The game I have chosen to play is “Prisoner in My Homeland” from Mission US: A Public Media Project. Upon selecting the game, I was told that it would take about an hour and a half to two hours to complete. In selecting this game, I was given background that it was 1941 and that my character was 16 year old Henry Tanaka. As I began to play the game, I found there was a great dependence on exposing the player to the background knowledge. It begins with a prologue in the present day and allows the player to travel back in time to meet Henry and to know his story. As I began to play I also saw that it allowed for the player to choose the dialogues that took place between characters, player autonomy can be seen as a very important element in engagement. This concept aligns with Gee’s element of co-design as I was able to learn and manipulate the game by selecting my own. Players are able to ‘tell their own story’ and ‘choose their own path’ for Henry which can diversify player experience with the game. As I continue to develop in Henry’s story, I am intrigued to learn more about Henry and his World War II experiences. 

(Screenshot as I (Taylor Loiacono) play “Prisoner in My Homeland” from Mission US: A Public Media Project on 9/15/22)

A great feature about this game is that it also provides underlined words that players might not know and if clicked on, is provided with a definition. 

(Screenshot as I (Taylor Loiacono) play “Prisoner in My Homeland” from Mission US: A Public Media Project on 9/15/22)

(Screenshot as I (Taylor Loiacono) play “Prisoner in My Homeland” from Mission US: A Public Media Project on 9/15/22)

I quickly found that this game is multisensory as it challenges students to complete things visually but also allows them to hear all things said audibly. This is a very important element for a game like this to entail because it makes it more appealing and accessible to different skill sets of players and how they retain information best. 

Personal Information

• My name is Taylor!
• I am from Rochester, New York.
• This semester I am starting Pre-Student teaching and I am very excited about that as I will be at St. Dominics working in a third grade classroom. Currently on campus I am the Vice President of the Self Care Club and I am also involved in Campus Ministry. Over the summer I did an internship with the principal at a local high school back home in Rochester. In my spare time I like to spend time with my friends and family, scrapbook and volunteer.  

Learning Style and more:

In order to feel comfortable taking intellectual and creative risks in the classroom, I have found that it is reliant on the culture and environment that surrounds me. If I am in a group of open minded people who are supportive of each other, I feel that I am more likely to open up and take a risk myself in sharing those ideas. I find that as a learner I also have a great dependence on guidelines and rubrics as they ultimately determine your grade. If those are written and presented in a way in which they are explicit while allowing myself and fellow students to take control and have the freedom over their word, that is beneficial to promote risk taking.

What have I been reading?

There are so many different areas of education that matter to me and that I want to incorporate into my classroom. There are also areas of education that matter to me that I want to help change. While this does not directly pertain to my interest/concern as a preservice teacher, it is one that I have been thinking a lot about throughout my field placements thus far. One particular area of education that continues to pique my interest is systemic change. While this has been a looming problem for years, I found that it gives tremendous insights into strategies that if maintained and invested in, can be put into place to help the problem so that we as young educators can be a part of this meaningful change. 

http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/publications/systemic%20change%20for%20school%20improvement.pdf 

Adelman, H. S., & Taylor, L. (2007). Systemic change for school improvement. Journal of Educational & Psychological Consultation, 17(1), 55–77. https://doi.org/10.1207/s1532768Xjepc1701_3

Question for Dr. Shutkin:

Did you always aspire to be working with the college student population? If so, what do you like about teaching this population? If not, what was the journey that brought you here?

In reading the work “Urban School Reform, Family Support and Student Achievement”, my eyes have truly been opened to the level of indifference that urban students and schools face. Growing up I would occasionally go to urban schools in my area for a basketball game or two knowing that it was a school that was struggling but I did not fully know and understand the extent of their struggling until reading statistics and insights that Greene and Anyon provide. One of the main things that stuck out to me in reading this article is that while the authors work to clearly convey what the issue at hand is through data and statistics, they also were able to demonstrate one solution to the problem that is already in place and impacting the lives within the urban population. Bringing to the light that there are people who are stepping up to help this population, there is still a long way to go to ensure that today’s students are being adequately educated. A population made up of different socioeconomic backgrounds has been around since the beginning of time and unfortunately in most cases, the population with the lowest socioeconomic background receives the short end of the stick and that continues to be the case in education.

Greene and Anyon begin their work with a powerful line “Teachers and other educational professionals find themselves in schools and districts being bombarded by reforms”. In our presentation, this quote was one that sparked thought and conversation because we must stop and think as to why this bigger picture is all in the hands of teachers and educators. There are so many moving parts that the authors take the time to speak to that occur outside the classroom. In showing what is being done to help these students and families outside of the classroom is inspiring and hopeful and true to the idea that ‘it takes a village to raise a child’. When the time and effort is put in outside the classroom, the benefits are staggering within the classrooms. Greene and Anyon talk about how “there is both explicit and implicit evidence that increased financial resources for families raise the educational achievement of poor children—in literacy as well as in other content areas”. Children are able to succeed when their families are in an increased economic state. After receiving the money and being able to move up the ‘socioeconomic ladder’, these children were doing better academically as well as emotionally as the negative behaviors such as bully and anger outbursts decreased by an astounding 40%. Due to the help of nonprofit organizations such as New Hope, these children are able to increase their level of academic achievement because their families are provided with the resources that they need thanks to the organization. I think that it is important to note the positive relationship that arises from parents having adequate time and money to spend on their children. Statistically speaking, this type of relationship may lead to a higher level of academic achievement and this is an idea that Greene and Anyon found important to highlight as well. 

Statistically speaking, I think that Greene and Anyon thoughtfully placed their statistics towards the beginning of their work. Reading and comprehending these impactful statistics right at the beginning of their work keeps them fresh and flowing in the reader’s mind throughout. In reading “According to an analysis of the 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress, 84% of low-income fourth-grade students in 11 of the nation’s largest urban districts scored at or below the basic level in reading;” as one of the first sentences, it sticks because it is such a high percentage of students that are not adequately scoring and reaching standard achievement levels and causes us as the readert to ask questions. In setting the tone of the article with a statistic like this one is powerful because it reaffirms that there truly is a problem facing urban districts across the United States. In elaborating on the tremendous impact that one’s socioeconomic status has on their educational experiences, it is critical to understand the disadvantages that come along with this status. This type of status has continuously divided groups of people putting some above others in many ways more than one. However, when it comes to educating the youth, it is important to ask the question should one’s education boundaries be predetermined by their socioeconomic status in society? 

Like everything, urban poverty, neighborhoods and schools were shaped by the historic past and are still reaping the consequences from decisions made before their time. Greene and Anyon go onto break down the journey that urban communities took through time and in doing this the reader is able to understand what has truly made these communities the way that they are today. In looking at the bigger picture educationally and economically based on the information provided in the reading, a clear line can be created to connect just how these school districts went under. Business incentives led to the downfall of inner cities as bank loans pushed corporations to the relocation route as opposed to the renovation route leaving these areas bare with no financial incomes or revenues to support the area and it’s educational districts and programs. This unfortunately created a turn of events that these urban areas have still not yet recovered from. The discrepancy in school spending varies tremendously and that was a statistic that truly put things into perspective for me. Greene and Anyon pull statistics from the New York State education system to show the extreme difference and as someone from New York, I was very shocked to say the least. This led to us as a group deciding to input data from the Ohio educational system to open the eyes of many Ohio natives as well as those who are looking to stay in Ohio after college to teach. 

“Financial strength is the engine of systemic school reform” was stated in the conclusion and was one of the main ideas that we were working to convey to our classmates. As each section defined and broke that concept down in it’s own way, we thought it may be insightful to have each group internalize just how much damage has been done to students and their achievement levels as a result of financial weakness. If we as future educators in this society do not truly compartmentalize and address issues such as these, children will continue to be within the confinements of their home school districts.

Works Consulted:

Greene, K. & Jean Anyon (2010) Urban School Reform, Family Support, and Student Achievement, Reading & Writing Quarterly, 26:3, 223-236.

In reading the work of Koretz, “The Testing Charade: Pretending to Make Schools Better”, I was able to gain insight and understanding into the real world of test preparation. There is good and bad test preparation. While Koretz spends time talking about his own personal usage of good test preparation methods, he also emphasizes what bad test preparation looks like and how it corrupts the level of instruction and the students working to score well. “At best, bad test prep wastes precious time. Often it does much more harm, corrupting instruction and producing the fraudulent gains…” (Koretz). 

Koretz initially breaks down what he sees as ‘bad types’ of test preparation and in doing this, he exposes the realities of how teachers and students find success in the corrupted standardized test system. First, Koretz tackles reallocation between subjects, or the idea that teachers will “cut back on things that don’t count and shift resources to the tested subjects… they often cut back on subjects like social studies, art, and music” (Koretz). This adjustment is made so teachers have ‘adequate time’ to ensure their students are being taught the necessary information on subjects that are most commonly tested. When the test grades come back, they are a large factor in the evaluation of the teacher’s effectiveness, so it may be logical as to why teachers take this approach. While it may help teachers in the short term, it will not help students in the long run as they may not fully develop the knowledge required in all subject areas. 

The second bad form of test preparation that Koretz examines is reallocation within subjects. This reallocation allows time to be catered to specific topics within a subject simply because it may be favored on the test. According to James Popham’s article that I was able to connect to Koretz, there is such a large amount of information taught at these grade levels so testing the students on it all would simply be too long, leading to teachers prioritizing the material. This prioritization is based on what teachers know will be on the test and topics that have a strong presence on issued review materials. While again, this does make logical sense, it is taking away from information students should be learning. “It is probably safe to skip five of the eight sections in this chapter without penalty on the test which frees up time for the three sections that hold the paydirt” (Koretz). However, just because it is not on this one specific test, it does not mean that students will have to utilize and demonstrate this knowledge later on in life. If they are not taught about it in the grade intended because of this test preparation strategy, then really the testing system is failing the students. In going on to share a real world application to this problem, he makes it clear that this method is not an effective one as it harms people outside the classroom. Yes, these students and employees may have scored well on the standardized test, but when it came to application of the overall material, they were unable to. 

Lastly, Koretz explains the final type of bad test preparation, coaching. This method focuses on test structure rather than the actual information. Coaching focuses on the “unimportant details” (Koretz) such as the methodology to solving problems rather than the applying the underlying content. By teaching these students testing methods that only help them find success on the test, they therefore did not retain any knowledge. By telling students to strategize by using the process of elimination and plugging in each answer, they aren’t truly learning because “in the real world no one is going to give students answer choices to plug in” (Koretz).

Throughout his work, Koretz is trying to convey one main idea to his readers, and that is that standardized tests and their bad preparation strategies do not help students apply their knowledge outside of the test. In being taught to a test, students are missing out on knowledge that they may need down the road at the expense of a teacher wanting a positive evaluation. This corrupts the idea of good teaching and places the teachers in a difficult position. 

The current connection I made to Koretz’s work regards the equity and education quality. Both “Why Standardized Tests Don’t Measure Educational Quality” by James Popham and Kortez elaborate on how these tests create separation of advantaged students and disadvantaged students. Some teachers and school districts need to provide good test scores to their boards to stay open and operating while others have resources to meet these test scores and do not face this amount of pressure. Test preparation is a game of who can afford the most resources that will set them up and ensure success. 

If the test results of the students are high, then naturally this makes the school and the teacher look good but did the students actually retain the information and learn, grow, and develop? Or did they just do what they had to do in order to achieve success. If the students’ results are low, then it makes the teacher and the school appear as if they are not doing their job solely based on one number.  Both writers state that if prepared for standardized tests can help to evaluate a student but should not be the end all be all because there are so many outside factors that influence this process. Popham presents a comparison that is unique and effective in describing the relationship between standardized tests and what they are measuring, “Measuring temperature with a tablespoon” and this is an idea that Popham, Koretz and many other educators can get behind. Many educators alike have come to see that “educators should be held accountable. The teaching of a nation’s children is too important to be left unmonitored” (Popham).  Standardized tests have led to bad test preparation for students around the globe and it is up to us as the future educators to remove the wrong tools with the right ones to evaluate students effectively so they are learning to their fullest potential.

Ascd. “Why Standardized Tests Don’t Measure Educational Quality.” Why Standardized 

Tests Don’t Measure Educational Quality – Educational Leadership, www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/vol56/num06/Why-Standardized-Tests-Don%27t-Measure-Educational-Quality.aspx.

Koretz, D. (2017). The testing charade: pretending to make schools better. 

Chapter 7, Test Prep. pp. 93-118. Chicago; London: The University of Chicago Press.

In reading Joel Spring’s “Native Americans: Deculturalization, Schooling, Globalization, and Inequality”, I feel that I now have more of a grasp on just how much pain and suffering these Native American people were forced to endure as a result of deculturalization. In providing such detailed background information such as where this notion of deculturalization came from which include superiority, globalization, and imperialism, the reader is able to understand the root of this which is key to being able to comprehend the points that Spring develops throughout. This was one of the concepts that our group wanted to focus on during our learning experience because without having a full understanding of why something is happening, it can be difficult to grapple with the information that follows. Deculturalization is a term that can have a variation of definitions so in the discussion groups we wanted first ask what our peers thought the definition to be, followed with how it was to be defined and understood in the context of the article. In the context of the article, the term deculturalization was best defined as the use of schools to strip away family languages and cultures and replace them with those of the dominant group and replace them with the “superior” religion, culture, language, customs, and overall way of life 

I found Spring’s perspective to be very real and filled with passion. In doing research for one part of the experience, I looked into Joel Spring and his background and found that both his Grandfather and Great Grandfather were directly involved with the Choctaw Nation and that the efforts of deculturalization deeply impacted him personally as it attacked his own life and the lives of the people around him. In sharing his personal experiences throughout, specifically in the introduction when he shares his experience with the local Indian tribes who were making an attempt to restore and salvage their traditions, I believe that the reader is given a sense of reality, that this is all real and that it did happen right here on our own American soil.

By incorporating the two timelines into his article, Spring is creating a more memorable image for his readers to identify and visualize. Our group found the timeline to be very effective as it adequately displayed all of the major legislation and events that shaped the Natives educational rights as well as their citizenship rights so we wanted to share this historical knowledge with our peers as well, hence, incorporating that activity into our learning experience. It is very informative and insightful to gain perspective regarding how recent all of this is in relativity to where we are now, 200 years later. Spring is able to convey the reality that this inequality did not happen long ago and that people such as himself still continue to struggle with the effects of deculturalization today. Seeing the timelines and all of the legislation that was passed that both hurt and helped these people is troubling because it appeared that the nation was unsure of how to handle the issue. Spring talks about Andrew Jackson and the Indian Removal Act, which worked to contain and remove these indigenous people and then goes on to talk about the Indian Peace Commission which provided citizenship but did not necessarily change the treatment they were receiving. 

The belief that education was the key component to social improvement and control led the charge in the educating of the Native American population. Thomas McKenny was able to pass the legislation on this notion and was able to receive funding that established these schools. Spring goes on to talk about the missionaries that were brought over to culturalize and change the lifestyles of the unsuspecting population, the indigenous. To my surprise, despite being an arguable violation to the First Amendment, the government subsidized these missionary educators to civilize the Natives. An insight I was able to make was the level of manipulation that was transpiring, these governments knew that if many of these people were open to some aspects of ‘conversion’ then they simply wanted literacy but they were vulnerable and were taught only the ways that they would turn them against their people and instil in them the values they chose. 

Through removal tactics and civilization programs, the U.S. Government may deem themselves and their mission successful as they were able to incorporate boarding, reservation and manual labor schools into the lives of the Native American children. The goal of these systems was to eliminate the Native beliefs from the minds of these children before they began, and in many cases they were successful. By keeping such a tight rein on tribes and fearlessly doing harm to those who act out, many obliged. 

Spring is able to take his readers on a journey through time, a journey that exposes the injustices that him and his people faced. He is able to do it in a very effective way and is able to provide the reader with a strong understanding of what life was like in this unjust education system in which we live. 

To give additional insights to the injustices that were faced by this population, we thought it would be effective to place a video from another man who unfortunately personally endured this injustice. As a group we divided up the material provided in the article and worked to convey the overarching themes that Spring is working to convey to his audience and how we can perceive them as 21st century learners and future educators. 

Consulted references:

Queens College, City University of New York, 

http://www.qc.cuny.edu/Academics/GlobalEd/OGEI/Pages/Global_Faculty.aspx?FacultyID=Joel%2B%2BSpring

Spring, Joel 2013. Deculturalization and the Struggle for Equality. Chapter 2: Native 

Americans: Deculturalization. Schooling, and Globalization. New York: McGraw Hill.pp. 21-40.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Wnkt50SXMLU3zv6l2xuZWWZ1XBqQV8pzBwRmbKlc-14/edit?ts=5e6d1cff#slide=id.g7168b9a71a_0_26

After reading Sulkowski’s “Unauthorized immigrant students in the United States: The current state of affairs and role in public education” and doing research, I was able to find more information on unauthorized students in America’s education system and the impact that this process has on their overall well being inside and outside the classroom as well as on their academics and the schools in which they are attending.

This article touches on key elements pertaining to this issue that the United States still battles with. By developing his article through a strong use of statistics, Sulkowski has helped me as a reader to discover a vast amount of general and statistical information which I think can often help put it into a more realistic perspective. Additionally by developing his ideas in blocked sections, it allows the reader to focus on the soul purpose of that section and gain a clear understanding of the message that is being portrayed.  In pulling information from a variety of different sources listed throughout the work, the view point in which the article comes from is diverse and offers a variety of insights and opinions from the course of the past few years. By providing background information and terminology as well as in covering deportation practices, pathway to citizenship, school enrollment, relationships and impacts, the reader is very informed going forward and now has a strong foundational knowledge on the topic of the immigration impact of U.S. Education.

Unpacking the work of Michael Sulkowski takes quite a bit of time due to the complexities in which he tackles. Immigration has been a long lasting issue in this country and today more than ever, it is prevalent in the education system. However, due to programs such as FAPE, these children that are not legalized citizens are still entitled to a “free and adequate” (Sulkowski) education and this is something that many Americans do not know about. In large, understanding Sulkowski’s work, the reader must be able to understand the statistics that are presented. Initially for me a hard statistic to grapple with was that 5 million youth are unauthorized in this country. Another statistic I found intriguing was the significant increase in deportations between the Bush and Obama presidency, “between 319,000 and 435,000 individuals were removed each year from 2007 through 2014” (Sulkowski). While data isn’t everything, it is critical to get a grasp on just how much of an impact this population has on our countries function as well as on the education system. 

One significant area of the article I chose to focus on in regards to the article studied in class and in my current connection was what the schools are doing to create a sense of community for this population of students. This was largely mentioned within the reading as Sulkowski talks about the school community as the promise that these students need to get through times of uncertainty. Families in this situation often feel isolated, alone, or even scared to participate in society because of their circumstance. Teachers are not bound by law to report any case of an illegal child in their class or school to the government so it is up to this teacher to mindfully help this family find additional community resources to ensure that his or her student is in a place where they can feel safe. Within my current connection article, “How Schools Are Responding to Migrant Children”, Kavitha Cardoza also speaks to the sense of community that these students need because it is not something that they have had in a long time. “They don’t trust people because they’ve been hurt in the past..It takes a very long time and lots of meetings to gain their trust” (Cardoza). Cardoza goes on to explain ways that schools are providing a sense of community to these students such as hanging different country flags along hallways or stocking the library with different cultural books or Spanish titles. When the students see things such as these, they are able to see their school as a safe place full of people they can trust. 

Additionally, another connection that I was able to make to Sulkowski’s article from Cardoza’s was in regards to the psychological and academic impacts and challenges that these students face. Due to the diverse culmination of experiences that these students have been raised in, they may struggle in both of these realms. Sulkowski raises the point of multi-tier systems of support (MTSS) which have been implemented into about 90% of the states. These support systems help to ensure educational success as well as early intervention in order to help struggling students. As a possible future educator, it is encouraging to see that so many school districts are on board for creating effective programs such as these to help students not only academically but psychologically as well. My article made a connection to this idea of aiding students’ psychological health. While many students from this population are coming in with trauma and damage, Cardoza speaks to something else schools are doing to aid students psychologically and that is providing specialized training to work with children that may have been traumatized or have had to overcome incredible obstacles given their age. Once programs and steps like those previously listed are in tact and psychological challenges are addressed, then students are able to flourish academically because they can cope with their past and focus on their education that lies ahead.

Work Cited:

Cardoza, Kavitha. “How Schools Are Responding to Migrant Children.” Education Week, 18 Nov. 2019, http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2019/04/10/how-schools-are-responding-to-migrant-children.html.

After reading the article, “How School Choice Turns Education Into a Commodity”, I found myself eager to dive into this article and find an effective way to teach the class about a topic as controversial and upcoming as this. There was a great deal of new terminology and information for us to understand before proceeding to create an influential learning experience for our classmates so in having the group discussion with Dr. Shutkin, my group members and I were aided in processing information that raised a number of difficult and troubling questions about the education system that we today are apart of as students and may be apart of in the future as teachers. 

In reading and analyzing this article, I personally was exposed to a whole new concept and debate in education that I had not heard about before. The writer of the article, Blakely was able to support his argument but it is a difficult argument to agree with completely without more sources and background information on the issue. Throughout his article, Blakely presses the ideas of individual liberties, freedoms, and educational competition, or the idea of winners and losers in education. As a potential teacher, this is an idea that I struggle to accept, I believe that every child should be entitled to a quality education and there should be no losers simply because of financial constraints. I found this article to raise very profound points that made me as a reader stop and truly ponder upon the education system that we have incorporated into our society today and to think about the values we are instilling into the minds of these students by implementing programs such as these. This article additionally raised an interesting theory that “there is no such thing as a society” but only “individual men and women” and this is a troubling thought for me to grasp. I feel that throughout our entire lives we are taught that we are apart of something bigger than ourselves, a society and the idea of that no existing is something I am not sure I can get behind. 

Neoliberalism was a new concept to me and it was one that I found to be very interesting. The definition of this belief system is an elaborate one, but in order to truly understand the goals of the system and the goal the article is working to get across to the readers, it was necessary to break it down and define each part. Because of these complexities, we chose to highlight on defining this term through different learning styles such as the video, context, and creating a collaborative group definition. As a class, we thought it was necessary to all have a clear idea of what neoliberalism is as well as the beliefs so that the class could understand the system they are trying to implement into the current education system, which is working to eliminate the public school system and to create a competitive climate among private or other educational institutions. Since the public school elimination was at the forefront of this article, we additionally chose to present both sides of the argument as to whether public schools benefit or not benefit society. In presenting both sides, we were working to allow our audience to form their own informed opinion on the matter by providing a variety of credible sources.

In regards to the design of the learning experience, as a group we ran through a long list of possible options and as a group, we decided to construct the experience by starting out with a poll in order to collect educational background and information about the audience we would be talking to, followed by a video that defined the overarching theme of the article we analyzed as well as our learning experience. To increase the level of student interaction, we decided to follow the video with group discussion about the video and key terms it worked to define to ensure understanding of the content. We then decided it would be effective to do a somewhat interactive lecture, by using the powerpoint we were able to convey key and important information verbally as well as visually. 

While naturally our learning experience was a team effort, among the three of us, we divided up the slides and research that would need to be done to ensure that all the key areas and information was covered. With that said, the part that I took on personally I took on the keep or eliminate public school slides and debate. The novel Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol had been a novel that I read last semester in my Social Justice and Leadership class so I volunteered to take that on as it paralleled the lesson. Within the notes that I had previously taken I was able to find key evidence to support the debate as well as being able to talk about the context of the book and how it related to the context of the article. To support the other side of the argument, I did additional research and brainstorming to find ideas that backed this argument. Additionally, I was able to create some of the questions that were presented to the class on our poll and some of the alternative points we presented within our description of neoliberalism. 

As a result of this learning experience and analysis of this article, I found myself to be very intrigued on the topic and will now be on the lookout for progress or changes in this realm of education. 

References: 

Blakely, Jason. “How School Choice Turns Education Into a Commodity.” The Atlantic, Atlantic 

Media Company, 17 Apr. 2017, http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/04/is-school-choice-really-a-form-of-freedom/523089/.

Dodge, Sophie. “Neoliberalism & Education.” YouTube, YouTube, 4 Dec. 2016, 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElSzGs1Y9Rk.

Kozol, Jonathan. Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools. Broadway Paperbacks, 

2012.

“Public Schools in the United States: Some History.” Race Forward, 31 Oct. 2013, 

http://www.raceforward.org/research/reports/public-schools-united-states-some-history-0.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1fYApev4_EL-evPGYUA2YQa_slnlv4nnlwuFCv2w_8PY/edit

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1OMvYK-q6a-cXw_97Oydcnp7ChMPDgwQUBva1JsYE2pQ/edit?ts=5e40602b#slide=id.g7d787d92f2_0_332

For our week one current connection, our group was responsible for finding current connections between the John Dewey Article, “My Pedagogic Creed” and articles published within the past two years that correlate and connect to the ideas developed in the Dewey article. In my research I was able to find two articles that connected to the creed, or beliefs, of John Dewey in a modern way that raised questions that are still applicable in today’s education system.

The section of “My Pedagogic Creed” I was responsible for finding connections and insights to was the first article, called “What Education Is”. My first instinct was to take a minute and ask myself, what is education? The answer I was able to come up with was that education is a building block in human success and is here to help orchestrate the growth and abilities of societies while teaching students how to become active members of their societies and to shape them into the people that the future needs. According to the article, Dewey says that in his mind, the purpose of education is so people can “come together in the intellectual and moral resources which humanity has succeeded in getting together” and it is something that makes us “members of unity”. He also deems “knowledge of social conditions of the present state of civilization” as another important purpose of education. 

From this article, as readers we are able to see that Dewey believes education is founded on the basis of psychological and sociological development. He defines the psychological aspect of education as “barren and formal” and elaborates on this definition in saying that this is essential to understanding our mental powers and abilities. In terms of sociological development, Dewey defines it as exposing students to “preconceived social and political status” which is necessary in order to be a functioning member within a given society. 

After articulating Dewey’s thoughts on education to the different learning communities, I asked my classmates which one they found to be more essential to a student’s growth and success and the answers varied. Some of my peers were quick to say psychological, some took a stance to say sociological and some argued that both were equally valuable and important to the education process. I think raising this question caused me to stop and reflect on what I thought about both of these developments and how essential they are to the growth of today’s students. 

An article I found in relation to the Dewey article was an article written on ThoughtCo, a site for educators and resources, by Melissa Kelly in 2019 called “The Many Purposes of Education”. In reading, analysing and reflecting on this article I was able to make many parallels between the two articles. Within her article, Melissa Kelly provides a list of the purposes for education which includes, creating thoughtful citizens, learning how to learn, teaching students how to live, and creating lifelong habits that fit their specific needs. As I read deeper into each of these reasons, I was able to categorize each of them under either psychological or sociological. This shows that even though these ideals were created a little less than 100 years ago, our society is still basing educational developments off of the same elements because they have been proven effective in the lives of students. 

I was also able to make another connection with a different article that I located within the classroom database. This article suggested similar purposes to education to the ones previously stated however, this article raised an interesting insight and that was the impact of technology on today’s learners and educators. So, I asked my classmates what they believed the impact of technology in the classroom looked like and again, I found some of my peers believe it has had a negative impact, some believe it has had a positive impact, and some argued that it had both a positive and negative impact. When orchestrating this question and conversation with them it was very interesting to hear each person’s perspective and opinion based on their previous educational experiences. For example, some of my classmates had a one to one device program at their high schools while some did not and I find that influences how technology is viewed. 

I was able to connect this article and the impact of technology in the classroom to Dewey and his believed educational developments. Today more than ever, technology is at our fingertips and it has aided the success of human kind and our capabilities but if it is too heavily relied on than our developmental human skills might be compromised. For example, so many students today are taking online classes or online educational programs, while this may seem like a smart option because it is convenient and can be done from home, it may have an impact on our mental or social state. If as students we are raised through technological education, how are we supposed to develop the ‘mental basis’, or adequate social skills that Dewey deemed necessary in becoming an effective member of a society. If psychological and sociological skills are not there, then we as humans are doing something wrong. If we are not educated properly then it will change the game in regards to how humans will develop and interact with one another. Like anything, technology in moderation is good, but when reflecting on the ideals of John Dewey, one may say the less technology in education the better. 

Works cited:

Kelly, Melissa. “The Many Purposes for Education.” ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo, 7 July 

2019, http://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-the-aim-of-education-8417.

1. My name is Taylor and my pronouns are she/her/hers.
2. I am from Rochester New York.
3. I would like to teach 1st grade.
4. Growing up I have always been very involved with sports and athletics but I do not play a sport here at John Carroll. Service has also been a large part of my life and I look forward to meeting new friends throughout the duration of the semester.
5. My family and friends have always been at the focal point in my life and building up strong relationships with these people has shaped me into the person that I am today. I found this article to be applicable and important to the lives that the majority of us in this class are experiencing as well as something that I greatly value and that is friendship. As we are on our own for the first time, it is important to have people outside of your family to lean on in order to help us shape ourselves into society as an adult and this is something I believe our friends help us do so it is up to each of us as individuals to find those people and create meaningful friendships with them. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/mfr/4919087.0021.105/?rgn=main;view=fulltext
6. For my service learning experience I will be tutoring through the Griot Village After School Program which is for students who are living with their Grandparents.
7. I think that in order to take risks in a classroom there needs to be a sense of acceptance, and positive relationships and dynamics between the students with one another as well as with the professor.
8. I think that one of the problems facing education today is the divide and quality of education our students are receiving. Poor public schools are not able to teach the same material in the same way that an upper class private school can. Having different climates and expectations in these schools determine the majority of the student’s futures so I believe we need to find a way to level the playing field in schools across the country.
9. Have you always taught in the college classroom? What is your favorite part about being a Professor at John Carroll?