Thursday, December 8, 2011
From Reflection to Action.....
As a leader in my field I strive to become a supportive
and team player as I grow along with “My First College Class” science outreach
program. However, the other day I
surprised myself at my thoughts when one of my participating teachers did not
responded kindly to my help. In-stead
she just pointed out the deficiencies she perceived about the activities we
performed. I surprised myself at the
thoughts I entertained of future unwillingness to help. Yet, I was there to help the children who
very few times get exposed to these “hands-on” activities. Was it because I was getting upset about the “All
about Me” culture I thought this teacher was?
Why was I so not understanding of the main purpose of my being there? It took this class to finally understand that
people are different and that not all view the world the same way as I do.
This journey of becoming a culturally proficient leader
is a difficult one. One
has to understand that every drawback is an opportunity to
learn and become a bit more proficient culturally. I encounter many people every day through the
outreach program and my science tutoring and I have been finding that my
shortness of patience with people which I perceived not interested could be a
problem. I had been reaching deeply in
me about what really is what bothers me about them. I have found out that I am judging people
based on my personal standards and that it has to be one of the most serious
mistakes I have ever made. I am becoming
aware that I have to become more self-monitoring, self-aware, self-assessing,
and self-modifying of my behavior and attitudes.
Blogger in draft: Blogger Dashboard
FUTURISTIC SCENARIO
Step 1: Identify Implications:
Strengths: Providing technological and theoretical science support for elementary and middle-school teachers as well as for their students has been well received and carries many implications for the academic achievement of underrepresented minority students in science. Usually these students do not have the opportunity to be exposed to “hands-on” science activities since early age due to many deficiencies in the educational system. Providing this exposure free of charge will bring uncountable opportunities for these children and their teachers.
Weaknesses: The lack of funding is the main drawback of the program. These days the competition for the few dollars in grants is fearsome. On the other hand, this program can be carried out with very few resources.
Opportunity: The exposure that the program gets every opportunity a classroom is visited provides an extraordinary occasion to get better known by the community. This in turn can translate into grant resources in the future. In addition, utilizing resources such as former students for volunteering could bring about chances for these students to practice what they learned when they took my class and to provide exposure to them to the community members they will be serving when they graduate from the nursing program.
Threats: There are very few threats to the development and sustainment of the outreach program. The support is very necessary and unless teachers are not very interested in it, then I can see a threat for the program not to keep developing in the future.
Step 2: Develop Options
There are several options which I have thought of when the time comes. For example; rent a location where teacher and students can visit for the day and perform their experiments. In addition, a possible option is to use a laboratory at a college to have the teacher and students visit and perform their experiments so to expose them to real higher education science laboratories.
Step 3: Monitor Trends
It is difficult to monitor the trends of success in these types of programs due to the number of years it takes to see if it has made any impact in the student. However, there is no drawback or negative impact foreseeing in these type of program. I have monitored the impact of the program for three years so far and the children are in their way to middle-school. It would be very interesting to research the impact of the program in these children’s high school, years where they have the free will to choose to take a science class for themselves because they are interested in it.
A possible scenario to better monitor the impact of this program on the interest, achievement, and performance in science of these children would be to survey them each year to see these abilities have change with time after they took part of the program.
Step 1: Identify Implications:
Strengths: Providing technological and theoretical science support for elementary and middle-school teachers as well as for their students has been well received and carries many implications for the academic achievement of underrepresented minority students in science. Usually these students do not have the opportunity to be exposed to “hands-on” science activities since early age due to many deficiencies in the educational system. Providing this exposure free of charge will bring uncountable opportunities for these children and their teachers.
Weaknesses: The lack of funding is the main drawback of the program. These days the competition for the few dollars in grants is fearsome. On the other hand, this program can be carried out with very few resources.
Opportunity: The exposure that the program gets every opportunity a classroom is visited provides an extraordinary occasion to get better known by the community. This in turn can translate into grant resources in the future. In addition, utilizing resources such as former students for volunteering could bring about chances for these students to practice what they learned when they took my class and to provide exposure to them to the community members they will be serving when they graduate from the nursing program.
Threats: There are very few threats to the development and sustainment of the outreach program. The support is very necessary and unless teachers are not very interested in it, then I can see a threat for the program not to keep developing in the future.
Step 2: Develop Options
There are several options which I have thought of when the time comes. For example; rent a location where teacher and students can visit for the day and perform their experiments. In addition, a possible option is to use a laboratory at a college to have the teacher and students visit and perform their experiments so to expose them to real higher education science laboratories.
Step 3: Monitor Trends
It is difficult to monitor the trends of success in these types of programs due to the number of years it takes to see if it has made any impact in the student. However, there is no drawback or negative impact foreseeing in these type of program. I have monitored the impact of the program for three years so far and the children are in their way to middle-school. It would be very interesting to research the impact of the program in these children’s high school, years where they have the free will to choose to take a science class for themselves because they are interested in it.
A possible scenario to better monitor the impact of this program on the interest, achievement, and performance in science of these children would be to survey them each year to see these abilities have change with time after they took part of the program.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Comprehensive survey data on education
Have you ever roamed databases for the right
statistical data to use in your next scientific study in education? If you have, then you probably feel the
frustration I experience all the time. The
good news is that now you can easily access the most recent and comprehensive
set of data on what students, parent, teachers, and administrators have to say
about technology and education. Project Tomorrow,
a non-profit organization which specializes on on-line surveying and publishing
the reports. Their publications can help
you obtain disaggregated national as well as local data. An additional benefit is the inclusion of
data from a wide range of population groups for example; ethnic and socio-economic
categories. Specific population groups such
as Hispanic or rural populations are surveyed (surveys can be administered in
Spanish to be able to reach this specific population). Link: http://www.tomorrow.org/publications/publications.html
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