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Individual Learning Plan

Connor Lewis

Walden University

Dr. Phyliss Ellett

Education 6610J

February 20, 2020

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Individual Learning Plan

Reflection can be a great tool for teachers to improve. According to Loan (2019),

reflective practices can be a way for teachers to develop greater self-awareness about their

abilities and can promote growth and development. Walden University’s Richard W. Riley

College of Education and Leadership (RWRCEL) also sees the benefit of reflection. The

RWRCEL has candidates complete a Disposition Survey to reflect on their teaching practices

(Laureate Education, 2016). The Disposition Survey is a three part survey including Candidate

Dispositions, National Board For Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) Five Core

Propositions, and Technology Proficiencies (Laureate Education, 2016). As a current RWRCEL

student I have completed the Disposition Survey and reflected on each of the three sections

(Laureate, 2016). Reflection has allowed me to see my strengths as an educator, my weaknesses,

and look for ways to improve my teaching practice by creating various S.M.A.R.T. goals to

improve my weaknesses. 

After completing the Candidate Dispositions section of the Disposition Survey, I believe

one area I am proficient in is equity (Laureate Education, 2016). I demonstrate equity by creating

a classroom that is inclusive to all learners and encourages students to bring their various cultural

beliefs and values. The various assignments in my classroom ask students to incorporate their

cultural beliefs by asking students to create various works about their family, hobbies, and

interests.  According to Bunner (2017), students can make better connections when teachers use

information that is interesting to them. I ask students to include family, hobbies, and interests

because it allows me to get to know my students and helps students stay engaged with the

curriculum. 
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Another area in the Candidate Dispositions section of the Disposition Survey I believe I

am proficient in is advocacy (Laureate Education, 2016). I demonstrate advocacy by creating a

learning environment that is fair, teaches problem-solving skills, and meets the needs of all

students in my class. I create advocacy in my classroom by having a self-paced class that makes

students responsible for their learning and teaches problem-solving skills. A study by Fox and

Docherty (2019) claims students in self-paced classrooms often express positive views towards

self-paced curriculum and believe it helps them with problem-solving and critical thinking

skills. In my class students watch videos that guide them to complete various assignments. I have

seen an increase in critical thinking skills from using these videos.

The Candidate Disposition section of the Disposition Survey has also allowed me to

reflect on areas I need to improve in as an educator (Laureate, 2016). One area I believe I can

improve in is professional development. According to Saydam (2019), teachers see professional

development as a way to continue learning and a way to improve in their practice.  Professional

development opportunities are rare. My district does not communicate with staff members about

professional development conferences and events. This makes seeking these opportunities

difficult. As an educator, I am interested in improving my teaching practice and believe

professional development opportunities could help me do this. 

As a result of my weak Disposition Survey score in professional development, I have

created a S.M.A.R.T. goal to help me improve (Laureate Education, 2016). My smart goal is I

will attend one event held by the Illinois Business Education Association by December 1, 2020.

To achieve this goal I will talk with my principal about my interest in improving my professional

development. I will meet with my principal after this event to discuss how the event helped me
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as an educator. At the event, I will take notes and come up with a list of ideas that I could

implement in my classroom. 

Another area that I can improve in according to the Disposition Survey is asking more

thought-provoking questions that evoke good responses (Laureate Education, 2016). Questioning

students and using this as a method to assess their learning is one area that I have always

struggled with as a teacher. At my school, we use the Danielson Framework for teacher

evaluations. I have been a part of this evaluation for two years and the one area that I have not

scored excellent in is questioning techniques. According to Nurika, Joko, and Suparno (2020)

teachers questioning is considered one of the essential techniques for educators. Nurika et al.

(2020) also claim questioning can assist students in critical thinking and creativity. I believe

improving in this area can help me become a better educator and increase my evaluation score.

As a result of my questioning techniques being an area of concern for my Disposition

Survey, I thought it would be appropriate to create a S.M.A.R.T. goal to help me improve

(Laureate, 2016). My goal is to improve my questioning techniques evaluation score by March 1,

2021. I will do this to improve my professional practice. To achieve this goal, I will collaborate

with my evaluator, mentor teacher, and watch various videos to help me improve my questioning

techniques. I will meet with my evaluator and mentor teacher once a month to discuss my

progress and go over new strategies. I will also journal about my lessons to document my

improvement and use it as a reflection tool.

 After completing the NBPTS Five Core Propositions Section of the Disposition Survey, I

found one area I am proficient in is subject knowledge (Laureate Education, 2016). I demonstrate

subject knowledge because I have an understanding for the subject and teach students the real-

world application of the content. An example of this is in my computer class students learn to use
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the various Microsoft Office products. Students learn various skills in each program and also

learn how to create flyers, format papers, create budgets, and other various real-world applicable

skills. Stohlmann, Yang, Huang, and Olson (2019), claim teachers creating realistic problems are

important for students’ conceptual understanding of the content.

The NBPTS section of the Disposition Survey also allowed me to reflect on areas I need

to improve in as an educator (Laureate, 2016). One area I believe I can improve in is

communicating more with students’ parents. The NBPTS section of the Disposition Survey asks

candidates to assess themselves on how well they work with parents and engage parents with

activities and events happening in school. This is one area that I currently struggle with. I have

minimal parent contact. The majority of my conversation with parents takes place during parent

teacher conferences. According to Krane and Klevan (2019), parental involvement can lead to

better teacher and student relationship, which can lead to student success.

As a result of my weakness in communicating with students' parents, I have created a

S.M.A.R.T. goal to help me improve (Laureate Education, 2016). My goal is to increase the

amount of parent contact, by sending out monthly newsletters for my computer skills class. I

plan to accomplish this goal by June 1, 2020. I will do this by journaling daily about the lessons

that I have taught. I will then draft an newsletter and send it to parents on the last day of each

month. I will set an alert on my phone to ensure that I send out the newsletter each month. 

The last section of the Disposition Survey is Technology Proficiencies (Laureate

Education, 2016). After completing this section of the survey I found facilitating learning to be

my strongest attribute (Laureate Education, 2016). This section questions candidates on how they

use technology to engage students in their classroom and engage students in real-world problem

solving (Laureate Education, 2016). I demonstrate facilitation of learning in my classroom by

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using appropriate technologies to assess my students. Students in my class use computers as the

main form of assessment where students create documents or answer various questions using

different software programs. I also do a good job of facilitating the learning environment by

using technology to create authentic assessments that have real-world application. An example of

this is having students create various business documents such as a waiver, projected revenue

sheet, and a memorandum. This is an area of strength, because I believe using technology as a

learning tool and assessment strategy can benefit students. This idea is supported by McKnight,

O'Malley, Ruzic, Horsley, Franey, and Bassett (2016) who found that students who used

technology as a learning tool tend to be more engaged in their learning compared to students who

rely on the teacher as their main source of learning. 

After looking at one of my strengths in the Technology Proficiencies section of the

Disposition Survey, I also looked at a weakness (Laureate Education, 2016). My weakness as an

educator is I do not use digital media tools to communicate with families, colleagues, and

community stakeholders to improve student learning. According to Mazer and Thompson

(2016), using digital media platforms that can be accessed on smartphones can increase

communication between parents and teachers. Therefore I believe using digital media tools to

communicate with various stakeholders is something that could benefit me.

Ever since discovering that I do not use digital media tools to communicate with various

stakeholders I have been looking for various ways to improve. I have decided the best way I can

improve in this area is to create a S.M.A.R.T. goal. My goal is to create a twitter account for my

digital media class by April 1, 2020. Creating this twitter account will allow me to communicate

with students, parents, and other stakeholders. I will create weekly posts that showcase the

various projects and assignments students are working on.  Doing this will give students an
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authentic audience. According to Lee and Hannafin (2016), student motivation is increased by

having an authentic audience. 

 The Disposition Survey has allowed me to see the areas in my teaching practice that I am

strong and areas where I need to improve. I believe the goals I have set in place will help me to

improve my weaknesses and improve my overall professional practice. According to Landers,

Bauer, and Callan (2017), goals setting can be effective especially when the task is simple and

the parameters to the goal are specific. I believe each S.M.A.R.T. goal I have created can be

achieved. 
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References

Bunner, T. (2017). When We Listen: Using Student Voices to Design Culturally Responsive and

Just Schools. Knowledge Quest, 45(3), 39-45.

Fox, W. H., & Docherty, P. D. (2019). Student perspectives of independent and collaborative

learning in a flipped foundational engineering course. Australasian Journal of

Educational Technology, 35(5), 79-94.

Landers, R. N., Bauer, K. N., & Callan, R. C. (2017). Gamification of task performance with

leaderboards: A goal setting experiment. Computers in Human Behavior, 71, 508-515.

Laureate Education. (2016). Dispositions Survey. EDUC 6610

Lee, E., & Hannafin, M. J. (2016). A design framework for enhancing engagement in student-

centered learning: Own it, learn it, and share it. Educational technology research and

development, 64(4), 707-734.

Loan, N. T. T. (2019). Reflective teaching in an EFL writing instruction course for Thai pre-

service teachers. Journal of Asia TEFL, 16(2), 561.

Krane, V., & Klevan, T. (2019). There are three of us: parents’ experiences of the importance of

teacher-student relationships and parental involvement in upper secondary school.

International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 24(1), 74-84.

Mazer, J. P., & Thompson, B. (2016). Parental academic support: A validity report.

Communication Education, 65(2), 213-221.

McKnight, K., O'Malley, K., Ruzic, R., Horsley, M. K., Franey, J. J., & Bassett, K. (2016).

Teaching in a digital age: How educators use technology to improve student learning.

Journal of research on technology in education, 48(3), 194-211.

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Nurika Mustika1, nurikamustika11@gmail. co., Joko Nurkamto1, jokonurkamto@staff. uns. ac.

i., & Suparno Suparno1, drs. suparno@rocketmail. co. (2020). Influence of Questioning

Techniques in Efl Classes on Developing Students’ Critical Thinking Skills.

International Online Journal of Education & Teaching, 7(1), 278–287. Retrieved from

https://search-ebscohost-com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=eue&AN=141472622&site=ehost-live&scope=site

SAYDAM, D. dkucuk@metu. edu. t. (2019). Teachers’ Beliefs on Professional Learning.

Hacettepe University Journal of Education, 34(4), 915–925. Retrieved from

https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/841379

Stohlmann, M., Yang, Y., Huang, X., & Olson, T. (2019). Fourth to Sixth Grade Teachers’

Invented Real World Problems and Pictorial Representations for Fraction Division.

International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, 15(1), em0557.