My interest in education started many years ago at age 15 when I attended the first alternative high school in Scarborough, Ontario. As a very shy, compliant child, it was the first time I felt noticed as an individual and was challenged to earn the grades I received. However, it was only after being provided with a lot of choice of when, where and what I learned and how I would apply that knowledge that I knew I wanted to be an educator but not a traditional educator at a ‘regular’ school. After many years of teaching, managing and leading others in private and corporate settings, I am now an educator, educational therapist and consultant in inclusive educational practices. 

My curiosity about how people learn best was triggered when reflecting on my own diverse educational experiences as well as those of my son with autism and daughter with mental anxiety. I came to the realization that I had become a client focused educator. As a business professional, the client is the customer I have to serve; as a mother, the client is the child I have to nurture; and as an educator, the client is the student I have to guide to reach their potential. According to Carl Rogers, (cited in Grabau, 2017), “Learning of all kinds goes on best, and lasts best when it grows out of real focus of interest in the learner” (par. 1). Thereby, throughout my portfolio, I will demonstrate how the theoretical and research knowledge, and instructional and professional competencies I developed align with a client centered approach of; understanding the student, guiding and motivating the student, learning from the student; providing the student with choice, and advocating for the student. 

Understanding the Student

I start by sharing an example of the impact of ‘understanding the student’. When I started my PhD journey, I initially thought I was opening one door and closing another when I left my tutoring franchise behind. But after recently receiving a text message from a past client, I could not help but reflect on the quote of Henry Brooks Adams (1918), “A teacher affects eternity. He can never tell where his influence stops”.  My business was more than just promising to help students increase their grades; it was about teaching students how to learn forever by first understanding the whole student, and hiring teachers who were successful at motivating them to learn. According to Dweck (2016), “Test scores and measures of achievement tell you where a student is but they don’t tell you where a student could end up” (p.66). The text shared by my client below illustrates the long term impact a team of educators can have on a student who was initially failing without the motivation to learn. 

Hi Diane — how are you doing? I’m not sure if you saw my posts about Ella going to Trent University?  She’s taking Forensics & Psychology. She graduated with a 91.5 average which was no easy feat in Covid. And I often think back to Kris’ math tutoring back in grades 5/6… Which doesn’t really seem that long ago but it is lol. So I really wanted to share with you how Ella’s long-term  success is attributed to your tutoring service! I still have the flag cards she made when learning her multiplication tables!  I still can’t believe they don’t teach that in school lol. She can do mental math due to drilling that into her brain!” (Club Z tutoring client, 2022) 

This communication makes me now realize just how much my past experiences can really never be separated from my current and future journeys as an academic scholar. I next illustrate how my knowledge of theory reinforced the importance of guiding and motivating the student.

References:

Grabau, C. (2017). Person centered perspectives on inclusive teaching. https://reinertcenter.com/2017/02/22/person-centered-perspectives-on-inclusive-teaching/

Adams, H. (1918). The Education of Henry Adams: An autobiography. Houghton Mifflin Co.

Dweck, C.S. (2016) Mindset: The new psychology of success. Random House.