Create a narrative describing and reflecting on your experiences as a learner, emphasizing, but not exclusive to, your time in college. A premise of being a reflective learner is the ability to articulate foundational experiences that have shaped how one understands meaningful education. The essay should distinguish between your general education courses and those of your major. Autobiographical information (memories, reflections, self-knowledge) should be synthesized with academic recollections. Writing an "Educational Autobiography" is an attempt by us as learners and professionals to reflect critically on:
a) Key life-educational events that have shaped your educational histories, view of learning, and career goals.
b) What social, cultural, political and economic events have shaped and shape your learning and career goals.
c) What ideological and philosophical constructs have shaped and shape the way you experience learning and your future goals.
d) What career goals grow out of your undergraduate experiences and the reasons you have chosen to go into your field of study.
e) Identify, explain, and explore areas of competence and expertise within your field you have achieved.
f) Assess and explain how you learn best; what themes and areas of general and major-specific study interest you most
For example, what are you like as a learner? What things or characteristics are important to you? What significant memories of educational experiences do you have from college thus far? How would you describe yourself to someone? Have your views on meaningful education changed since you were in the middle school and how? Were there specific individuals who affected and influenced your development? How have your early life experiences (cultural, social, educational) contributed to your development as a person and your decision to enter your field of studt And so on.
Writing an "educational autobiography" is your act of reflective writing!
(Re)Collecting the experiences
The following are some prompts to help you recall your experiences. They refer to experiences that most of us had during school. You can use such experiences to (re)collect content for your statement. But you can also choose different kinds of experiences from your life to construct the content. Be as specific as you can about the times and other details relevant to the events, relationships, etc. Say, for example, "... on a day X, I remember I did this and teacher Y did that and so and so happened." For example,
- Recall a time when you pretended to like a teacher/authority figure you really didn't like.
- Recall a time when you pretended to be someone you weren't so you could fit into a group of school/work peers.
- Recall a time when you got into a fight with a classmate/work friend.
- Recall a time when a teacher or person in an authority position did not listen to you.
- Tell about having a best teacher./boss.
- Recall a time when you did not know what to do.
- Recall a time when you had to make a decision.
- Recall a time when you did not say what you were feeling.
- Recall a time when you did something to make yourself happy.
- Recall a time when someone was disappointed in you.
- Recall a time when you wished you were someone else.
- Recall a time when you were mean to someone else.
- Recall a time when someone was mean to you.
- Tell about an important relationship.
- Recall a time when you did something you wished you hadn't.
Next, try to connect these experiences to your decision to enter your chosen field of study. This is the most difficult part of the assignment because the connection is not obvious. You have to investigate each experience and its relationship to who you are today. For example, it is not enough to say that you had an experience with a good teacher and this developed to your desire to become a teacher and provide your students with the same experiences (or, if you had a bad experience, to protect them from some negative experiences). Perhaps, in your life you also had experiences with a good nurse, a good firefighter and so on. Why did you choose to become a nurse, or a firefighter, not something else? Reflect on how your experiences became part of what directed you to the choice of becoming what you are on the path to become now. How you're your personal experiences relate to events from your college or professional life and your decision to pursue the area of study you are in.?
Combining the experiences into a reflective statement about your decision to become a professional in your area of study
1) Introduction: Begin with a statement introducing your "educational autobiography."
2) Theme- Your theme is a metaphor that ties your whole paper together.
- Carry your theme throughout your entire paper and tie it into the end.
- Examples: ingredients in a recipe, a journey down a road, items found in a closet, crayons in a crayon box, your favorite sport.
- Choose one that comes from YOU! Find a theme that gets you excited to write your story.
3) Coverage: Using chronological writing is necessary, covers time periond from beginning of college to current state. Other experences are welcome
4) Inclusion: Place your reflections within the contexts of social, political and cultural events of the time you are writing. For example, starting school in the 1990s means being in school at a time when the educational discussions/debates were focused on the economy and the challenges of the 21st century etc. Starting or being in scho0l in 2001 and the years after means being in school during an era deeply affected by the tragedy of the 9/11 events. What was the impact of such broader social/cultural events on your educational experiences?
5) Focus: Be a critical reflector on your past experiences.
a. Develop alternatives and reflect on positive and negative learning / teaching experiences.
b. Reflect on how the events you have written about shaped and will shape your experiences as a learner and professional.
c. Critically reflect on how others (adults, peers etc.) shaped and / or influenced you as a learner and ultimatley a professonal
6) Flow: The narration of the story flows, includes brief introspection on social, political, cultural, and education experiences and relates to your current interest in your profession.
- The theme should help with this.
- "Brief introspection on your life"= your opinions on how it impacted your thoughts in your field, among other issues.
7) Self-Revelation: Your paper is personal and authentic.
- You demonstrate your willingness to stretch beyond your comfort zone, take a risk, and share the experiences that have REALLY shaped who you are and have led you to your field of study/profession.
- Use only personal information that is appropriate to the theme, purpose, and audience for this paper.
- We will be sharing our papers with the class and responding to them.
8) Conclusion: Conclude your educational autobiography by a summarizing statement written by one engaging in reflection.
- Write in first person and present tense
- Remind the reader about the key event and how it links up with a bigger picture in terms of how you understand its implications
- Keep to the scope of the personal /concept significance - don't add any new ideas you haven't discussed before.
Attachment:- educational autobiography explanation.rar