mccomas, June 14, 2002 at 7:58:55 PM CEST

Focusing I

What is most important about this topic?

Started something here earlier, got interrupted and then lost it. So, I'll start again and see where I go. I think I was talking about the reasons I started thinking about doing this teacher research, and the reasons for choosing this particular assignment as the focus of my research. Early on I thought it was an interesting assignment because of the novel use of technology (MOO) as a support to learning. Lately, I think I'm less enamored of the technology and more enamored with the kinds of thinking students do as they complete the analysis. I hold my breath as they work through this project waiting for the epiphanies to happen. I simply like observing and thinking about processes and then trying to find patterns in the processes to make them explicit instead of invisible or hidden to the particular thinker. Is this topic important? I don't even know what the topic is...is it the assignment? Is it the research question? What is the research question?

I started by asking myself what happens with the students who are distinctly successful with this assignment. By distinctly successful, I am referring to the work created that is astonishing in some way...the papers that evidence deep and profound transformations of thinking. They aren't always the best written papers, but the ideas they contain can, at times, be breathtaking. I thought, think(?), that by knowing more about how these students went about completing their work that I might gain some insight into how to support others in reaching higher levels of achievement...perhaps even helping others come to points of transformation. So, is this important?

Well, it is important to me as it informs my teaching practice. It might be important to some students, particularly if they are the ones who might benefit in terms of success from my knowing more about how to support them. It might be important to other teachers in that they might learn more about supporting students in their learning. Why is it important though? If I can answer why, then I can most likely discover what about this topic is important.

It's important because the practice of speech pathology is not an exact science. There are no textbooks that can provide students with every morsel they might need to be successful in interacting with their clients. What students need are strategies...and I think, in the projects that are so successful, these students are demonstrating some of the strategies that just might serve as predictors for clinical excellence. So, that extends the importance even farther...it could serve as a predictor? It definitely means that this assignment brings students face to face with the reality of knowing is not the same as doing. It brings students face to face with the reality of their real role in clinical relationships. It brings them face to face with the humanity of their clients as well as their own humanity. It's important because practicing clinicians must recognize, understand, and respect that humanity if they want to be successful in their clinical practice.

I'm jumping all over the place...probably a good time to stop..wait a bit...and then try looping.

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mccomas, June 14, 2002 at 5:06:42 PM CEST

Playing with Pictures

Trying to make sure we know how to upload pictures...here's one (my daughter Katie on the right and her roommate Katy on the left).

So, that's all there is to it?

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