EDU 695 Week 1 DQ 1 Vision for Teaching and Learning

Vision for Teaching and Learning. Teachers have a powerful role in the classroom and larger school community. School teachers, administrators, and educators/ trainers make hundreds of decisions a day; these decisions affect many people. As such, it is important for educators to ground their decisions in research and in a vision. In this course, you will learn how to make data-based decisions based on action research principles and apply many of the principles of your MAED program. But before you can do that, you must explore, reflect upon, and solidify your own beliefs about teaching and learning, especially for diverse student populations. This vision will continue to evolve and will continually be refined as you gain more experience and practice.

Read Phelps’ article entitled, “Helping Teachers Become Leaders.” Compare his statement with at least two vision statements that you find via a Google search. In the discussion forum, create your own vision statement. Phelps provides an example in the article. As Phelps (2008) suggests, go beyond mantras such as “all students can learn.” The heart of your vision should address an educational dilemma in a diverse learning context. For example, a possible dilemma in the mantra “all students can learn,” is that there are teachers who believe that some students do not learn which is indicative of a “one size fits all” type of teaching. Your vision statement will address a problem you see in education and describe how you choose to solve that problem. Reflect on how your beliefs will influence your classroom practices. As Phelps indicates,“Formulating one’s vision in writing makes its achievement more likely” (p. 120).