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Evaluating a Discussion Response – Education

Overview

This activity is to be completed after studying the presentation, Turning Your Review of the Literature into a Draft Answer, and its accompanying discussion questions.

For this activity, you will evaluate a sample response to the discussion question with which you worked earlier. Please read the sample response below and then follow the directions to evaluate the response.

In existentialist education, the teacher plays a crucial role. What intellectual characteristics should a person have to be a teacher from the existentialist point of view? Which of these qualities have you seen in yourself or in your colleagues? Conversely, what should an existentialist teacher avoid?

Sample Response to the Discussion Question

According to Ozmon (2012), from the existentialist point of view, teachers should have the following intellectual characteristics:

• “Construct educational methods that provide an openness to the world for themselves and their students” (p. 234)
• “Teachers should have strong beliefs and commitments of their own” (p. 238).
• “Teachers should treat students with a sense of equality and mutual respect” (p. 238).
• Educators “must act with courage to fulfill the notion of true individuality in one’s own teaching” (p. 238).

A teacher that exhibits Existentialist methods needs to pose qualities that enable them to:

• Promote free spirit.
• Stand firm.
• Expect students to make their own choices.

“Many educational theorists who embrace existentialist ideas urge that teacher should have strong beliefs and commitments of their own but that they should not expect students to accept these beliefs unless the students have thought them out for themselves” (Ozmon, 2012, p. 238).

I have seen teachers act superior and authoritative toward students. I have also seen the negative affect this can have on the student. These teachers seem to be unaware of this affect. It should be avoided. They need to be more “wide-awake” as Greene would describe (Ozmon, 2012, p. 239).

For me, the biggest quality I’ve seen in myself is treating students with mutual respect. My first and only year as a teacher, I had a student who had a reputation for being a “bad” kid. I decided I would approach him in a different light and asked him what he wanted and expected from me as his teacher. His one word response was, “Respect.” I always knew what kind of day I would have with him the first five minutes of each school day. I never pushed or demanded, I simply asked him to do what he could! At the end of the school year, my “bad kid” and I shared tears and he thanked me for being understanding and patient with him.

An existentialist teacher should avoid expecting students to accept their “beliefs unless the students have thought them out for themselves” (p. 238). They should also avoid institutions that practice and use curriculum that is a shared structured learning where the “teacher is pulled into spending time controlling students, and students are drawn into defeating teacher control” (Ozmon, 2012, p.234). So an existentialist teacher would not be able to function well working  at a school that uses a shared structured learning curriculum.

Reference

Ozmon, H. A. (2012). Philosophical foundations of education (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Directions

After you have read the sample response:

1. Use the Reverse Outline to help you revise the organization of the sample response.
2. Then, use the MEAL Plan to examine and evaluate the individual components of these paragraphs. When you have completed these steps, please answer the following questions:
   • Based on your work in the two previous discussion questions, identify and discuss how the sample response addresses the content issues and levels of analysis in the discussion question. If any components were missing, identify them.
   • Identify and discuss the composition of the introduction, body, and conclusion. How can these sections be improved?
   • Evaluate how well the introduction restates the question and introduces the response.
   • Evaluate the details, evidence, and logical support for the main points of the response (these should have been outlined in the introductory paragraph).

The answers should be written in a Word document, using correct APA format and style. The answer does not need to have a title page, abstract, or table of contents. Begin with a brief introduction explaining the main points of the paper. In the main body, identify the answer being given with a correctly formatted section heading, using Level 1 headings. A conclusion should follow the main body. Include a reference list for any sources used, which should also be correctly cited in the paper.

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Doc. reference: phd_t1_soe_u06a1_h03_evaldisc.html