For Competency 4, “Think Critically and Reflectively”, I have chosen three artifacts. For the first sub-competency, “Develops a personal vision of inclusive educational practice”, I have chosen my Multicultural Teaching Reflection from EDCI 55800. In this paper, I describe different changes I have made within my program to make it more inclusive based on personal experiences and research. The program I coordinate is an international program, with students visiting from all over the world throughout the year. This can present cultural differences and language difficulties. Students also come with various accommodation needs, whether it be a neurodivergent need or physical need. Some of the changes I have made are to move our classroom information to platforms with technology that can translate into different languages, we have had a special training for working with the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community, and work with our Accessibility and Inclusion Specialist. One addition I would like to make to the program would be to add a short biography of someone in space exploration to bring in representation of different races, cultures, and fields of study. I have taken steps towards this goal, with a planned implementation by the end of the year.

 

For the second sub-competency, “Identify the relationship of discipline to the broader field of education”, I have chosen my Educational Improvement Plan from EDCI 52004. With this group project, we developed a professional development plan that incorporates the Engineering Design Process (EDP), something that is more common within the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) field and brings it to other disciplines. As a group, we have discussed the possibility of presenting this at an education conference, not necessarily a STEM conference. This way, other educators beyond the STEM field can learn about incorporating EDP within their classroom environment. We have agreed to do more research and development of this project before presenting. This would include a further literature review, resources for additional fields, and perhaps survey data from other teachers outside the STEM field to understand more of how we can support them.

 

For the third sub-competency, “Critically evaluates theory and practice”, I have chosen my Research Paper on Experiential Learning and STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics] Education from EDCI 53900. In this paper, I start by discussing Kolb and Yaganeh’s (2011) Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) Model. This is then compared to Euefueno’s (2019) Project/Problem-Based Learning (PBL). The program I coordinate is considered Experiential Learning. We primarily utilize hands-on activities for STEM learning. Over the last year, I have led a team to refine and implement new curriculum for my program. I used information from the ELT and PBL to design the activities and plan for the curriculum by focusing on activities that best reinforce the concepts presented. We will also be developing new programming over the next six months, so I will be reviewing ELT and PBL to guide the design and development of the new curriculum.

 

References:

Euefueno, W. D. (2019). Project/problem-based learning in STEM: impacts on student learning. Technology and Engineering Teacher, 78(8), 8–12.

Kolb, D. A., & Yeganeh, B. (2011). Deliberate experiential learning: Mastering the art of learning from experience. https://experientiallearninginstitute.org/wp-content/uploads//2020/10/deliberate_experiential_learning.pdf