Undergraduate Students

Many undergraduate students getting their major in education will be taking classes like Human Diversity and Creative Development classes. In these classes they will learn the basics about different styles of teaching. Specific ways to teach to students from different countries and also teaching to special needs students. Most of the classes involve observation of different classrooms or observational learning. Evaluating what you would do in certain situations in the classroom. Deciding the best type of teaching styles; and the best stategies for teaching and applying those methods to real life situations.

Argument in Education

One argument in education that I found was about human diversity in the classroom. They discussed different ideas on how to treat and educate children from different backgrounds or from different countries. Some kids may learn in different ways than others do depending on certain factors in where and how they grew up. Many educators will be faced with the challenge of teaching children who speek little to no english. This is somthing that has to be addressed on ways in which all teachers can help students get the education that they need, if they need extra attention. The argument is that some students need individual attention, over everyone getting the same treatment in the classroom.

Interview with a Graduate Student

My friend Josh is a graduate student in Education and is currently finishing an internship for this semester. He is enrolled in a class called Block 4 Internship, in which he teaches three days a week at Heights Elementary here in Fort Myers. At the moment he is only teaching mathmatics but is required to write lesson plans for the students. He takes the problems from their text books and has to think of creative ways in which to teach his fourth grade students. Making sure that everyone is truly understanding the material and keeping up with the class. The internship is giving him a lot of the experience he needs in order to become a teacher.

APA format information

Education majors use APA (American Pyschological Association) format to look professional, to communicate important information, and helps avoid plagarism.

APA Basic Rules:

• everything must be double spaced and indent (one tab) the first line of every paragraph
• one inch margins on all 4 sides of your paper
• the only two fonts that are allowed are Times New Roman and Courier (size 12)
• use unbiased language- ex. when discussing gender you cannot pick just one gender use "they"

Citing Sources:

• Author (Date) or (Author, Date)
• when using a direct quote Author (Date) notes, "..." (p. #). or "..." (Author, Date, p. #).
• if the source has two authors, cite both names Author and Author (Date) or (Author & Author, Date)

electronic sources:

• if you have the option between html or PDF, always choose PDF because it will most likely be closer to the actual text
• also note the date you retrieved the source because the web is constantly changing
• if there are no page numbers use the paragraph symbol or "para."

block quotes:

• must be 40 words or more
• if the introduction to the quote is a complete sentence it is followed by a :
• if the introduction to the quote ends in the verb writes, claims, states, ect. it is followed by ,
• if the introduction to the quote ends in the word "that" it does not get any punctuation

References: aka works cited in MLA format

• alphabetize the list of references
• APA only uses intials instead of the author's first and middle name
• citing a periodical: Last name, FI. MI. (Date) Title of article: Subtitle of article. Title of Periodical, volume #(issue #), page #. doi: #

* where I bolded in "Title" and "Subtitle" are the only capital letters in the title of the article unless there is a proper noun in the title, the title of the periodical and the volume number must be italized, and doi stands for digital object identifier which is located on the hard copy of the periodical APA requires you to have the doi number.

• citing a book: Lastname, FI. MI. (Date). Title of work. Location: Publisher.
• citing a chapter in a book: Last name, FI. MI. (Date). Title of chapter. In FI. Lastname (Ed.), Title of book. (pp. #). Location: Publisher.

* if there is more then one editior then following the editors first initial and last name would be (Eds.) IMPORTANT: no matter what kind of source you are citing in APA, only the first letter of the title gets capitalized unless there is a proper noun in the title

• citing online periodicals: the same format as the hard copies of periodicals UNLESS the online version has no DOI: then it would still be the same format but where you put the doi # you would put the words Retrieved from source (fill in what source you found the periodical)
• citing an online document: Last name, FI. MI. (Date). Title of work. Retrieved month day, year, from source

Carol Maksian, the Reference Librarian for Education

Overview of information from the interview:

Research materials in Library West:

downstairs: all education periodicals are in the rows of books marked L, there are newspapers/magazines to the right of Library West that relate to education, microfilms available with a room where you can view them, ect.

upstairs: more periodicals, curriculum books which are available in teachers edition and children's books (mostly best sellers or award winners)

Education Research Guides: clicking on the education research guide brings you to a page with several guides to different education levels and education related guides (elementary ed, general ed, curriculum & instruction, ect.). These guides allow you to view where you can find related articles, stats, web resources, journals, books, and citations that are related to the guide you selected. Using these guides makes researching easier and quicker than typing the topic in to the general article/database search and looking through tons of articles.

Helpful Information:

• most of the periodicals that were published after 1990 can be accessed online in full text
• RefWorks cites any source for you- located on the library homepage under Help & Instruction
• Carol Maksian is in the library Monday-Friday 10:00-noon & 2:00-4:00

The reference librarians are extremely useful and more than willing to help you out...

USE THEM!

A Professor's Perspective

Shelby Gilbert, the professor of several different education classes at FGCU, explains that depending on which education course you enroll in the research will differ. Her definition of "typical research" on the topic of education includes reading about current events, writing book reviews, searching journal articles, ect. Topics in which she feels that education majors should research for future reference are current education issues, learning theories, behavioral and psychological theories, instructional theories, and content-specific topics. She also says that when writing research papers, education majors are required to use the APA style because it is the "required style of the discipline."
Professor Gilbert requires her students to complete an issue analysis paper in the Introduction to Education class, but depending on what education class you take it can differ. When I asked about the analysis paper she explained, "I have asked students to research a current or controversial issue in education, choose a position to promote, then use findings from their research to support their positions."