Stephen R. Dalby
A Truly Educated Man Never Ceases to Learn
In 2012, I began my Master of Arts program at Michigan State University. To say I was excited about this opportunity would be an understatement. As I reflect upon my goals when I originally started the program, I am reminded of one of my favorite quotes that was given by a religious leaders named Gordon B. Hinckley. Said he,
“A truly educated man never ceases to learn.”
I have thought about this on several occasions and have come to the conclusion that there is something really special about the process of learning. To me, anytime we have an opportunity to influence the life of another is quite a special thing! Learning has so much to do with progression, improvement, development and becoming. It sparks, creates, flows naturally, and deepens with time. In 2012, I was excited about the opportunity to continue on this journey of becoming and deepening my learning here at MSU. Now that I am almost at the end of my journey, my goals are still the same, but my approach and end result goals are quite different.
One of the most important goals that I had as I began the program was to improve the quality of the learning experience for my students. Measuring how things are going in my classroom is no simple task, but the word that I have noticed when things are going well is, engagement. It seems to me that when students are engaged in the learning process the entire experience is amplified. While my opinion on measuring classroom success has remained the same, the approach on how to get there seems to be different. One of the classes that I took (CEP 882) really deepened my understanding of how to arrive to such a point in the classroom. It was during this class that I began to ask myself this question; what percentage of the class am I speaking, and what percentage of the class are my students speaking? While engagement can be present while the teacher is speaking, I have also noticed that engagement is raised a notch when the students are sharing and explaining their insights.
Intrinsically connected to the first goal is that of my own personal growth and continued path of education. As stated above, I also believe that, “A truly educated man never ceases to learn.” And one of the questions that has been crossing my mind is how am I going to continue to progress on that path. Another class that I had that was quite special was EAD 860, (Concepts of a learning society). In this course it really dawned on me that my learning and progression really started in my adolescence and has continued till the present day.
In summary, I'm not sure that my goals have really changed all that much since I began my journey in this program. At the forefront of my mind has always been to increase the quality of the learning experience for my students, and to continue to improve in my personal growth and development. While there has been much that I have learned along the way since I began this program, as Steve Jobs once said, “The journey is, the reward.”