My route to IOE

By Kyle Meyers, Education (Science) MA

I was brought up in an environment of highly motivated educators in the form of my grandmother and both my parents. My mother has been a co-ordinator of the Pre–Primary section of a prominent school in south-central Mumbai and my deceased father, apart from being a radio-analyst by profession, was the proprietor of Meyers Teaching Institute, where he himself passionately taught along with a band of teachers. Since 2011, the demise of my father, I had to shoulder the mantle of running Meyers Teaching Institute, along with my mother when I was 15 years of age.

I am a graduate in Chemistry from St. Xavier’s College (Autonomous), Mumbai. Following which I earned my Master’s Degree in Analytical Chemistry from Sophia College, University of Mumbai. I also worked for 10 years with Meyers Teaching Institute, along with many other part time jobs associated with Education. My pivotal time of educational exploration was during my time at St. Xavier’s College as an Assistant Professor with the Department of Chemistry teaching the course Applied Chemistry – Neuroscience and Drug & Colour Chemistry.

In search of new creative frontiers, I was thrilled to find a teaching career in schools. As an ambitious professional with three and a half years’ experience in teaching at the undergraduate level, I believed that joining IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society could help me crystallize my tutoring or coaching skills. I believed that I would be able to teach chemistry in an enthusiastic and technology-oriented way and UCL would be that platform for me.

My former role as an Assistant Professor and all of my tutoring experiences have helped me evolve strong leadership skills with an ability to contribute through communication and innovation. However, I see myself in secondary education tutoring over my current role in Higher Education thus, I applied to IOE. Besides my eagerness to apply to IOE for a career in Education, there were three other reasons that favoured UCL for higher education.

• I read from the QS World University Rankings that University College of London ranks 8th for its quality education and student life (rank at the time of applying for the course), which is a reason for me to be motivated to apply to the University. For centuries, the British have been known for the quality education they have passed to the world. Thus, here I am!
• Alumni from UK universities, particularly UCL, have a higher rate of employment, as the courses encompass better student growth – that motivated me to apply to this course.
• The Coursera Courses made by UCL strongly motivated me to apply to this University. The course titled ‘What is the future of Education?’ by IOE’s Professor Clare Brooks stimulated my thought process in Education and was the most pivotal point for my decision to carry out research in Education. I wrote a blog based on this course (Looking into the future) on my own blog website.

With guidance from my Head, Department of Chemistry at St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai – Mr Marazban Kotwal I tried out some research on Undergraduate students of St. Xavier’s College in Flip Classroom and other relevant Pedagogy. But my ideas in educational research needed refining, and IOE is the medium for me to achieve this distilled research approach. The MA Education (Science) at IOE has been a platform for learning not just to inform me (and my peers) of the various pedagogical tools or the global concerns of education, but also to encourage enquiry-based learning and research-oriented learning paradigms.

Having prior research experience in the fields of Chemistry and Neuroscience, and having published papers in the same, educational research was something new. The necessary rules, ethics and methodologies would certainly be more insightful, and yes, IOE lives up to the expectations I had and far beyond. With expert advice from Joanne Nicholl (Programme Leader) and John Connolly, the learning outcomes of this course have helped build in me (and I would assume in my peers) a stable foundation for educational research and a sound knowledge in the field.

To many who are already qualified or yet to be qualified teachers, I would always recommend future applicants to apply to this course as a strong base for new educational learning methods.