Running Head: STATEMENT OF INFORMED BELIEFS ESSAY 1

Statement of Informed Beliefs Essay

Caitlin May

EDUC 220

Fall 2017
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Statement of Informed Beliefs Essay

One of the best parts about being a teacher, especially in America, is how diverse your classroom

can be. I will be given the opportunity to teach students from all different backgrounds and

walks of life. It will be difficult at times but ultimately rewarding to see my students grow and

learn. Within the next paragraphs of this essay I will discuss my beliefs on how to use and

handle diversity in my classroom. I will use the help of my textbook to discuss 5 different

topics: all students can learn, teacher’s expectations, students’ social ecology theory, cultural

diversity instructions, and curriculum for all learners.

All Students Can Learn

Students’ ability to learn is shaped by many factors. There are outside influences that can

affect a child’s ability to learn such as their home environment or what type of atmosphere is

provided in the classroom or even the school (Berns R.). If a child is struggling at home, there

could be a chance that it may affect their ability to learn. For example, if they aren’t getting

enough sleep or enough to eat at home they might not be as focused on their work. There are

also inside factors that can influence learning ability as well such as a preferred learning style

or even psychological or behavioral traits. If a child has a learning disability they will find some

subjects more difficult than others and may not be on the same level as the other students. There

is a theory posed by Howard Gardner that says there are 8 different intelligences or ways that a

student processes and learns information (Berns R.). Some students learn better visually, and

some are better kinesthetic/tactile learners. Every child is different and therefore will learn

differently.

The school system theoretically allows educators to have a classroom full of students that

should be on the same level, hence grade levels. However realistically there may be some who
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are ahead or behind the curve and as an educator you need to be ready to tackle that problem. If

you have a child in your classroom that isn’t focused because of needs missing in the home, you

should be able to recognize that and bring it to attention to it if needed. If there is a child in the

classroom with a learning disability or behavioral issues you may not always have extra help

You will need to be able to keep the rest of the class focused while also providing extra care to

that student. I also believe that every educator should know all the different forms of teaching

and be able to have lessons that switch between them so that every type of learner is being

catered to at some point during the school year.

In my opinion there is no way to be sure that all my students will be learning all the time

every day of the school year. I can however guarantee that in my future classroom, I will try my

best to incorporate multiple teaching styles into my lessons to make them fun and engaging.

When it comes down to it I’m sure I will have some boring lessons because it’s just too difficult

to make everything fun for every student. When this happens though I will make sure that I’m

still paying close attention and keeping my students on task.

Teacher’s Expectations

I believe teacher expectations have a large influence on how students learn. Jere E.

Brophy and Thomas L. Good said that teachers can begin to treat students differently based on

preconceived expectations (Berns R.) If a teacher starts a lesson expecting that the students will

already know how to do part of the work, he/she runs the risk of a couple of complications. One

could be that some students won’t absorb the lesson because they get caught up on the parts that

weren’t explained and can’t move on and learn the parts that were explained in detail. If this

happens the teacher may have to reteach the lesson over completely or at a minimum teach the

parts that weren’t taught the first time around. This kind of situation can lead to getting behind
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schedule or off topic. I think teachers that give pretests at the beginning of a year or semester to

examine the level that their students are at are smart, because then they can avoid this issue of

expecting that students know things when they may not. I also think that if a teacher’s

expectations for their students to perform well are too high and are well known within the

classroom it can also affect how the students will learn. From personal experience I know it can

be hard to focus if you’re so stressed out about having to preform perfectly. That can then result

in negative feelings about learning because they believe they haven’t lived up to the teacher’s

expectations. This type of feeling that the students can have can be defined as having low self-

efficacy or not believing they can do something.

On another hand, having some expectations can also promote positive competition and

positive self-efficacy. This may encourage the students to study more, pay more attention, and

retaine more knowledge so they achieve higher performance (Berns R.). This idea of using

competition in the classroom is also subject to what age level you’re teaching. More mature

students may be able to grasp the idea more and it may be more fun for them.

Having educational goals is very important both for the teacher and the student. Your

goal as a teacher should be to have all your students well versed in your curriculum by the end

of the year. If they haven’t learned what you were supposed to teach them then technically they

wouldn’t be ready to move on to the next grade level. As a teacher it should also be a goal to

continue your personal education. If you’re not learning the new teaching techniques or the new

technologies that are out there then your students won’t be able to learn them either. Education

is continuously evolving, and it should be your goal as a teacher to stay up to date for your

students benefit.
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As a student educational goals are important because they are what helps you keep

focused in school. They are also what helps a student stay focused on their bigger life goals. To

move up in life in our society being educated is very important. Most jobs nowadays require

some sort of degree, certification, or special training. For children to reach their goal of getting

the job they want they must be motivated to make it through school. Having educational goals

helps fuel this motivation.

Students’ Social Ecology Theory

A student’s background has a large impact on how they learn. I’ve discussed previously

how if a student is having troubles in the home it can affect how they perform in the classroom.

Sometimes it can affect them in a positive way because school may be an oasis for them, so they

might be really motivated to succeed. Some aspects of student background I haven’t discussed

are culture and community. These aspects are called microsystems and as an educator you will

have to consider these when teaching your students and evaluating how they learn (Berns R.).

Culture can have an impact on a student’s motivation to succeed in the classroom. I took

a sociology class one semester and one of the things we talked about were dropout rates. One of

the statistics was that teens from certain cultures have a higher dropout rate than those of other

cultures. One of the reasons for this could be the fact that some cultures are focused heavily on

family, and starting a family early. In turn teenage pregnancy is one of the leading reasons for

teens to drop out of school. This could be an example of how culture could affect a student’s

ability or motivation for learning. Now of course there are other cultures that put a lot of

importance in education and enforce that heavily in the home. Children from this kind of culture

may be more motivated to not only stay in school but also succeed in school.
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Community can also influence a child’s ability to learn. Some communities are poorer

than others and may not have the same resources to provide students to aid in their learning.

The community within the school may also have an impact on the student’s ability to learn

(Berns R.). I’ve observed that students that are in classes where the teachers of their grade

collaborate with other teachers of the same grade perform and learn better than those of a

teacher that just tries to do everything themselves. As an educator it is nice to be part of a team,

so you can ask advice and learn different styles of teaching or even better ways of organizing. If

an educator has access to these things, they will probably be better at teaching a being able to

make sure every student is learning the best way that they can.

Cultural Diversity Instruction

As a teacher I think it’s easy to sometimes forget to include student’s ethnic and cultural

backgrounds in the classroom. We get so focused on planning and teaching lessons that we

might not remember that you can include culture in your lessons. One of the ways I as a future

teacher want to incorporate culture in my classroom is research all the different cultural holidays

and talk about them in class. I wouldn’t necessarily have to celebrate or theme my classroom for

every holiday but just have a class discussion about them. This way the students learn about

other cultural holidays. If you teach at a dual language school your students will be learning in

two different languages and often will learn about the culture of the people who speak it. I

observed for a teacher once that when she knew she had students in her class that were bilingual

or even trilingual she would learn different greetings in their language. She could use them

when she greeted them. This is something I would also like to incorporate in my future class

someday.
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There is a vast difference between the terms cultural assimilation and cultural

pluralism. In my opinion in a classroom you’ll probably see examples of both definitions.

Cultural assimilation is when people of the minority culture adapt and take on the same

characteristics of the dominant culture (Berns R.). An example of this would be around

Halloween a school might have a wear your costume to school day where they hand out candy.

Some cultures that might not normally celebrate Halloween may still send their children to

school in silly costumes because their kids want to, so they can participate with everyone else.

Cultural pluralism is when there is general knowledge and appreciation for multiple cultures

(Berns R.). People who live in a cultural pluralistic society will often speak many different

languages and practice different religions but that is accepted and not ridiculed (Berns R.). An

example of cultural pluralism in the classroom also related to Halloween would be if the school

at the same time taught their students about the Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead)

celebrations and what that was like and what culture that belongs to.

Curriculum for All Learners

As a teacher your schedule can get a little crazy and out of order if you don’t stick to it

diligently. It’s important to plan out lessons ahead of time but also to realize that not every class

or every student will learn at the pace that you planned for. When I become a first-year teacher I

plan to give myself wiggle room in most if not all my lessons. This way, if something doesn’t go

as planned I have time to address that and if everything runs smoothly I can move on to the next

lesson or have the student perform a CFU task. I think it’s also important to be comfortable

asking other teachers for their help and opinions. They might have taught the same lessons as

you and might have an idea of how the students will react. It’s crucial to plan backups. Things

can go wrong, students can struggle to understand the information the way you’re presenting it
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and you may have to adjust. Or technology can fail you and you might have to change

directions. As you teach more years it will probably become easier to plan for these things but

even as a first year you should never expect your lessons to go perfect every single time.

Another thing that can affect how you plan and deliver lesson plans is being evaluated as

a teacher. Teacher assessments can be daunting and scary, but they are there to help the teacher

grow and adapt her skills to further improve the education he/she is providing to the students. I

plan to take my evaluations and use them productively. If there are things that I’m missing that

are going on in my classroom or in the way that I’m teaching my evaluators can let me know and

I can improve those areas. This is another reason it’s good to have things planned out and have

backups in case you are poorly evaluated you can show that you have alternatives and that you

are aware of your mistakes. Everyone is human, even teachers, and no one does everything

perfect all the time.

I plan to ensure that my students are exceling and growing in their education by

evaluating them and just being aware of whether they are absorbing the information I’m

throwing at them. CFU’s, or check for understanding assignments, are important teacher tools

they allow a teacher to evaluate what level a student is at and can help monitor growth if they are

repeated after a lesson is taught. Schools will often require teachers to do these kinds of

assignments, but I plan to do them even when I’m not asked to. By doing this I will be able to

evaluate what level my students are at and plan my lessons accordingly so that they will learn

and grow and strengthen their skills. If I notice that a student isn’t exceling the way I would

hope I won’t be afraid to ask the advice of my fellow teachers. One method I can use if they are

not understanding a lesson the way I’m teaching it is to try and teach it a different way. This is
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the reason I’m such a fan of all the new common core methods of teaching math because if the

student doesn’t learn one-way chances are they will with another method.

In conclusion, I think that the best thing I can do as a future educator to help ensure my

students are learning is really study up on the different teaching styles and utilize every one of

them in different ways as much as I can. It is also important to do things like CFU’s to measure

where your students are at, so you can effectively give them the education they need. Having

educational goals is also important for everyone involved in education. Goals should be both

small and large and they should be continually evolving as you achieve some and create others. I

will also have to think about and acknowledge student’s different microsystems and how they

play into their education including culture and ethnicity. I will be vigilant of my expectations of

students and how that will affect my classroom. Lastly, I will not be afraid or ashamed to ask for

help from my fellow teaching community or to do research of my own. Education is always

evolving and so is the world we live in. It’s important to remember that we’re all human and as

an educator you’re just trying to do your best everyday to help educate the children of the world.
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Works Cited

Berns, R. (2016). Child, family, school, community: socialization and support. Stamford, CT:

Cengage Learning.