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Running head: STATEMENT OF INFORMED BELIEFS

Statement of Informed Beliefs Essay

Saedee Barfuss
Mrs. Carol Billing
EDUC 204 Families, Communities, & Culture
T, 1:00-2:15, Spring 2015

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Statement of Informed Beliefs Essay

All Students Can Learn
Every student has the ability to learn, the hard part is finding ways to teach so that all of your
students can learn and understand the material. We as teachers need to figure out what our
responsibility is and where to start. How do you educate for adaptability? this came from our
book and I think it is great. Our book also brings up ideas about where to start teaching and
whether or not to focus on the student as an individual or promote group activities. All of these
questions and more come into play when we try to figure out how to teach our students.
Intentional socialization is something we do as humans and as teachers on a regular basis.
These are values that we consistently convey to the child, and we either follow through with
approval or a negative consequence. An example of this is asking an 8-year-old to help pick up
the toys with his younger sister. We are informing the child that this is something that they
should continue to do with or without being asked. We are teaching out kids that this is how to
socialize with others. Doing this in the classroom is one way to ensure that all kids learn. Doing
group activities and asking the kids to all work together shows them how to socialize.
Along with intentional socialization I believe that keeping a variety of activities for lessons
and allowing the kids to experiment to find a way they learn best is very important. I think that
being creative and having your students help plan activities and assignments will ensure their
understanding and ability to learn the subject matter. Having the kids help plan activities and
teach the lessons will allow opportunities for the students to learn in different ways. This will
help me as a teacher ensure that they are learning and understanding the material.

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I think that the best way to manage and lead a classroom is to ensure that there is a balance
between learning, fun, communication, and organization. Having these components I believe that
a classroom can be kept under control and that all students can have the chance to learn. Each
teacher has their way of running a classroom and it will take time to figure out how I as a teacher
will run mine but we all have to find that balance that allows the kids freedom to learn but still
lets us control what is being learned. Keeping the kids involved will be one of the ways that I
will run my classroom to ensure that everyone can learn.
Teachers Expectations
As students we try to live up to the expectations of others, and if we are given higher
expectations we try harder to meet them, whereas if we are not given many expectations we
dont try as hard. Our text gives a great example of how teachers expectations of students can
help or hinder a students academic achievement. Rosenthal and Jacobson came up with an
experiment that was designed to pick out the intellectual bloomers. Students took and IQ test
and the experimenters gave the teacher a random list from their class roster and said these are the
intellectual bloomers. Towards the end of the school year the students were asked to take the
same IQ test and it showed that the students who were on the random list given to the teacher
had excelled. These findings demonstrate the power of living up to expectation. (pg.
221) This experiment showed that what a teacher expects from a student can help or hinder the
students academic learning. The list of students that were given to the teacher performed better
on the second test because the teacher thought those students were the intellectual bloomers
and so the teacher expected them to be that way.
In the real world teachers usually get data from previous teachers about a students
test scores and behavior. From this the teacher makes their own expectations of students

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for the coming year. Brophy and some of his colleagues go over this in more detail on page 221,
but because the teacher comes up with expectations for each student the teacher then tends to
treat students differently based on those expectations. When teachers come up with different
expectations for their students the students can tell because they are treated differently. Having
expectations for students is great but teachers have to be careful about how they treat their
students or that could hinder some students ability and willingness to learn. Teachers
expectations can also be influenced by characteristics, background, personality, and other
traits the student has that are different from other students.
Educational goals can be anything from learning to write a paper to understanding a math
problem to graduating. Educational goals are especially important for those students with
disabilities. Educational goals for students with disabilities could be anything like tying ones
shoes or washing hands or sitting still for a minute. Though their goals are different from ours
they are still educational goals. Goals are important no matter what the situation is. Goals and
teacher expectations go together really well. Without the teachers expectations and goals that are
placed before the students we as students wouldnt have anything to push ourselves toward.
Teachers have goals for the students and students have educational goals for themselves as well.
The teacher cant be the only one that has educational goals for the student; the student needs to
see that there are expectations to be met and goals that need to be reached. After understanding
what is expected of them the student can figure out their own educational goals and strive to
reach them.
Cultural Diversity Instruction
I grew up in a small town where there were very few cultural differences. However, we
still learned about different cultures around the world. In one of our classes we broke up into

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groups and we had to pick a place somewhere in the world aside from the U.S. and learned about
their cultural differences they had. It was interesting to see where everyone picked and what they
learned about the different things those people did for work, hobbies and meals. This is a great
way for students to learn about different cultures and areas around the world. It was a fun project
that required research and group participation, and I want to do something like that in my
classroom. This allows those students who are from other areas in the world to share about their
culture and teach us something new.
Another way to learn about the different cultures is to do a fun fact every day at the
beginning of class. This way the students are constantly learning something different and you are
able to talk about more cultures this way because there are more days in the school year than
there are kids in the class. You can talk about the different languages and communication styles
among cultures. Among the different cultures are many different religions and beliefs. How
people live and survive is another fun fact you can talk about and compare between different
cultures. There are so many things you can do that only take a few minutes but are so valuable to
those students from a different culture.
Cultural assimilation is the process whereby a minority cultural group takes on the
characteristics of the majority cultural group. I have heard many people state their belief that
residents in the United States need to speak English and follow our rules. They believe that
residents need these skills and traits to communicate properly and to have an understanding of
what cultural expectations and habits are. However, I believe this is not really the case. There are
many people out there that do not know English and that do not follow our rules or celebrate our
holidays. Though I believe that they need to know English and be able to communicate with us if

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they are going to live in America, I also believe that they shouldnt lose the cultural values they
brought with them. They need to hold on to their cultural beliefs and remember who they are.
Cultural pluralism is the mutual appreciation and understanding of various cultures and
coexistences in society of different languages, religious beliefs, and lifestyles. While growing up
I was taught that the U.S. was known as the melting pot where everyone could live in the same
place but still live by their cultural beliefs. I see some cultural pluralism, but I think that there are
more people who grew up thinking that there needed to be cultural assimilation. This could
have just been my little community, but that is what I saw most of the time. Here in Boise I see
more of a mix of the two. I see many more aspects of a melting pot culture here.
Curriculum for all Learners
For any soon-to-be teacher, the first year is sure to seem like a daunting prospect. For
most, it will be difficult to figure out what the best ways to teach are because we are new to
teaching. In order to help curb the difficulty of starting out, we should go into our first year with
an idea of how we might want to teach and what our teaching philosophies are. My philosophy
contains three beliefs: to provide opportunities for both academic and personal growth, include
creative learning experiences, and implement fair and accurate assessments.
Keeping these goals in mind, it is important to recognize how they can be implemented.
Child, Family, School, Community: Socialztion and Support recommends that teachers become
familiar with the implementation of goal structuresa set of factors and principles that help
provide students with a model for recognizing and reaching their goals. In the book, we are
presented with three types of goal structures: cooperative goals, competitive goals and
individualized goals.

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Cooperative goals are centered around having students work together to accomplish
shared goals rather than aiming for personal achievement. This is most frequently done by
having students work on group projects together, requiring them to communicate and share the
work load. Cooperative goals really help the students grow both academically and socially, in
accordance with one of my teaching philosophies.
Competitive goals are tasks that have students compete against each other to achieve the
same goal. Some examples of this include spelling bees and flash card races. Any number of
tasks and games can be applied to a competitive goal in a teaching environment, providing
students with a set of challenges that allow students to feel confidence in themselves and allow
them to push themselves toward a recognized goal and to work to upkeep a minimum standard.
Individualized goals are the last goal type presented in our text. Unlike competitive and
cooperative goals, individualized goals are presented with a set of challenges and achievements
that are independent or unrelated to other students achievements and goals.
Though our teaching philosophies differ from person to person, we are always striving to
find what provides the best opportunities for our studentseven if it means changing our
philosophies and working from the ground up. Any dedicated teaching professional should be
willing to go over many different teaching strategies until they recognize a method that they
believe best helps students learn as much as possible.

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References
Berns, R. (2004). Child, family, school, community: Socialization and support (6th ed.).
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.