Tag: mrp

mccomas, August 2, 2002 at 2:38:35 PM CEST

Wayne's Story

Under construction....

mccomas, August 1, 2002 at 12:14:52 AM CEST

Introduction-1

For some time now I have planned a teacher research project focused on an assignment I require of seniors majoring in communication disorders and enrolled in CD 427 (Therapeutic Procedures II). I teach this undergraduate capstone course each spring with an emphasis on the following units of study: counseling, ethics, and treatment methodologies for disorders of language and fluency. This particular assignments serves as the assessment for what students have learned in their study counseling in clinical practice. The product, or tangible outcome, of this assignment is a research paper that comes from analysis and synthesis of numerous pieces of data collected throughout the counseling unit of study.

The assignment involves several stages and layers and centers around a role-playing exercise where each student has the opportunity to function in the role of a speech - language pathologist. The specific steps in this assignment, as specified in the written instructions provided to each student at the beginning of this unit of study included:

Students received a written explanation of what personna they were to adopt during the role playing and some background information providing insight into the reason for the "meeting" between a speech language pathologist and the parent of a child with a communication disorder. In some cases, students were assigned roles as speech-language pathologists (e.g., Pam-SLP or Doug-SLP) and in others they adopted the role of a parent (e.g., Mrs. North or Dr. Davis). Each student would use their experience as a speech language pathologist as the basis for their analysis.
After studying their roles, students completed a two page writing (referred to as pre-writing) enabling them to step into the shoes of the character they were to become. Those students playing the role of parent submitted a copy of pre-writing to the instructor of the course who distributed these documents to the appropriate speech language pathogist.
On the assigned day, students met in a MOO (a text-based virtual reality environment that enables people to adopt a personae and to interact synchronously with other indivduals connected to the same computer server from remote locations). During the role-playing, transcripts of each session were made and subsequently mailed to the class mailing list.
Following the role-playing experience students once again wrote two pages, in their character's voice, as a way to articulate their responses and reactions to the interaction that had just taken place. This completed the corpus of data to be examined in this study.
Using the five pieces of data (two pre-writings - one from each individual, two post-writings - one from each individual participating in the role playing.
Finally, students explored and read and studied their documents, looking for 2-3 major themes arising out of the role playing simulation.
Students, in their classroom small groups meet with me to talk about their work. How well are they progressing? What themes have they identified?
Once submitted, papers undergo a peer review process. This year, we modeled the behaviors of a functional peer response group. Students then received feedback from their peers about their work and feedback from me about their work. This feedback guided their revision work before they submitted the final draft of the assignment.

Initially, I believed my interest and intent was to describe and provide a model of a novel way to use a particular computer technology to support learning. Over the years, most of my students have created and submitted acceptable projects that serve primarily to affirm what they already know and understand. Each year, however, I have received two or three astonishing projects; work that evidenced deep and profound transformations in the students creating those projects. On June 14, 2002, I wrote in my online journal that I wanted to observe and think about the processes the transformed students engaged in and attempt to “find patterns in the processes to make them explicit instead of invisible or hidden to the particular thinker.” I needed to know and understand how the transformed students negotiated and navigated the various stages of this project. This knowledge, I hoped, would provide me with a better understanding of how to facilitate transformation for more of my students. I decided to begin by explicating the processes utilized by one transformed student.

In the spring of 2002, Kelly was one of the students who produced astonishing work on this assignment. In her final semester of her undergraduate career, Kelly (and all the other students in the class) had been in three of my other courses. She had shown herself to be bright, responsive, responsible, hardworking, and eager to learn and please. With a grade point average of 3.86 she had already ordered her magna cum laude honor cords for graduation by the time she began this assignment.

Things I Need To Know About Kelly

Hometown and high school Family’s educational background Minor (interdisciplinary?)

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mccomas, July 30, 2002 at 9:57:41 PM CEST

Introduction

For some time now I have planned a teacher research project focused on an assignment I require of seniors majoring in communication disorders and enrolled in CD 427 (Therapeutic Procedures II). Each spring I teach this undergraduate capstone course with an emphasis on the following units of study: counseling, ethics, and treatment methodologies for disorders of language and fluency. This particular assignment serves as the assessment for what students have learned in their study of counseling in clinical practice. The product, or tangible outcome, of this assignment is a research paper that comes from analysis and synthesis of numerous pieces of data collected throughout the counseling unit of study.

Initially, I believed my interest and intent was to describe and provide a model of a novel way to use a particular computer technology to support learning. Using this particular technology over the past several years, most of my students have created and submitted acceptable work that serves primarily to affirm what they already know and understand. Each year, however, I have received two or three astonishing products; work that evidenced deep and profound transformations in the students creating them. On June 14, 2002, I wrote in my online journal that I wanted to observe and think about the processes these few students engaged in and attempt to “find patterns in the processes to make them explicit instead of invisible or hidden to the particular thinker.” I needed to know and understand how the transformed students negotiated and navigated the various stages of this assignment. This knowledge, I hoped, would provide me with a better understanding of how to facilitate transformation for more of my students. I decided to begin by explicating the processes utilized by one transformed student, Deidre.

At the beginning of the counseling unit of study, Deidre, along with her classmates, received written instructions explaining the purpose of this assignment, the process of completing the assignment, and the product arising out of this assignment. The complete instructions are available in Appendix A. What follows is a brief summary of the assignment to provide the context for understanding Deidre's story.

Students study a pre-assigned situation and role (one they will play as a speech-language pathologist), complete a pre-simulation writing exercise, engage in the simulation, and then complete a post-simulation writing exercise. Using the texts generated by these steps, students analyzed them, searching for two or three recurring themes or issues that would form the foundation for their analytical paper. During this part of the process, I met once with each of the small groups of students that worked together in class as peer response groups to allow students to talk about their work. Listening to students describe the ways they approached this work and the themes and issues they were uncovering, I attempted to illuminate potential metaphors or organizing structures for their written product based on what I heard them saying. Following these conferences, students wrote a first draft of their paper and brought it to class on the appointed day for peer review. After peer groups responded to the drafts I also went over each paper and provided feedback. After my feedback was added, I returned the student's work for revision. The next version submitted would be evaluated for their final grade on this assignment.

In the spring of 2002, Deidre was one of the students who produced astonishing work on this assignment. In her final semester of her undergraduate career, Deidre (and all the other students in the class) had been in three of my other courses. She had shown herself to be bright, responsive, responsible, hardworking, and eager to learn and please. With a grade point average of 3.86 she had already ordered her magna cum laude honor cords for graduation by the time she began this assignment. Deidre granted permission for her work to be used in this research and participated in interviews, conducted via email, that sought to tease out information about how she worked through this assignment from start to finish. During analysis of my data, I noticed that several points Deidre discussed seemed key to her successfully moving forward with the assignment. Further, each of these key points in her process represented certain tensions, or conflicts, that required resolution before she could move on to the next level. Numerous times, she resolves one conflict only to find herself immersed immediately in another. In the end, Deirdre's transformation came about precisely because she was able to navigate and negotiate through these tensions.

About the Author

Next: Deidre's Story

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mccomas, July 2, 2002 at 8:43:39 PM CEST

Navigating the Conflicts: Deidre's Story

Tension 1:

With honesty wrapped around confusion, I naively thought I would get inside your head To decipher this Wild Ride In store for me.

As Deidre approached this particular assignment she experienced both fear and excitement. She said, "I rarely branch out past what is assigned for fear of being wrong." In response to this fear she admits to trying to uncover the teacher's expectations by "getting inside" my head even though I had given her written instructions for the assignment. In response to this fear and in spite of receiving written instructions for the assignment, Deidre admits to trying to "get inside your [the instructor] head" to uncover the teacher's expectations. In direct conflict with her fear is her excitement about the assignment. Deirdre recalled previous assignments she completed in other courses she has taken from me, "I expected it to be a worthwhile assignment, because up until that point, all of the projects I have worked on with you have been. I was just not sure how it was going to be worthwhile." Recalling her previous experiences with assignments in my classes in a positive manner was helpful to Deidre as she attempted to move through this first tension and on to the actual simulation activity.

[ The first tension Deidre discovers is that of fear and excitement. This is fairly common for her as she approaches a new assignment. Initially, she is confused and readily admits her confusion. In addition, she strives to discern what she believes the teacher's expectations are. Despite the fact that written instructions were provided to her, Deidre attempts to unearth the teacher's expectations suggesting that she suspects (or expects) a hidden or invisible agenda on the part of the teacher. Her confusion and suspicions are in direct conflict with her eager anticipation of attempting this assignment. She recalls previous assignments she has completed in my classes, "I expected it to be a worthwhile assignment, because up until that point, all of the projects I have worked on with you have been. I was just not sure how it was going to be worthwhile."]

Tension 2:

Portraying the professional, Filled with conceit and astonishment, Out of my mouth came, "I am good at this!"
I felt powerful with control, The keeper of knowledge. I seemed to have an answer for everything, But control lies.

Moving beyond the first tension into the actual simulation, Deidre again experienced a conflictor tension, that of the fine line that exists between feeling competent and incompetenct. Early in the role-playing situation, Deidre found confidence, thinking herself to be competent in her role as counselor. This confidence, according to Deidre , stemmed from assuming the posture of "knower" speaking to an individual in need of whatever secrets Deidre knew. While initially reinforced by her new-found control and power, Deidre quickly begins to understand that, when viewed through a different lens, control and power may be seen as negatives. Of her client she says, "I discovered that part of the reason my client's parent was so passive was that I seemed - whether correct or not - to have an answer or at least a comment for everything."

Tension 3:

Looking for an epiphany-- Original, reflective, viable-- I read, at a loss for ideas, when The word "validation" swept across my mind.
I enter the group meeting With the fear of sounding stupid And a feeling in my stomach. I heard, "Explore and expand!" and the wheels began turning.

Once the simulation was completed, Deidre began to analyze her data (simulation transcript, pre-writing and post-writing). Here she faces another tension, whether she should conform in her analysis or go beyond, follow her intuition, and be creative. At first, her efforts to analyze her data yield nothing worthwhile. Later, she finds some themes but realizes they are superficial. Here is where she determines that she wants to be creative instead of a conformist. She talks of her "light bulb moment" (when the word 'validation' presents itself to her) and then immediately realizes she does not know what to do next. This is the state she is in when she attends a group conference (three other members of her response group and the instructor) to discuss her work. The group conference, for Deidre , serves as a catalyst to continue to pursue the central theme of validation. "I can safely say that what made me decide to move forward with my topic was listening to my peers and discovering that they had the same concerns that I had...This gave me confidence that I was not as far off the straight nad narrow as I thought with my topic." She leaves this meeting determined to continue working with her central theme of validation.

Tension 4:

In no particular order A zillion thoughts had fallen onto my paper. However messy, I gave too much blood, sweat, and tears To abort its evolution.
Head poudning, palms sweating, I opened the all too familiar crisp, blue folder to see The words "Come see me" in blood red ink. I felt faint.

As Deidre moves into drafting her paper to present the results of her analysis, she finds herself torn between a desire for order and the presence of chaos. She finds herself in the possession of a "zillion thoughts" and no way to organize them. Thus, they had "fallen onto" her paper with no hope of bringing it all together. Being a self-described perfectionist ("...you know how I am when it comes to doing just enough - the perfectionist in me would never settle..."), a paper with a zillion thoughts on it in no particular order was unsettling to Deidre . At one point in the drafting process, she considers stopping and starting over. She decided against this because she believes she has invested too much of herself into her work up to this point.

Tension 5:

In front of the computer for three hours, Cutting out two entire paragraphs, Rerouting another two, It had to be done.

I'm unclear about the tension here. Is it to save or throw away? It is to protect or to set free? I'll have to think a little bit more about this point.

Tension 6:

How to be transformed? Imagine, don't settle. Reach beyond into intuition, Branch into unknown territory.

Here, the issue is one of her desire to please versus her desire to grow. Through the process of completing this assignment, Deidre makes the decision to grow and hopes that in doing so, she will also please. It is pretty clear here that she is at least satisfied that she has pleased herself. She was hoping in the end to have pleased me.

Transformation Complete:

For the first time, I felt safe. I was proud.

Somehow, in this process of participating in a role-playing situation, analyzing and identifying a central theme, conferencing, drafting, despairing, and pushing onward through revision, Deidre arrives at a space where she feels safe and proud.

Previous: Introduction

Next: Wayne's Story

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mccomas, June 21, 2002 at 3:35:45 PM CEST

Found Poem

[from Instructions for Multigenre Research Project-MRP]

An alternative audience. The school custodian, parents, patient Richer voices speaking to Help us better understand a problem or issue.

Complex issues Worthy of investigation Turn into questions How? Why? What if?

Question the time frame Dialogue your question Begin! Drafts, publish, reflection, points.

arranged by Karen McComas

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mccomas, June 17, 2002 at 12:51:13 AM CEST

Webliography

Research Methodologies

Overview: Ethnography, Observational Research, and Narrative Inquiry
A detailed site containing information about various research methodologies: characteristics, comparisons, and an annotated bibliography. Useful for beginning researchers and those searching for more information.

Center for Narrative Inquiry
While many of the links lead to empty pages, I did find interesting discussion about narrative and different fields, including suggestions for how to elicit narratives.

Approaches to Qualitative Research
Chart comparing the various forms of qualitative research. Useful in making across methodology comparisons.

Genre

Genre (Read On Site)

Blog Links

Weblogs (Keith Stanger)
Weblog Madness

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mccomas, June 12, 2002 at 10:27:40 PM CEST

Preface

Here's the preface for my mrp. Now I would need to make a link from my table of contents to this page...hmmmm?

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