Focusing III

What is affectively engaging about the topic?

This question makes me think about what I read in the transcripts the other night. The three students all wrote about confusion, anxiety, and fear as they prepared to begin the counseling simulation project/assignment. What makes this affectively engaging is not those specific feelings but the fact that these students, in spite of their confusion-anxiety-fear, were able to move forward and complete outstanding work. It strikes me that as the students responded to the interview questions that there is a change in their voices from the first set of questions (when discussing preparing for the simulation/assignmnet) to the last set of questions (which is their reflections on the work)...their voices become stronger, more confident.

• Review transcripts for evidence of voice change; confusion ---> confidence.

To me, this is the most affectively engaging aspect of this research. When I met with Dolores on Wednesday I read to her what I have written thus far (Focusing I and its two loops: Strategies and Success. When I was done, she said she heard me expressing an interest in the processes students go through as they come to know. What leads them to their epiphanies? It is interesting that in the interviews, each student talks about an epiphany of sorts:

I paused one day over lunch and just looked at it, made no marks or labels, just looked at it. It hit me...

in the words of Dr. Phil himself 'I had a light bulb moment'. The word validation swept across my mind...

Then the whole theme seemed to appear magically...

What I want to know is what path did these students follow to reach these epiphanies? Are there any similarities in their paths? Is this related to the tipping point theory? Perhaps, for everyone, there is a tipping point where on the xth reading of the transcript the path becomes clear?