I distributed the survey through the following means:
- Sent emails to connections on LinkedIn
- Posted on online education discussion boards/Facebook groups
- Created a discussion board on TeachAde specifically for my survey
- Sent emails to former history teachers
- Contacted teachers within the same district as my high school
- Made a general post on Facebook to all friends & asked them to forward my survey onto anyone they know in the field
Survey Results
I surveyed four individuals that were either high school history or government teachers to learn about their education level as I am beginning to look into my plans for my education in the future. As a future educator I believe that it is important to be continuously learning. I never want there to be a point in my life where I am not being educated in one way or another. There are always new pieces of technology and new teaching techniques being developed to learn about. I had considered getting a master’s degree in history, but I also wanted to get a master’s degree in education. Having a career, being educated, getting married, & having a family are all important to me so I had considered getting my master’s degree online, but I wanted to be able to understand how individuals doing what I want to do someday feel about online education.
The first question I asked each of my subjects was what degrees have they earned. Based on the four responses, all of them had earned a bachelor’s degree & at least one master’s degree. Second, I asked in what areas they have earned their degrees. I found that there was a great variety in the combination of degrees that each individual had earned. For example one of the professionals had earned a bachelor’s degree in history & a master’s degree in Education Administration while another teacher who held a similar position earned a BA in Political Science with a minor in history and a master’s of education in curriculum and instruction. Third, I asked if they had earned any additional certifications that are not college degrees. I chose to ask this because as I wrote above, I want to continue learning and growing in my field and I considered the fact that in order to do that I do not necessarily need to have the goal of earning degree after degree. Another option is to earn a certificate. I also noticed a great variety in types of certifications from being certified to teach students with mild intellectual disorders to Sheltered English Immersion (SEI) certified. When I graduate I will also be SEI certified so it was interesting to see that a teacher currently in the profession also was. Next I asked if they had completed any of their college-level education through university classes online. Three of the four had little (one class) to no experience while one had earned one of her master’s degrees completely online. The reason I asked this question was because when I graduate with my bachelor’s degree I would like to start my teaching career, but also get my master’s degree immediately after and in order to do that I considered taking online classes in order to earn my degree. Lastly, I asked what their opinions were of earning college degrees through online education. Once again, I received a variety of opinions on this topic. One commonality I noticed was that three of the four respondents stated that with online classes, the individual loses interaction with others and that is often important to the nature of degrees that I would potentially earn as a teacher. Another issue that was addressed was the difficulty of online classes versus in-person classes. One professional said that they thought online classes generally tend to be easier and in order to truly get anything out of an online class, the student has to have a huge level of self-discipline. Another subject stated that they found online classes to be significantly more difficult because they are completely independent and it is harder to communicate with teachers and classmates when they never meet in person.
I found the results of my survey to be very informative and helpful. I felt like when I chose a subject area to get my master’s degree, it had to be exactly the same as my major when I got my bachelor’s degree. I also believed that after I got my master’s degree I would go straight to getting my PhD, but after what I learned I am thinking that I will actually get two to three master’s degrees. I want to be an expert both in history and education. I found that it is amazing how many different sub-areas go into history and education. For example political science and religious studies both contribute to history, while psychology contributes to education and how we teach our students. At this point I would like to earn a master’s degree in History, Educational Technology, and Higher and Postsecondary Education. I am most certainly up to the challenge of earning each one of these. For me being married and having family is very important to me. I feel that based on the information I have gathered earning a master’s degree while balancing a career and a family is very doable.
The first question I asked each of my subjects was what degrees have they earned. Based on the four responses, all of them had earned a bachelor’s degree & at least one master’s degree. Second, I asked in what areas they have earned their degrees. I found that there was a great variety in the combination of degrees that each individual had earned. For example one of the professionals had earned a bachelor’s degree in history & a master’s degree in Education Administration while another teacher who held a similar position earned a BA in Political Science with a minor in history and a master’s of education in curriculum and instruction. Third, I asked if they had earned any additional certifications that are not college degrees. I chose to ask this because as I wrote above, I want to continue learning and growing in my field and I considered the fact that in order to do that I do not necessarily need to have the goal of earning degree after degree. Another option is to earn a certificate. I also noticed a great variety in types of certifications from being certified to teach students with mild intellectual disorders to Sheltered English Immersion (SEI) certified. When I graduate I will also be SEI certified so it was interesting to see that a teacher currently in the profession also was. Next I asked if they had completed any of their college-level education through university classes online. Three of the four had little (one class) to no experience while one had earned one of her master’s degrees completely online. The reason I asked this question was because when I graduate with my bachelor’s degree I would like to start my teaching career, but also get my master’s degree immediately after and in order to do that I considered taking online classes in order to earn my degree. Lastly, I asked what their opinions were of earning college degrees through online education. Once again, I received a variety of opinions on this topic. One commonality I noticed was that three of the four respondents stated that with online classes, the individual loses interaction with others and that is often important to the nature of degrees that I would potentially earn as a teacher. Another issue that was addressed was the difficulty of online classes versus in-person classes. One professional said that they thought online classes generally tend to be easier and in order to truly get anything out of an online class, the student has to have a huge level of self-discipline. Another subject stated that they found online classes to be significantly more difficult because they are completely independent and it is harder to communicate with teachers and classmates when they never meet in person.
I found the results of my survey to be very informative and helpful. I felt like when I chose a subject area to get my master’s degree, it had to be exactly the same as my major when I got my bachelor’s degree. I also believed that after I got my master’s degree I would go straight to getting my PhD, but after what I learned I am thinking that I will actually get two to three master’s degrees. I want to be an expert both in history and education. I found that it is amazing how many different sub-areas go into history and education. For example political science and religious studies both contribute to history, while psychology contributes to education and how we teach our students. At this point I would like to earn a master’s degree in History, Educational Technology, and Higher and Postsecondary Education. I am most certainly up to the challenge of earning each one of these. For me being married and having family is very important to me. I feel that based on the information I have gathered earning a master’s degree while balancing a career and a family is very doable.