My journey through graduate school has been filled with revelations and insights about the American educational system: the mindful choices of videos, readings, and discussions from each course made me reevaluate my own approach towards teaching science content as well as what skills need to be transferred in schools. Globally, the population is experiencing a technological revolution, but skills needed to be successful in such fields are not guaranteed to be used in all classes in a traditional K-12 setting. Because of this, the first focus for future studies, one of which I am already starting now, is to create hybrid courses that consistently use resources to expose students to technology and content simultaneously. To best ensure that students benefit from the new methods that I use, I will develop and use at least one action research plan every year. These two are smaller goals of mine, but ultimately, I would like to publish insights to benefit a greater population of students. 

 

I currently teach chemistry and psychology, and before the pandemic occurred, I rarely required students to use technology outside of conducting general research, and even then, they did not receive much guidance on how to navigate the internet in a scholarly manner. After teaching an entire school year in an entirely digital setting, I realized how much I still needed to learn about other available resources online. For example, there are numerous free websites that present content through various methods, such as videos, readings, and interactive simulations (my favorite to be used in the future is ck12.org). Utilizing technology can also help flip a classroom so that time spent directly with students can be individualized and targeted towards higher order thinking. For example, if lectures can be watched at home, class time can be used to apply the concepts and misconceptions can easily be addressed. Ultimately, it is my goal to use this method to teach both my chemistry and psychology courses, with the possibility to even design self-paced courses so lessons can properly be differentiated for all (and technology makes this possible, especially by using this source as a guide).

 

I cannot successfully adapt a new style of teaching without testing it first, so another goal of mine is to utilize action research methods with my lessons. Action research involves the identification of a “problem” in the classroom and conducting controlled tests to determine what solutions are successful. Possible solutions could be found by analyzing previous research, or even through design models (the most familiar one for me being the Stanford Design Model). My initial target with this is to determine what technology can be used to both motivate students to learn at home and the best methods for students to absorb the content. This can be tested by comparing the outcomes on summative assessments by students who interact with content at home in a variety of ways. I plan to use more action research methods for more than the implementation of technology in a flipped classroom: to avoid complacency with teaching methods, I want to identify at least one aspect of my teaching that I would like to improve upon each year to best provide students with a quality education.

 

I only can do so much within my classroom, but as I continue to push myself to improve, a goal for the distant future is to publish discoveries that I make through action research so more students can benefit. In general and in their current setting, schools are not servicing students with the skills necessary to thrive in the current technological revolution because they are still following the format created for the industrial revolution. In recent years, there has been a lot of research conducted about how schools need to advance in approaching how knowledge is acquired, but it is not yet a mainstream opinion. With less than a decade of experience, I will continue to read such articles to better develop action research plans until I eventually can echo current research in my own article, or even push the research a step further. 

 

The more I envisioned what I would like to accomplish in the future, the more I saw myself staying in the classroom. At times, I think about a leadership position, but I want to continue to work directly with students to see what is beneficial first-hand so that I can share the knowledge with others. Again, I want to work on continuous improvement, and that begins with preparing students for the future with technology and flipped classrooms.

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