EDUC- 555

Here I share with you a paper I wrote about my experience in learning sciences from school to college, I hope you enjoy it!

 

Throughout our pathway in life, we get to experience and encounter a variety of situations that can lead to either positive or negative experiences. These experiences are what provide us with the knowledge and wisdom we so much strive for, they shape us into the individuals we are today, and who we will ultimately become throughout the years. Moreover, when we are born our minds are just like empty boxes which are filled slowly as we introduce different information and situations that enrich it to produce a well- established mind, which is able to pass on an incremented education to others. In this essay, I will discuss some of my experiences in learning sciences that took a significant role in my life and affected the decisions I took when choosing my career as a science facilitator, the methods I implement in my teaching today, and the manner through which I interact with my students and colleagues.

To begin with, looking back at my science education it is hard for me to recall any the lessons I took in primary school, the details of this phase are very blurry and hard to put into words, which takes me right to secondary school. During this stage, I was able to go through a variety of science courses each given by different professors, of course I am not going to say I loved all of them, as I came to the realization that there were many teachers who did not allow me to understand the vivid and enriching experience every subject was able to provide. One of the classes I remember the most was biology class from grade 9 until grade 12. I remember this course very well since it was given by the same teacher; she always implemented teaching techniques and skills that just gave my classmates and I, the ability to relate every topic to real life. My teacher mostly used both inquiry- based and cooperative learning so she permitted us to critically think and use problem solving in order to arrive to a conclusion; she also divided us into groups consisting of individuals of different levels in order to work together and help each other arrive to the desired outcome. She had a huge influence in the effectiveness of my learning as I felt motivated to study and use my creativity above all means. She also affected the manner through which I teach today, this experience has permitted me to look at books as more than a block of papers, to look at them as a world full of discoveries that are eager to be passed to others.

Secondly, it was not always picture perfect during secondary school I continuously struggled in math class, which back then I called “the nightmare” of course like any other child I just hated the teacher because I believed he did not allow me to understand all those numbers and applications that for me just piled up to a peek I could not reach. Now that I have grown up I have come to the realization that it was not fully his fault, I am just the type of individual who needs to use critical thinking and real life examples in order to process information, and he was just the type of teacher who used direct instruction techniques that made the class absolutely boring for me but exciting for others. Although this class increasingly discouraged me throughout the years, once I reached my first year in college I had finally reached that peek which had been hunting me for many years. I had finally found an instructor who was able to encourage me and destroy those bad struggling memories. He used approaches I had never seen before, mostly based upon reversal thinking and brain sketching techniques where we would draw sketches of possible solutions to the problems that were given to us and explain it to our classmates. I completely support these methods as they effectively permitted me to understand that no matter how stressful a subject might be at some point in our lives by applying the right skills we can overcome the struggle and actually love the subject after all, ironically I now tutor children and teach them math, leaving behind “the nightmare” and bringing a “the dream” to my students.

As a whole, I believe that the experiences I encountered in learning sciences have shaped me into the person I am today. I have so many memories but sadly I had to sum them up into these few thoughts. I am very thankful I had the ability to see and pass through the different stages in my life where I was educated by different means, and learned techniques that effectively helped me in my learning as a student and as a future facilitator. I don’t believe that there is such thing as a “bad teacher” but there are different individuals with different learning styles that although might have a hard time at some point in their education, they are able to overcome the struggle by putting enough effort and finding a way to make a negative experience a good one, this in my opinion will direct them right into success.