Experiences_in_Education

Running Head: MY EXPERIENCES AND PHILOSOPHIES DEALING WITH EDUCATION My Experiences and Philosophies Dealing With Education Hannah Nevitt Educational Psychology [ 10/5/2010 ] SUNY Old Westbury Running Head: MY EXPERIENCES AND PHILOSOPHIES DEALING WITH EDUCATION 1 My opinions about learning and teaching stem from my own experiences as a student. I have always had a love of learning, but have not exactly felt the same way about school, in part because I was bored with the classes and material. My teaching methods and views of learning reflect the idea I have of how I would have liked my teachers to teach. In first grade, I had to learn self-control because classes were longer. I did eventually learn that I could and soon settled down into school. The quality of education that first year wasn’t bad, I learned a lot and grew a lot during that year. I had great teachers too, who really gave me the help I needed. Second grade at that school was a different story though, I had a different teacher, who wasn’t very good, and seldom offered the help I needed. I was also treated like I was lower than the rest of the students. I don’t know what her problem with me was, but it set me back a great deal, both academically and emotionally. When I needed help, it wasn’t given and I was often ignored. She felt that it wasn’t worth it to help those students who needed it. Fortunately, my parents saw this and intervened, first trying to negotiate, then after that broke down, transferred me to another elementary school. Looking back, I don’t think this was necessary. There are many methods of learning and this teacher was very set on employing direct learning, which is the most basic and most frequently practiced type of learning. This is where a teacher observes a student performing a skill in order to gauge how well they have learned it (Schunk 2008). This method does not work for every student, but when dealing with children, it is difficult to get a sense of their most comfortable learning environment and skill level. After twelve years of school, it took me until now to figure out exactly why I had been there all those years. It was not to torture me by making me learn how to spell but to make sure that my classmates and I got the opportunity to make the most of ourselves. Opportunity that would come from learning as much as possible from books and beginning to see that the world focuses on more than just history and English . I owe my success in life and school to teachers who taught me to spell and to be respectful and responsible. Those quick to argue with me say that school's usefulness is shallow: deeper real-life experiences truly educate a person. School should be seen not only as a place to study, but also as a place to learn about real life. In a study I read about experiential learning, educators used a Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) approach to teaching to teach students about differences and inequalities (Bozalek 2010) I think this is a great idea that can be applied in every aspect of life. People cannot depend on experience alone for education just as they cannot solely rely on information from school books to prepare them for life. The lessons, whether from a book or not, learned in school transcend the classroom to real life situations. School, in essence, functions as a ladder to the future. The farther up the ladder a person goes, the more prepared for real life he will find himself. Respect is one of the keys to getting up the ladder and succeeding in many aspects of life. I grew up respecting my elders: whether it was my grandparents or the librarian, I have always had respect. The regard I have developed for teachers has come from knowing that I will need their help to make it through school and I can only get it by being respectful and polite. To help students up the ladder, school indirectly teaches its students about respect. Although not found on the pages of any text book, learning lessons in respect can be very Running Head: MY EXPERIENCES AND PHILOSOPHIES DEALING WITH EDUCATION 2 helpful. The idea of respect starts with teachers and often branches to the development of peer and self respect. Everyone has experienced a teacher that they couldn't stand and dreaded going to that class. It was times like that which challenged the respect that had begun to develop. In eighth grade, my English teacher was one of the meanest people I have ever met. I got a 0 on a quiz because I spelled one word wrong (it was not a spelling quiz). I hated going to her class and half the time, I just wanted to scream at her. I worked twice as hard in spite of all this and if I had swallowed my pride and anger, I probably could have learned even more. Learning to put feelings aside and appreciate the teacher as an educator is much more important than having fun in every class. Giving that teacher a little extra regard could help the outcome your class experience. I never questioned the notion that my teachers would be given the highest amount of respect. But as I got older, I began to carry that respect outside school. The fact that I developed a certain amount of regard for those around me has made it easier for me to deal with authority. I always dreaded going into my boss' office to talk to him. But then I realized that an instance like that paralleled the oral presentations in school that I used to hate giving. I could not stand talking in front of the class, but the more presentations I gave, the easier I found it. The more I went to see my boss, the easier it became and now I enjoy talking to him. I just had to respect his position and understand that he (or my teacher) was not trying to make me feel uncomfortable. Learning to respect my peers and realize that I could not always be the best at everything carried outside school as well. When I played sports, I wanted to be the one winning every race and I could not accept defeat. But seeing the ability in others and respecting it made losing easier to handle. My understanding of and desire for responsibility grew as I went from elementary to middle to high school. When I went to middle school, it was my responsibility to catch the bus and remember to do all my work. Moving to high school, the responsibilities grew as did my capacity for knowledge. Not until my sophomore year in high school did I realized what I did for the next three years had the capability to affect everything I did after high school. The task of making responsible judgements about everything was left up to me. I was lucky to have teachers that trusted me and gave encouragement to make my classmates and I eager to earn more responsibility. By the time I graduated from high school, I wanted responsibility. It meant that someone had confidence in my abilities and that I had proven myself capable. When a person sees all his co-workers getting raises and more responsibility, he wants that and works harder to achieve it. Lack of responsibility makes it hard to keep jobs or make it in the outside world. I work as a secretary and when we hired a woman as another secretary, she could not handle responsibility. Not one felt comfortable giving her a job because they would just have to do it over themselves. Because she could not handle responsibility, she was fired. If people cannot trust you with responsibility, hoping for promotion at work and acquiring respect among peers becomes very difficult. Running Head: MY EXPERIENCES AND PHILOSOPHIES DEALING WITH EDUCATION 3 Having people be confident in your abilities is key to succeeding. It is true that a person is responsible for their own actions, but with someone (like a teacher) to encourage them, the likelihood that they will look for more responsibility inside of school and out increases. I owe my teachers a lot for getting me where I am today by helping me learn responsibility and respect. While I think school presents a very good way to prepare children about life, some people think that outside experience is more valuable than anything that can be found in school. A child can be taught how to act by reading examples in books and listening to a teacher, but it may not be until an actual situation presents itself that she discovers the proper way to act. Social-cognitive research has mostly focused on modeling examples, which provide students the opportunity to observe an adult or a peer model performing the task (van Gog 2010). A teacher can tell a student to respect authority figures, but it may not be until the man goes to work and has to deal with a boss that he learn exactly how to deal with authority. Regardless how many public speaking classes a person takes, he may still get nervous and not be prepared when it comes time to give that important speech to the president of his company. I will admit that nothing I studied in school prepared me in the least for the terror I felt in my first interview and no teacher ever taught me how to deal with the emptiness I felt my first night at college. I also think that the lessons learned in everyday life are, in some cases, more useful and more likely to be remembered than how to take the square root of a number. The key comes in realizing the importance of taking the things learned in school and applying them to real life. I think it is the goal of teachers and schools to prepare students with factual information in conjunction with real-life information (like handling responsibility, dealing with and gaining respect for authority) to help make it possible to make the most of oneself. School has helped me understand some of the tribulations life forces us to endure; when I fail a test that I studied eight hours for, it parallels me trying my hardest in an interview and then not getting the job. I am not saying that school alone can prepare anyone for life, but neither am I saying that experience alone can suffice. I would not be in college hoping to one day be a doctor if I had not studied hard in school and listened to the advice, criticism and praise of my teachers along the way. School can sometimes be boring, I cannot argue with that, but it is key to developing not only book smarts, but also social skills. Confidence and learning how to gain and keep responsibility pave the road to success in the world outside school. Not appreciating the lessons learned in school is like rowing a boat with one oar just like trying to get through life with only the information found in school books leaves the rower an oar short. To prevent drowning in the waves of ignorance and knowledge, a person must have both experience and knowledge. By applying lessons learned in school to real life and vice versa, a person is more likely to work to his potential and succeed in life.