CRITICAL REFLECTION ESSAY
The art of writing a successful essay is referring to the ability to analyze, evaluate and synthesize. All mentioned above thinking skills are related to the higher order thinking abilities, whereas, recalling, understanding and applying are connected with the lower order thinking skills according to the taxonomy of Bloom. It is always a challenge to gather all parts of the information in order to answer the target question and stick to the point. Therefore, if people are skilled in essay writing they can think critically because the critical thinking is an ability to analyze, evaluate a lot of resources in order to create a relevant and sensible answer.
The essay about the STEM education was not an exception. To complete that assignment all needed stages starting with the gathering the information till the final file proofreading were passed. That was not so easy because the aim of the writing task was to do a research on the new approach in teaching Math, Science, Technology and Engineering at schools in the line with the development of new innovative thinking. The times when the jobs such as a lawyer, an economist, and a manager were recognized as the most fashionable and prestigious have passed. More and more innovative well-paid projects connecting with the natural and technical subjects are being opened, and, therefore, the number of youngsters who want to become engineers are growing rapidly from day to day. So, the task to find some proper information about STEM education seemed easy at the first glance. However, when opened Google the number of sources from different libraries and e-journals made me shocked. It is necessary to add that this part is always the most difficult for me. Google Chrome always freezes after opening a significant number of tabs opened. Taking into account that all sources must not be older that 5 years I removed all related to the ‘deep past’ as well as to the advertisements and entertainments. The name ‘Pearson’ attracted my eyes. This company is famous for its educational programs as well as its printed hard copies and their e-versions of many well-structured books that are really precious in science nowadays. There were the first ones who started to issue the textbooks for different schooling systems not only orienting on the internal but also external market. The schoolbooks of Science, Social Studies, Math, Economics and so on were issued by this company for the countries such as Kazakhstan, Russia, Malasia, etc., which began to introduce the methods and technologies of content-language-integrating learning into their own national educational systems. Therefore, I chose Pearson edition as one of the most relevant and up-to-date sources. I also liked how Hansen (376) described STEM pointing out the necessity of inquiry-based learning which is the student-orienting and preparing future adults to solve various problems thinking critically. Also, Savery (12) claimed that the role of teachers had to be changed completely from their dominance and dictation what to do with the students freedom to choose the best material and the best style of learning to define their educational role. It reminded me how tricky the choice of freedom can be. People used to rely on the authorities not to take their own responsibilities. It is very comfortable in case if something goes wrong. In this case, you will always have the one who you will be able to accuse of your failure. I also respected the arguments of Saver (13) who discussed all advantages of STEM education in relation to the future professional background. Such content-oriented learning will definitely help future graduates with the choice of their jobs taking into account only their own logic and interests rather than their parents of friends’ ones.
Since I knew that the target audiences were the teachers and other students who doubted the inclination of the student-centered education I should have been as convincing as possible to prove that STEM education has the much more obvious benefit rather than the drawbacks. This part was surprisingly easy for me because I was completely agreeing with that. Everything you completely approve is much easier to declare to persuade others. The only problem was to choose the most credible citations to quote them because all written by chosen writers seemed very valuable and precious.
So, to sum up, the essay writing is the whole process of thinking included all steps from gathering the information to the implementation with your own vision and point of view (Benander, 14). If you manage to write a good and successful essay, it means that you learned how to think critically at last and ready to make any complex decisions no matter how hard they can be. The problem of choice is the most complicated for me. I always spend much time to choose the credible and relevant information to answer the main question written on the assignment sheet. This step is referring to the analytical skills so I need to pay attention to the development of this stage of critical thinking. But the most challenging for me is to be able to synthesize all parts in order to create the new original masterpiece. Yes, I consider each new essay as a masterpiece because all genius works have been born after the years of hard work for them. However, coming from the fear not to be understood and the necessity of revision you feel on cloud nine when you essay is admitted and recognized as successful and making sense. You feel as you become more mature with the broadened minds and expanded horizons. Such a result is worth all night without sleeping and constant process of deep thinking, without any doubts.
Works Cited:
Miller, Frederic P., Agnes F. Vandome, John McBrewster, and Benjamin Samuel Bloom. Bloom's Taxonomy. Beau Bassin, Mauritius: Alphascript Pub., 2010. Print.
Hansen, Michael. "Characteristics of Schools Successful in STEM: Evidence from Two States Longitudinal Data." The Journal of Educational Research 107.5 (2014): 374-91. Web.
Savery, John R. "Overview of Problem-based Learning: Definitions and Distinctions." Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning 1.1 (2006): 1-16.Web.
Lagemann, Ellen Conlidiffe. “The Challenge of Liberty” Exploring Relationships: Globalization and Learning in the 21st Century. Boston: Pearson Learning Solution, 2013. Print.
Benander, Kathryn. The Writing Kaledoscope. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1999. Print.
Sizer, Theodore. “What High School Is.” Exploring Relationships: Globalization and Learning in the 21st Century. Boston: Pearson Learning Solution, 2013. Print.
