During the Rising Action, a basic conflict is complicated by related secondary conflicts, including different obstacles that frustrate the protagonist’s attempt to reach his or her goal.

This was the beginning of my journey – the Rising Action.  In the play, the conflicts are often introduced at this stage and the protagonist prepares to conquer the challenges through the course of the story.  Although, the beginning conflicts presented were at various times in my MET journey, I often felt these challenges at the start of every course.  However, there were a few experiences that especially marked the beginnings of my journey and I soon began to challenge myself to meet each task.

ETEC 500: Research Methodologies in Education was one of the core courses in this program, and it was my first glimpse of what was to come in my journey.  This course focuses on issues and practices in a range of educational research methodologies.  It is important for an educator to understand how research works in order to help the student.  Teachers often seek professional development, and one approach is to learn about the current state of education through the on-going research.  In order to critically evaluate the results of the literature in hopes to include it in one’s class, it is important to understand the research methodologies to be able to accept new research as valid, reliable, and ethical.  As a result, ETEC 500 focused on the following skills:

1. describe the kinds of knowledge claims that various research methodologies can make;
2. determine the relationship between the research question or problem and the selection of a methodology;
3. locate and critically evaluate and/or build on previous research in their area of interest;
4. write clear and coherent essays that synthesize and critique educational research in their area of interest.

Along with learning how to use APA formatting, the course also taught me two new skills: finding knowledge gaps and synthesizing information.  In particular, the Article Critique #3 Final Paper was the artifact that shows the culmination of what I learned in this course.  Oftentimes, research is taken at face value and it can be concerning if the education system adapts new strategies without considering the knowledge gaps.  Whether it is including a larger and more randomized sample size, or follow-up studies to increase the generalizability, or more reliable or valid test instruments, there are various ways to address the knowledge gaps that occur.  It is important for educators to reflect on the findings before acting on them.  I also learned to synthesize information, which is important for looking at connections between research to find common directions.  In the final literature review paper, I looked at three articles and found that the inclusion of technology increased motivation, engagement, and performance for the specified activity, which suggests the learning needs of our students that we need to address in the 21^st Century classroom.  Synthesizing information that we find in literature and research can help find not only the knowledge gaps, but also knowledge itself.

Educators possess a personal learning theory that they take with them to each classroom.  In ETEC 512: Applications of Learning Theories to Instruction, educators were asked to form a personal learning theory and see how it changes while we learn of the various learning theories that marked the foundations of Education: Constructivism, Sociocultural Theory, Behaviourism, and Social Theories.  As a result, I was able to see how the foundations of Education interacted with each other and presented different, yet sometimes similar, approaches.   My Personal Learning Theory is an artifact that shows how I have revised and rearticulated my learning theory that showed my new knowledge.  I have learned that my own learning pedagogy will change as I acquire more knowledge and experience.  I have learned that the connections I makes with these theories will help my teaching in the future as I continue to understand the way my students learn.

The artifact that culminated my understandings of these theories was a Learning Theories Concept Map  that I developed using the VUE (Visual Understanding Environment) tool.  Initially, I did not understand the importance of creating such a map.  It seemed to resemble an assortment of ideas with not a lot of significance.  However, when I created this intricate web of ideas, I began to see how much I needed to understand before I could add a new node on to my map.  The resulting Concept Map showed how I understood the theories and created my own perspective of learning.  The mapping exercise was continually shared with my classmates, which reaffirmed the effectiveness of the theories, like when we constructively developed our theories by building on each others’ understandings.  It is important to build the foundations of my philosophy so that I have a firm understanding of the ways my students learn.  In order to teach them effectively, I have to understand how they learn most effectively.

The Rising Action stage is the stage where I learned about my surroundings and began my first struggles, just like how a protagonist begins to understand the trials and tribulations that he or she will go through at this point in the journey.  These artifacts presented the conflicts that I would need to continue to work on: synthesizing new information with past information, and developing my personal learning theory.  This stage created an opportunity to begin to build the foundation of my understanding of educational technology and to begin to question the literature and theories that I read in order to begin to develop my own pedagogy and discussions as a result.  This stage elevated in difficulty and I knew I had a lot more to learn before I felt steady on the stage by myself.