SIB 1 Running head: STATEMENT OF INFORMED BELIEFS

Statement of Informed Beliefs Essay Mallory Bauer Instructor: Kae Hamilton EDUC 204 Families, Communities, & Culture TR, 10:00-11:45, Fall 2011

SIB 2 Statement of Informed Beliefs Essay We all learn, grow, and develop in our own unique ways. As children, we go through lifeimpacting changes and milestones that simply would be more difficult without the support of our teachers. Going into this field, I am joyful and ready to accept the challenge of instructing all the different types of students I will encounter. It will not always be a simple task, and I am well aware of that. In the following paragraphs I will give details on my personal viewpoints on diversity and how I plan to address it in my classroom. This will be discussed in the following five segments: all students can learn, teachers expectations, students social ecology theory, cultural diversity instruction, and curriculum for all learners. All Students Can Learn As a future educator, I believe that any type of individual has the capacity to learn. It is the responsibility of the educator to become acquainted with each individual and the best method to teach each student. As a student, I enjoy listening to PowerPoint presentations and taking notes. While doing homework, I find it difficult to concentrate with any background music or sounds. My best friend on the other hand, will play music while doing almost everything! Students are most benefitted when they are able to identify their personal learning style. When I become an educator, I plan on finding each students individual learning style. When creating educational projects, I will have multiple options for my students so that each student can shine with his/her strengths. For example, if I were teaching on the subject of rain, these would be some of the options: 1. Create a poem or story describing what rain sounds like to you, 2. Create a rain dance and present it to the class, 3. Create a musical rain stick and present it to the class.

SIB 3 Teachers Expectations A teachers expectations have a great impact on the success and performance of students. If a teacher goes into the classroom with gender role-specific expectations, these expectations will likely transpire. A study done by two theorists, Rosenthal and Jacobson shed light to the possibility that teachers may tend to have their minds set on individual foreseeability for each student based on their situation (Berns, 2007). An additional two theorists, Brophy and Good, had some things to add to their theory that make it easier to understand. They believe at the beginning of each school year a teacher will get a list of information for all their new students and use these records to form each students individual expectations (Berns, 2007). Before I even start the school year with my new students, I plan on establishing expectations. I will set rational expectations so that my students will reach their goals. At the same time, my expectations will be high so that my students will continue to strive for success even after my class ends. I will be a good role model, kind, helpful, sympathetic, encouraging, and compassionate so that my students will more than likely find motivation to achieve. Students Social Ecology Theory It is important for students to have all the knowledge needed to be an effective addition to our Society. The ecology of socialization directs children in producing their self-concept, selfesteem, and personalities. According to Erik Ericksons theory, the personality development of an individual will depend based on their interactions with others in their social environment (Berns, 2007). He developed eight stages of psychosocial expansion in our life that affect our self-concept.

SIB 4 Cultural Diversity Instruction According to Berns (2007), culture refers to the learned behavior, including knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs, and traditions, that is characteristic of the social environment in which an individual grows up. In individualistic cultures, parents and educators look at personal achievement as a competition. Although it may seem like this would build their selfesteem, it actually has the opposite effect. Since America is compared to a melting pot, there are more and more diverse cultures immigrating here every year. Each new family coming to America, is in search of a new beginning; perhaps the American Dream. In America, we have a macrosystem philosophy that diverse groups should be socialized in schools. These ideologies include cultural assimilation and cultural pluralism. When I begin to teach, I will educate myself of the different cultures that enter my classroom. This might involve some research online as well as interviewing a child or his/her parents. I also would like to have the student(s) from a different background go in front of the classroom to inform other students about native countries. This will give the other students a chance to get any questions they may have answered, as well as expand their knowledge. The students coming from different areas may feel a lot more comfortable with their peers after this type of exchange in a controlled setting. Curriculum for all Learners Knowing exactly what to teach students without a curriculum would present many challenges. The curriculum is needed to produce a variety of socialization effects. The two categories include teacher-directed and learner-directed. According to Berns (2007), teacherdirected programs resulted in higher scores on reading and math achievement tests. Students that

SIB 5 are in the learner-directed programs tended to score higher on the nonverbal reasoning and problem-solving tasks. As a future educator, I already have an idea of what my classroom will look like along with the events that will take place. The first few weeks will be taken pretty slow to build a positive classroom environment and trust among peers. I will also have to do a lot of repeating my expectations and rules to my students. I will also be observing each student to discover their learning style so that I can use that to their benefit. I plan on giving some pretests to see what my students learned in the previous grades. I will constantly provide immediate feedback to my students.

SIB 6 References Berns, R.M. (2007). Child, Family, School, Community: Socialization and Support (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Learning, Inc.