POWELL MASTER’S PORTFOLIO 1

Professionalism Statement

Standard: A teacher participates in and contributes to the teaching profession. Candidates

are aware of and reflect on their practice in light of research on teaching, professional

ethics and resources available for professional learning; they continually evaluate the

effects of their professional decisions and actions on students, families and other

professionals in the learning community and actively seek out opportunities to grow

professionally.

In the teaching profession, teachers have a responsibility to participate in

activities that will help them grow professionally. Seeking ways to learn more about the

field of education through various avenues can help teachers grow professionally. One

way that I was able to grow was through conducting a classroom based research project.

Teacher research can allow teachers to have a voice in professional development and

school improvement (Schwarz and Ray, 2018). When teachers conduct a classroom

research project, they have the potential to help themselves and possibly others in the

field. This research can be shared with others and is personally meaningful. My research

project allowed me to take a classroom problem and research and evaluate a potential

solution. One great advantage of teachers doing research as a type of professional

development is that the information is at the heart of what is professionally meaningful to

the teacher, whereas often even the best of professional development programs get lost in

the ability of teachers to directly apply the information to their own classrooms or

practice (Sallah, 2014). For my research project I looked at what effect a group

contingency plan would have on off task behaviors in my student teaching class. I learned

that this type of behavior management plan works well with some students, but was
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rather unsuccessful at motivating the students who were exhibiting the most off task

behavior. This showed me that maybe an individual plan would have worked better for

this group of students.

Freire, in his book Pedagogy of Freedom (1998) stated, “There is no such thing as

teaching without research and research without teaching. I think that teachers are

constantly seeking to improve their classrooms, teaching style or student outcomes, but

often these are done in an informal manner. I feel that doing an action based written

research project greatly benefitted me. I was able to not only improve my classroom

practices, but I was able to learn how to conduct a project step by step. In the future I will

know how to gain background knowledge, how to set up my project, as well as all of the

needed components for a quality research study.

Schwarz and Ray (2018) State that a teacher research projects take a lot of

reflection, action and critically looking at what they are doing in order to improve their

teaching practices. This was very true for my project. Using my classroom, students and

teaching practices in my project allowed me to collect meaningful data on information

that I was able to use to help support my students better, even future students.

As teachers we are dedicated to encouraging life long learning in our students.

Showing our students first hand examples of how anyone can continue to learn and grow,

such as conducting a classroom research project is a great way of providing this example

to them.

References

Freire, P. (1998). Pedagogy of freedom. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
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Salleh, H. (2014, February). Why Should Teachers Do Research? Retrieved June 16,

2019, from http://singteach.nie.edu.sg/issue46-bigidea/

Schwarz, G., & Ray, B. (2018). Teacher Research in Teacher Education: Emancipatory

Potential in Discouraging Times. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in

Education, 6(2), 49. Retrieved from

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