Introduction
Education is a significant part of socialization, and it contributes to human development in various aspects of life and at different levels: from personal to global. Thus, the profession of a teacher requires a great deal of responsibility and self-discipline. An excellent teacher is the one who, first of all, invests a lot of time and strengths into his or her personal and professional growth to be able to provide the best service in the field of education. Although many teachers do their best and perform at the very peak of their abilities, there are still many hindrances to overcome on the way to the improvement of the educational systems, methods, and practices. According to the frequent reports of poor students’ performance, it is clear that the current American educational system has a lot of defects that need to be changed. Education research is essential in the investigation and elaboration of the theories that could enable improvements to support the work of teachers and refine the students’ knowledge assimilation in schools.
The Interrelations of Theory, Practice, and Research
The educational theories, practices, and research are interrelated and support each other. Through practice and evaluation of the outcomes, it is possible to detect the issues that require changing. Usually, the theory’s development takes place when the problems are revealed. Although this rule may not be universal, it is much easier to identify the direction towards improvement when dealing with the actual problem. The everyday teaching practice itself prompts the ways for the educational methods and systems development. However, the research is meant to support theories and provide the necessary evidence. When proportionally combined, educational practices, theories, and research ensure the creation of the right teaching environment and better methods application.
Personal Experience and Goals
With long-term experience in education, I have seen the variety of challenges elementary school teachers face in their professional practice. In the generalist educational systems, the teachers are responsible for a vast range of subjects: mathematics, reading, spelling, social studies, etc. However, the generalist approach to elementary education didn’t prove to be efficient because “a teacher who is responsible for teaching a wide variety of subject matter cannot possibly be an expert in each area” (Andrews, 2006, p. 6). This inefficiency provokes poor students’ performance, and it also has a few more negative impacts on teachers’ time management and the level of job satisfaction.
One of the most significant goals for me is thus the investigation of the new techniques and methods that would provide advancement in educational products and the development of knowledge concerning the issues of education. It is necessary to create an environment that would be beneficial for both teachers and students. According to some scholars, the implementation of the elementary school departmentalization provides great benefits improving the class and time management, making teachers more specialized in a subject and able to transmit in-depth knowledge to their students (Moore, 2008, p. 41). The increase in the teacher’s specialization is crucial for better students’ performance, especially in science classes (Strohl, Schmertzing, Schmertzing, & Hsiao, 2014, p. 111). Therefore, further research of departmentalization has immense importance for education because it has a great potential for resolving the current problems, and it would provide the necessary changes for the better.
The Learnt Skills
The work throughout the course has personal and professional development in its purpose. Personal growth allows the deepening of knowledge and sharpening of the researching skills that will help to make a greater contribution to the field. During the course, I have learned to apply APA formatting style and the Academic Integrity Policy and create the annotated bibliography as well. These skills are necessary for writing a readable, consistent, and well-structured paper that sticks to the rules of ethics and honesty in research. The annotated bibliographies constitute a convenient reference basis. The evaluation of works makes it easier to address the sources while writing a paper. These skills help to work on research more productively; however, it is also important to achieve a greater improvement in the skills of the profound text analysis and the precise goals’ formulation and visualization. The determination of the actionable goals assists the research conduction. The research findings are dependent on the skill of the objectives elaboration and articulation to a great extent. In my opinion, I have achieved a certain amount of success in the goals’ formulation; nevertheless, some more improvement of this issue will ensure more significant results. The ability to analyze the previous papers and findings is one of the keys to the required improvement because it liberalizes and allows taking into consideration the multiple views and alternative opinions. The vast perspective makes research well-elaborated and profound.
Conclusion
The research of the educational issues is crucial for the creation of a favorable teaching environment that would be beneficial for teachers and their students. Education requires a lot of responsibility from all the specialists who are engaged in it, and the responsibility concerns many aspects: execution, knowledge, ethics, etc. The researchers and teachers need to do their best the improvement of skills and abilities because success, all in all, depends on their commitment to the occupation they love.
References
Andrews, D. (2006). Departmentalization in the 5th-grade classroom: Re-thinking the elementary school model. Actions Research Projects, 10: 1-21.
Moore, D. (2008). Classroom organizational structures as related to student achievement in upper elementary grades in Northeast Tennessee Public Schools. Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 1968: 1-115. Web.
Strohl, A., Schmertzing, L., Schmertzing, R., & Hsiao, E. (2014). Comparison of self-contained and departmentalized elementary teachers’ perceptions of classroom structure and job satisfaction. Journal of Studies in Education, 4(1), 109-127.