07 : 752 (NET)
Dr. Marion Terry
2020-2021 (Term 1)
Overview of Educational Issues
Course Outline
Course Overview
07:752, Overview of Educational Issues, was the first course that I took in the Master of Education program at Brandon University, and was mandatory for all students. There were two main areas of focus for the course. The first was to explore current issues in education from a variety of perspectives. Because the course included many students in different streams of the graduate program – in addition to students attending from a variety of locations, including rural, urban, northern, and out-of-province territories – a wide range of topics were discussed and presented on. The vastness of topics explored by others set the stage for the many directions I could take on my Master of Education journey. The second area of focus was related to APA formatting. Given that many of us had not been in a university course for many years, the review of writing expectations, familiarizing ourselves with the updated APA style, and engaging in scholarly research helped to prepare us for the rest of our work in the Master of Education program. Assignments included an annotated bibliography, problem essay, presentation, and final essay.
The openness of the course allowed me to explore issues that were directly impacting my career in the fall of 2020. At the time, I was teaching in a grade 4/5 multiage class and had already been exploring how to best support the many students with additional needs in my inclusive classroom. It made sense to develop my APA writing and research skills while delving deeply on this topic since it would have a direct impact on what I was doing every day at school. Admittedly, a lot of the research pointed me towards strategies that I already knew of and was using often, but the new ideas that I did come across had a significant impact on how I work with students with additional needs. Additionally, the research pointing to the positive impacts of diverse, inclusive classrooms on all students reaffirmed my desire to advocate for true and transparent inclusion in our education system. I appreciated the many opportunities to ask specific questions about APA formatting, use of different source types, and syntax, which ensured that the foundation of my graduate journey was solid enough to take on the workload that would follow in subsequent courses.
Artifact 1
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY: ISSUES IN EDUCATION
This annotated bibliography was an opportunity to complete research on topics of our choice and practice using APA citations. We were expected to choose three topics, find two articles related to each topic, and then provide a brief description of each article. In addition to practicing our use of APA formatting, the assignment’s purpose was to ensure we familiarized ourselves with the various online databases and provide us with a class list of possible resources we could use for our following assignments.
This particular artifact is important to me because it is the very first assignment I completed in the graduate program. I explored topics related to the success of students with additional needs, inclusive and diverse classrooms, and twenty-first century classroom models. As discussed earlier, these topics were directly connected to my own professional development at the time. While this learning was incredibly beneficial at that point in my career, it continues to impact my view of inclusive education from a variety of perspectives, in addition to the need to support all the students in my care, today. Further to this, the assignment helped familiarize myself with APA citations in different contexts.
Artifact 2
HOW UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING CAN ADDRESS THE CHALLENGES OF TEACHING IN AN INCLUSIVE, DIVERSE CLASSROOM
The final essay of this course was built off of the earlier problem essay we completed. In that assignment, we were asked to identify an issue in education and explore the challenges that it posed. The final essay asked us to take that original essay and then explore possible solutions. In breaking down this final essay into two separate parts, it ensured that I first develop my skills in identifying a concern worthy of writing a paper about, and then explore how to apply research and theory towards solving the problem.
One of the most interesting takeaways of my exploration of inclusive education and how best to support students with additional needs was how often researchers pointed to the benefits of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). UDL was already a very familiar concept to me and had played a significant part in my teaching for years. However, I had only scratched the surface in terms of using UDL to support students with additional needs. By reframing the use of UDL through the lens of inclusive education, I began to recognize that I already had many familiar tools in my tool belt that I could apply in different contexts. This was an empowering realization. Of course, there would be a lot of new learning as I walked down the path of my graduate journey, but I now knew that I could combine this new learning with what I already knew to better tackle challenges as they arose. Even though the use of UDL in an inclusive context is not necessarily “revolutionary,” it was critical in my pedagogical development at the time. I was also encouraged when Dr. Terry asked me to submit the paper for publication consideration in theBU Journal of Graduate Studies in Education.
