Informed Beliefs

Statement of Informed Beliefs

Martin Vargas

College of Western Idaho

Education 220-001

Natalie Tau

December 1, 2022
Informed Beliefs

Statement of Informed Beliefs

As I prepare for my future, the only thing that worries me is knowing whether I will be

prepared for the challenges the teachers face daily. Will my students understand the material that

I am teaching? Am I leaving anyone behind? Can I as teacher do anything to prepare them for

the world not just in terms of education, but for the real-life situations they might encounter. The

world we live in changes constantly and what you do or say can have both negative and positive

impacts on the students. But not only do I have to worry about dealing with students, but I must

also learn to deal with the parents. I need to understand a student’s culture, their parents’ beliefs

and most importantly the expectations that they will have for me as a teacher for their child.

All students Can Learn

One of the most important things that I was able to learn this semester was the

importance of being able to create a great atmosphere for the class. I learned that if I want to be

able to have a good connection with my students, I need to be able to show them that I am

approachable yet also letting them know that I am the leader of the class. I want my future

students to be able to know that they can approach me with any questions they may have. I want

them to not feel scared to ask for help when they do not understand the material being taught. If I

can manage to create that type of atmosphere, I believe I can be capable of guiding the class to

succeed without leaving anyone behind.

This semester we learned different ways someone can lead and most of them were

defined by what type of role you wanted to be for your students. We learned about three different

leading styles, an authoritarian, democratic, and laissez-faire. As an authoritarian leader you

make every decision in the class without giving any sense of freedom for your students. As a

laissez-fair you are the complete opposite, and you give them all the freedom and are only there
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for questions they may have if they even manage to ask any. The democratic style is a style

where the teacher allows the students freedoms to choose who they want to work with but is

involved in the project being worked on. The teacher gives different perspectives the students

can use to be able to think a different way. The democratic style of leading is what I want to be

able to learn how to do. I want to become a hands-on teacher. I do not want my students to be

bored when learning new material. Another big challenge what I will probably face is learning

that not all students are the same. For me to be able to guide all my students I need to learn how

interact with each and everyone of them. I need to learn to understand what can be slowing down

a student from learning the material. What can I do as a teacher to allow them not to get

distracted?

One cool thing I learned during my observations was finding ways to get rid of some the

extra energy student can have. The teacher I was observing would be very quick to know when

her class was losing focus, and she did some quick exercise to get everyone to focus back on her.

I was also able to learn that learning to time the subjects being taught is going to be very useful.

Learning to change the subject to not waste my time and my students when I know they are no

longer learning because they have lost focus is going to be key in my success.

Teacher’s Expectations

This semester I also was able to learn that the expectations we place on students will have

a big impact on the outcome we receive from their work. The higher the expectations we place

on the students, the higher the results we will obtain. In 1963 phycologist Robert Rosenthal

conducted an experiment called the Pygmalion Effect at an elementary school where students

were tested to see their intellectual level. The results where that the students had similar

intellectual levels, but the results were presented in a different way to the teacher. The teacher
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was told that a group of students showed signs of being “academic bloomers, meaning that they

had the potential to become great students and that they would be smarter than the rest of the

class. The teacher did not know that list of students she was giving was chosen at random. At a

later test, those same students chosen happened to test better than the rest of the class. It was

concluded that the expectations the teacher placed on those students was higher because she was

told that those students were smarter. It was also concluded that the way she treated those

students was different than the rest of the class. Rosenthal explains that there are four big factors

that teachers do for students that they believe will succeed. “Those factors are, climate, input,

response opportunity and feedback” (HeroicImaginationTv, 2011). Being nicer to the students,

teaching more material, giving them more time to response and even helping them with the

answer, and finally giving more praise towards the students when getting answers correctly.

More than just being a good teacher for all students, I have come to believe that creating

educational goals for the students places those higher expectations. I think that we should be able

to show students where they are and where they should be. We need to have an aimed goal, so

that students know that what they are doing has meaning and that there is and end result for the

work the put in. I believe this because I feel that students do the work without knowing why.

They just do what the teacher tells them to do, because that is what they are told to do. I believe

students deserve the explanation of why we are doing a certain project, and why they are giving a

certain homework. We need to be able to give students a clear understanding that we expect the

best out of them.

Student’s Social Ecology Theory

“The social context of individual interactions and experiences determines the degree to

which individuals can develop their abilities and realize their potentials, according to
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Bronfenbrenner” (Berns, 2013). Something I was able to learn this semester was

Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory, which talks about the people that surround us, the events

we are exposed to and the environments we grew up in. Growing up I had always thought that

we had all learned the same way, and that the material available for students was all the same. In

my first year of college, I quickly found out that this was not the case. Some students from

different school districts and different states seemed to be more knowledgeable about subjects

presented by the teachers. They seemed to be able to grasp the information given faster than I

could. When talking to some of them I was also made aware that their high schools offered

classes I had not even heard of. They had more exposure to higher level material and a bigger

quantity of it. The environment some of them grew up was a wealthier environment. I grew up in

a small town in where the community was mostly Hispanic which is something very rare here in

Idaho. My graduating class was a total of thirteen students, and we had grown up together since

elementary school.

We did not really have exposure to different types of communities and not familiar with

many other cultures. I felt very unprepared those first two years of college and if I were to have

to do it again, I do not think I would do it. But that experience taught me how important it is to

pay attention to students surrounding and what is their environment like. Bronfenbrenner’s

theory shows us how important; an individual’s Microsystems can be when growing up. Those

microsystems include cultures, communities, families, peer groups and schools. It shows us the

importance a teacher has in child’s development. Students specially at a young age will look up

to a teacher when questions arise, I believe some students will even create a better relationship

than with a parent, so as teachers we must be careful as to how we treat our students.
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Teachers must also learn how to be aware of the students’ backgrounds if they want to be

able to teach everyone equally. It is not an easy task, and it is easier said than done, but it all goes

back to knowing what type of teacher one wants to be. This semester we learned about students

dealing with homelessness. Being aware of those students did not even cross my mind, it is

something that I did not even stop to think about. Which I think is something very cruel of me, I

now know how important it is going to be to stop and take a minute and see how each of my

students is doing. I got to be aware that every student is facing different challenges and that I

must be able to better prepare myself to help each and everyone of them in the best possible way.

Cultural Diversity Theory

From personal experience I understand how difficult it is for a student to be comfortable

at school when English is not their primary language. The sense of always feeling lost and out of

place can be very hard mentally for an induvial specially a young individual. Something that also

affects an induvial with a different culture is also not having people aware of that individual’s

culture and not being conscious and respectful towards the culture. Today I think we live in a

society where being from a different culture can be seen as bad. Political views are now taking

over our moral views. I think history has shown us that not respecting other’s culture never ends

well and as teachers I believe we have a duty of teaching others to always remain respectful

towards others regardless of the ethnicity and beliefs.

America has always been known as the melting pot, because it is founded by a lot of

different cultures across the country. However, it had always placed the belief that the American

culture was above any other culture and that it was best if you dropped your culture and followed

the majority group. This is called Cultural assimilation, the idea that your culture basically does

not matter in society. The ideal goal should be to follow the concept of cultural pluralism. In this
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concept our society would allow other cultures to live in the overall society, each culture adding

something extra to society and everyone learning from each other. “Another metaphor used to

demonstrate cultural pluralism is a salad bowl; each part of the salad is different, but it makes up

one whole.” (Melting Pot, 2022)

Curriculum for all Learners

This semester was very helpful to me, and I was lucky to have the teacher I had for my

observations. Being able to observe Mrs. Dre was very educational. As I mentioned before some

of my biggest take aways from her class was learning how to adjust to the students needs. One of

my favorite parts about her way of teaching was knowing when it was time change subjects. She

knew when she was staring to lose the attention of her students and I really enjoyed her transition

between subjects.

She also understood that the kids all had different energies levels, some more than others

and she knew how to use that to get students to do a quick exercise get the extra energy out of

their systems. In the few classes I had the privilege to observe she just seemed to try and so

something different as trying to experiment what would be the best approach for her lessons. I

am sure based on what she explained to me that all other teachers at Franklin D. Roosevelt

Elementary School have the same mindset.

The teachers at the schools all seemed to work in unison for the better of the students.

The have created a structure that works for the school and for the students. One thing that took

me by surprise was something Mrs. Dre and the other second grade teachers do with students

that are not behaving the way they should in class. When a teacher runs into a problem with a

student they cannot seem to control, they will send that student to the other second grade class.

Students know teachers’ attitude so they know what they can get away with and when they are
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send to a different teacher they are taken by surprise and their mood quickly changes. I hope that

in the future I can work with a school and peers that are willing to work together to solve

different types of situations. Mrs. Dre also showed me a different way of being ablet to approach

teaching. I will take what I learned from and try to implement in my teachings.

I have come to understand that I have a lot to learn and that no matter how much I

prepare I will always encounter something new and challenging. As I mention before every child

is different and with that must come the ability to adjust to different circumstances, to not to feel

lost in front of the students. The education system is also changing constantly, laws and

regulations are always being edited, added, or removed. Not everyone agrees with every change

but that is something I will have to learn how to deal with when the time comes.
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References

Berns, Roberta. Child, Family, School, Community: Socialization and Support. 10th ed.,
Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2013.

Melting pot vs. cultural pluralism - diversity. Google Sites: Sign-in. (n.d.). Retrieved December
4, 2022, from https://sites.google.com/site/edthpdiversity/cultural-pluralism

HeroicImaginationTV, director. YouTube, YouTube, 25 Sept. 2011,