to see what they care about and what happens to them day to day, I can get to know who they are as an individual and help show them the many paths they could take that would be best suited for their interests. This measures mastery because this assessment tool essentially creates a log that captures the developmental shifts the students go through as they dive deeper into their interests and follow their calling. The second assessment tool I would use to measure student mastery would be a culminating research-based project of the student’s choosing. How they complete it and the subject matter is entirely up to them and should be based on their interests, in an attempt to propel them on a quest for knowledge and understanding about a subject. By allowing them to follow their curiosity and creativity, they are creating their own drive and generating engagement themselves. This generative drive will cause them to inevitably learn concrete skills and facts about reality that will inform conceptions that are meaningful to them and show them the ways that humans make meaning out of reality in order to live fulfilled lives. This measures mastery because this assessment tool is mutually beneficial; the students are given time to be interested in something and do something about it, whether that be finding solutions to a problem they see, or to simply become more knowledgable or skilled in a certain area, and I as a teacher get to see how they have grown over time not just as students, but as people who are interested in the world around them and are interested in making it better.

Without investment from stakeholders and the general community, education suffers. Investment in the next generation is the only way society will continue to thrive as older generations die out. When relationships are not created with stakeholders, ultimately the students and following generations don’t get the investment from the community they deserve. As a teacher, it’s incumbent upon me to facilitate this symbiotic relationship among students and their community so that students are given the opportunities and investment they deserve in order to get the most out of their education. One of the strategies I plan to implement is to have a newsletter, contact information, and up-to-date website that parents and others in the community can access at any time if they have questions, concerns, or curiosity regarding what goes on in the classroom. Transparency is important when it comes to being a teacher because the status of education impacts everyone, regardless if they are going through the school system or if they already have. When a teacher is transparent, it indicates an individual who believes in what they are doing and does something with a purpose they believe to be meaningful. Another strategy I will use is to have consistent meetings with students and parents to inform them of not just their student’s academic progress, but their ultimate goals about what they want to do in life and who they want to be. When stakeholders and students are in communication with the teacher, this creates a system that serves the students, which eventually serves the community, which will help the world become a thriving society where humans are able to coexist in a meaningful way that ensures the success not just in a career, but in living a fulfilling life. Works Cited

Works Cited

Gotlieb, R. J., Yang, X.-F., & Immordino-Yang, M. (n.d.). Diverse Adolescents' Transcendent Thinking Predicts Young Adult Psychosocial Outcomes via Brain Network Development.

Gray, P. (2017, April 26). Self-Directed Education--Unschooling and Democratic Schooling. Retrieved from Substack: https://cdn2.psychologytoday.com/assets/self-directed_ed.-published.pdf

Immordino-Yang, M. H. (n.d.). The Smoke Around Mirror Neurons: Goals as Sociocultural and Emotional Organizers of Perception and Action in Learning. Mind, Brain, and Education.