Educational Creed
The Educational Creed was an assignment within the Schools and Society course of the IES program. I was enrolled in this class during the first semester of my sophomore year which was only my second semester as an IES major, thus being very early in my educational studies career. This course was unique during this semester considering it was housed on site at an afterschool program, and we spent the second half of our scheduled class actively involved with students during their activities. Overall, the Schools in Society course was intended to familiarize students with what it means to be a high functioning school, educator and identify the goals of education and learning as it relates to our careers. The Educational Creed itself was meant to serve as a manifesto of how each students views the different aspects of schooling (education, school, curriculum, teaching, and socialization) and how it would carry into a career as an educator.
The major factors that characterize a learner and scholar are summarized as being dedicated to lifelong learning and possessing the ability to apply different forms of knowledge. My Educational Creed has laid a strong foundation for which my undergraduate career was based upon. It allowed me to outline what I stand for as it relates to education, school, curriculum, teaching and socialization which has guided my conduct within my internships and jobs which involved applying different forms of knowledge. The way I describe the following terms (education, learning, school, subject matter, and school as a social process) was decided through my critical understanding of class reading, real-world observations and personal perspectives demonstrating how various forms of learning are important for understanding.
These ideals define who I am as an educator and have shaped the opportunities I pursue, my role in the spaces I occupy, and my career aspirations. I have grown in how I have applied these values to my real-world experiences of tutoring, instructing, assistant teaching and more. Thus as a learner and scholar my application of this knowledge within my professional settings and career has demonstrated evidence based decision making. This assignment and course has supported in my understanding of evidence based decision making as demonstrated through my personal definitions for each term (education, learning, school, subject matter, and school as a social process) which were developed through my real experiences in educational settings.
IES 405 Literature Review
This literature review assignment is the main focus of the IES 405 capstone class and serves as an introduction to education related research. The capstone courses are designed to equip students with research knowledge that will be useful for career and life opportunities. For my project, I am focusing on the importance and relevance of college readiness curriculum for middle and high school students and how such curriculum can increase knowledge, interests, and readiness for college. This study topic was selected based on personal and professional experience, but this literature review demonstrated the strong need for readiness curriculum especially for prospective first-generation students. Through a series of searches on various scholarly engines such as Google Scholar and ERIC, I identified 15 articles all addressing the gap in college access and preparedness for students and possible intervention solutions.
This assignment is a true testament of being a learner and scholar considering research is a process of learning, knowing and doing. A literature review is significant in the research process because before any significant work can be done, researchers and scholars need to familiarize themselves with past and current success, failures, and questions related to the topic. The process of a literature review, and research in general, requires creative and scholarly methods of discovery, analysis, and interventions. Search results structure to address the research topic and analysis is applied to a study used to address barriers and gaps in current systems. This literature review demonstrates my ability to understand methods of synthesis and apply different forms of knowledge to a topic and this is shown through the use of previous research to inform this current project. The project itself takes into account the importance of learning and advocates for more opportunities within K-12 education. This assignment exhibits my personal growth as a scholar through the various research tools acquired throughout this process and shows how the skill of learning can be used to benefit classroom spaces in my future endeavors. Through this assignment and others like it, I have developed an appreciation for the research process and it’s benefit on understanding the world through a critical yet constructive lens. This experience in research shows my dedication to lifelong learning considering research is a process of learning and doing, and my ability to make decisions using evidence such as previously discovered data.