More changes for KEISIE

I recently received some interesting news from the graduate school that will hopefully provide more utility for me in the future. A decision was made to move the base of operations for the school from Korea to the US. The school is now incorporated in Arkansas, and it is hoped that US accreditation will be approved in the near future.

The ultimate goal is to gain accreditation that would give teacher certificate approval to the courses, so that any person taking them could swiftly move into teaching in the US. This aspect doesn’t appeal to me so much as the opportunities it would provide me with international schools in Korea.

Dr. Bottiger is confident that full accreditation can be gained before my course of study is finished. This is a nice touch, and is much more than I had hoped for when I signed up for the course.

Dr. Bottiger is committed to keeping fees low even after US accreditation has been awarded, though looking at the costs for accreditation I am not sure if this is feasible. Whilst he seems confident that there will be no increases in cost, I would suggest that anybody considering the course sign up now, and beat any increase though could come from the additional expense of accreditation. Even at double the current prices, the cost of studying at the school would be much cheaper than the alternatives!

Even if accreditation is not achieved before the end of my course, I would suspect that the school would be willing to transfer in most of their old credits to allow an accredited degree to be awarded with minimal fuss.

An Opportunity for Self-Reflection!

I am not the ‘typical’ student for an M.Ed. I made the move into teaching when I was 30 years old, and had very little knowledge of the profession when I made the switch from my former life. I came to Korea with little in the way of teaching qualifications, and I survived on sheer enthusiasm for some time, and it was only after getting married that I knew I would be here long-term, and that teaching would be my living until I can no longer do it.

The KEISIE M.Ed has already proven to be a worthwhile investment. Just 4 weeks into 2 of the education modules and I have already become familiar with theory that has real application in the classroom, and this has been true of both of the courses I am enrolled on at the moment: “Introduction to Education Theory” and “Effective Classroom Practices“.

The first of these courses, the one about Education Theory, is giving me a hard time. The course reading is an old textbook, one that is pivotal to current education thinking, and yet it is one written so long ago that the language is at times unfamiliar to me. The vocabulary is not a problem, but the prose is such that I need to be in the correct frame of mind to be able to read it comfortably, and that frame of mind is difficult to get into with a 16 week old baby in the house.

I find that I am reading “guerilla” style, and am having to snatch a few pages when the opportunity arises. This makes the task quite a difficult one, and to be honest, not very enjoyable.

The material itself is fascinating, and despite its age, has already got me thinking about (and changing) my teaching habits. I feel that, as difficult as I find it, the course will probably be one of the most important ones that help me become a more student-centred teacher, and this can only be good news for the students! The fact that the work is so important in current education theory also means that it is easy to find related pieces when researching for my papers.

The second course, dealing with classroom management, has been fantastic reading on both the first and second units. Not only have I been able to adopt some new techniques, but it has also allowed me to consider my own role as a student, especially in its relation to my roles as a teacher, husband and father, all of which are competing for my precious time!

Over the next week I need to concentrate on 2 group assignments, and I have decided to work on these before tackling any of the research for the third units. Come this week, I will be half way into the courses. I have a feeling there is much to cover before I am done though!

The new session!

The new session at KEISIE Graduate School started 2 weeks ago. Thanks to the preview module I have already taken, I am able to sit just 2 courses this session. This is useful, as the increase in workload coincides with the increased demands of my 3 month old daughter. She is ‘talkative’ and likes to hear herself scream, and that is not helpful when I need to study. Taking 2 courses together has proven difficult when I am only free to study when she is sleeping, though I have managed well enough.

The courses I am taking are “Effective Classroom Practices” and “Introduction to Educational Theory”. The descriptions, as given in the course catalogue, are as follows:

EDU 6030. EFFECTIVE CLASSROOM PRACTICES. (3) This  course focuses  on the management theories, methods  and  approaches  used  in  educational classroom  settings.  Students  enrolled in this  course  will be  challenged to develop an understanding  of  the  relationship between theory and practice as it relates to classroom management.

EDU  6700.  INTRODUCTION TO  EDUCATIONAL  THEORY. (3)  This  course  examines  the  foundational  theories  used  in  education.  Students will explore the  various  models and  theoretical perspectives  used in  education  and determine  their best  use  for  global  educational needs.

I have already submitted the first assignment for each of these courses. The course on “Effective Classroom Practices” is essentially a classroom management course, as you would expect in any education course. The readings were varied, and the first assignment was a simple paper to check my understanding of what classroom management is. Since completing my TEFL course last year, I have continued reading up on TEFL, and so I was familiar with the ideas and concepts. This piece posed no real problems to me.

The second course, “Introduction to Educational Theory” was different! First of all, the readings included a textbook instead of the academic papers that previous courses have relied on. To make matters appear worse, the textbook was old. Very old!

My understanding of ‘theory’ has always been from the perspective of the EFL teacher, and this course deals with educational theory as it relates to all subjects. Any information I already had was marginally useful at best! Being of curious mind, I did some research into why this particular text was chosen. The book was old and the language was almost alien to me, so it was not an easy read. If I could just figure out why I was reading it, I may be able to get through it!

The research into the author answered all of my questions. The book is the foundation for all modern educational theory. The discussion questions that were suggested for the class forums were all about relating the theory to modern issues and determining just how relevant (or irrelevant) the book is today. Once I knew where the reading was going (and that I was only expected to comment on 5 select chapters for now), I was able to muster on and make sense of the book. Thankfully, this book is quoted in many of the theories being published today, so researching the theory was not as impossible as I first imagined. Indeed, the book is of such importance that journals and textbooks are still discussing it today, and many bricks and mortar institutions are also using it as the basis for their educational courses.

The first 2 weeks were difficult, thanks to the newness of the theory subject matter and the increased workload took some getting used to. Still, I feel better for completing it and I look forward to the next few weeks. I already have the next 4 assignments to start working on and I expect they will provide plenty of food for thought over the next few weeks.