Basically, the course has raised my level of awareness of the status of education, the different educational institutions and how education is implemented in both local and international contexts. I appreciate the way the different topics were presented because they were all taken from real life studies and backed up by genuine experiences of the educators and analysts in the field. One thing I like about the way the class was handled is that it did not demand memorization of concepts for, as long as you read the different readings in every topic and relate them to your educational experiences or what you have observed and reflect on it, that is the way things are learned in this course. I appreciate it because, even though the pen and paper test is not the way it is learned here, this course makes use of reflection writing which is one of the highest cognitively demanding learning strategies, according to Bloom’s taxonomy of cognitive skills. Reflecting on something that is under evaluation is the highest level of all the cognitive skills presented by Benjamin Bloom. So, before one is able to reflect on something, he/she must have already proceeded beyond knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis and synthesis, which are the other categories of cognitive skills ranging from the lowest to the highest. This implies that one must fully understand what the reading is all about by applying the other cognitive skills and evaluate it by thinking about how it is demonstrated in society, based on one’s experience. This makes the course special – it is experience-based. In addition, the writing of the term paper taught me a lot. It made me realize that findings prior to taking the course need to be documented.  Finally, the course has made me critical as a classroom teacher about the way education is carried out on all levels of society, how valuable learning is that takes place outside the formal school system, and it has increased my understanding of the role of language and culture in education.

-Sharon Estioca

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