Nedda Elewa

Dr. Hudson

PS 1010

28 April 2017

Personal Reaction to PS 1010 Project for e-Portfolio

Think back to the beginning of the semester. Has your involvement in this project

changed your perspective on this issue, and if so in what ways?

Over the course of this past semester, my group and I tackled our issue head on. We all

brought different strengths to the project, but one thing we all had in common was eye opening

experiences that provided us with new perspectives on our issue, the lack of quality teaching and

learning in Detroit. My involvement in this project allowed me to gain a much deeper

understanding of why Detroit Public Schools are underperforming compared to other Metro-

Detroit school districts. At the beginning of the semester, if someone asked me why Detroit

schools were failing to provide their students with a quality education, I can say with almost

certainty that my answer would be centered on the concept of funding, or the lack thereof.

However, after conducting extensive research and working on this issue for the last several

months, I can easily admit that I was wrong; not in the sense that funding is unimportant, but that

there is so much more to consider when evaluating solutions to this public and wicked problem.

What was the most and least valuable experience related to your project this semester?

Please explain.

The most valuable experience related to my project this semester was definitely my

service. I do believe I got lucky because not all students were able to find service opportunities

that were so in line with their projects, but working with Dr. Hudson and the Detroit L.I.F.E.
 Coalition (DLC). At times, I found myself transitioning from service related work to my

coursework, only to find that the research I was conducting class was being put into action by the

DLC. I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to work with the DLC. I spoke to many

students who struggled to find service opportunities that were complemented their projects.

The least valuable experience of this semester related to my project was probably

attempting to finish 100+ pages of course reading. I definitely understand the need to required

readings, but once we reached a certain point in the semester, all of our work should have been

geared towards our individual issues. Unfortunately, a lot of time was lost to reading general

course readings that could only be used in our projects for the purpose of defining course

concepts. In my opinion, I think the time would have been much better spent doing individual

research for our problems.

If you had the chance to do this semester over again, what would you do differently

related to your project?

Honestly, I would not want to change anything related to my project. However, I wouldn't

be opposed to the idea of doing a similar project and focusing on a different aspect. This

semester, my group and I focused on the role of adults in improving to quality of teaching and

learning. However, I would be very interested in doing research about institutionalized racism

and how it affects access to education, or how poverty and mobility (or lack thereof) affects

education. All of these issues are obviously interconnected. That is just the nature of wicked

problems. I just think it would be interesting to analyze the issue through a slightly altered lens.

Is there anything from this semester's project-based learning experience that will stay

with you? What is it and why do you feel that way?

 The project-based learning this semester effectively put course content into the context of

real-life issues. It is very common for students to complain about having to learn something that

is seemingly irrelevant to their day-to-day lives. This project, however, had us applying the

knowledge we were learning in class to real, pressing issues throughout the entire semester.

Admittedly, though, this made the work much more challenging. Working through theoretical

issues and perspectives is always easier than developing solutions for problems that are too

complex to solve.