Where has the time gone? Just a couple of days ago I was thinking to myself, "Fred, you have never read a blog, let alone written your own. Will I like it? Will anyone read it? Will it feel like a diary? Will it hurt?
I am happy to say the fear of the unknown was mostly unwarranted in this situation, as now I feel reasonably competent in this type of informal writing. To critique my blogging, I would say that my strengths were grammar, using coherent English, and getting a point across with structured and logical writing. My big weakness was the lack of originality and blandness of what I wrote for the most part. I chalk a lot of this up to my engineering-type personality of wanting to be precise, concise, and straightforward as possible when communicating. Unfortunately, this turns out to be not a very creative way of writing, which fails to hold most people's attention outside of discussing technical subjects of math, science, and engineering. There were a few pieces that I was more pleased with than the rest, mentioned below.
In The Motivation of Numbers, I took the counterpoint to what most of our class discussion implied. Instead of lauding the implementation of grading systems, such as the Apgar score, I focused on the corrupting influences of numbers to our motivations. I thought by going against the grain of most of our discussion and not following the writing prompt I could reveal a fresh look at the subject. Although it did this somewhat, the best I could come up with for examples was the overly-typical and mundane "No Child Left Behind" initiative.
As the semester progressed, I tried to make the subjects from our readings apply to my personal experience, as shown in Alignment of the Saltshaker. Here I tried to explain how the house I live in functions as a unit, and analyze whether we are aligned as a group and how we can improve alignment. I felt it was successful, but could have been expanded to putting our house in perspective of our whole lives, including the volunteer work and group activities we do together with our church, and the involvement we have with Saltshaker alumni after individuals graduate as a consequence of alignment.
Writing as a Sinking Ship made good use of metaphor. Writing in this way taught me that for someone as logical and boring as a chemical engineer, a striking metaphor that has multiple dimensions of interpretation can greatly improve my essay. Going down with the ship is like holding onto close-minded writing, and jumping off the ship into the icy water is the painful but freeing decision to open up my writing. I think it was a good analogy that helped me stop and reflect about how to pull myself away from the narrow methodology of writing that I have been indoctrinated with for the past umpteen years.
Shared Vision at Illinois and Elsewhere seemed to flow more than any other posts this semester, maybe because it felt like I was preaching against the evils of bureaucracy, large class sizes, and alcohol. I felt like the product of class discussion and learning over the pasts semester made this piece quite a bit more than it would have been at the beginning of class. I was able to see more clearly the types of things that promote and inhibit change, and point out what these might be at U of I.
Fortunately, I do have high hopes for my future blogging, because I have pretty much overcome my fear of blogging (long and hard as it was). And I vow to blog on topics of interest to me, eliminating the forced feeling of a class blog- perhaps a combination of poetry composition and energy technolgy practice and politics in the United States? However, it does not pain me one bit to say that the blogging for this class was a valuable experience and I am happy to have worked through it.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Shared Vision at Illinois and Elsewhere
I would agree that engagement/disengagement with students is very similar to Senge’s issue of commitment, compliance, and apathy in shared vision. I liked the way Senge defined the difference between a person with compliance and a person with commitment. He stated that the compliant person with will follow the rules of the “game”, but a person with commitment will be willing to change any rules that stand between them and winning the “game”. The engaged students with a commitment to their own education will seek out experiences beyond those required. They are the ones that attend special lectures, become involved in a professional organization, and stop by to talk and ask professors about their research. The disengaged students with a compliant attitude toward their education follow every rule and recommendation to achieve their goal of graduating and looking good to employers. Some of them strive to achieve 4.0s and do research to enhance their resume, but ultimately see in all of their tasks merely a means to an end.
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Not very many students have a vision of their own learning. True to the compliance nature of many students, their “vision” is to “win the game” by “following the rules”, and thus do well in school and get a good job. A few students have a personal vision of their own education, and although their peers may sometimes see them as “dreamers”, they are willing to break all the rules, to climb mountains, and cross seas to accomplish their ideals. These are the ones that end up doing great things, much greater than just building great resumes.
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How can U of I create a shared vision for students’ education? Well, I believe the difficulty of achieving a shared vision increases exponentially with the size of the university. First of all, larger schools have more bureaucracy and rules toward educational procedure, which gives students an obstacle to being commited if in their own mind a rule of the university is preventing their personal vision of education from being realized. This happened to me recently as I went to see if a class I want to take (ECON 302) could be applied toward general education for me, an engineer. But despite the appearance of a class that could help me become more well-rounded, it did not fulfill the criteria that university put forth as a firm basis for what classes can be gen eds, such as having a writing requirement. Anyway, it would help to bring each student’s vision of their education into a university shared vision if the rules were more flexible to the vision and intent of learning for the individual.
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Another reason that larger institutions like Illinois have a harder time creating a shared vision is student feelings of insignificance. When students seem insignificant and can’t see their impact on education around them-such as asking a question in a lecture class of 700- they fall into compliance or apathy. It was interesting to read about the rule of 150 in The Tipping Point because it explains the issue of large groups very well. In small groups (~150 or less) students are able to know enough of the rest of the individuals for a subconscious accountability to become innate to the group, where members know who does what. In this case organization and coordination of goals and vision is easier than large groups. In larger groups the students feel more “on their own” in such a sea of young people, and it becomes very hard to perceive the status of others and one’s own status in the group, whether they are doing right, wrong, or nothing. According to Gladwell, these larger groups need much more elaborate organizational structures to keep a singular focus or vision for the group. Thus, U of I can facilitate creating shared vision of undergraduate education by breaking learning units (i.e. classes) into more manageable sizes. The question is whether this can be done cost effectively with peer mentors, or the stronger leadership of teaching assistants is needed.
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A third reason that comes to mind on how Illinois struggles to create shared vision in such a huge student body is the prevalence of “distractions”. It is no surprise to anyone in the class that many students find it very easy to get into the party/drinking scene at U of I, perhaps as a combination of the wide number of fraternities/sororities and the already alienating character of an enormous student body. There are even a large number of professional societies that promote such things (i.e. engineering barcrawls). In addition, I observe a multiplying effect of each student that takes to the distractions and provokes interest and acceptance by each of his or her peers. Although many would argue that students that are heavy into partying are making their own choices, students make there own choices on every college campus in the United States, and yet here we are, with certain large “party school” campuses sticking out of the crowd. Point being that a suggestion for promoting shared vision at U of I, more initiative could be taken to lessen negative distractions on and around the campus community.
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While the individual vision of a professor or administrator to create within the University a shared vision of undergraduate education is a very worthy pursuit, it is a formidable task that will require committed faculty and students, willing to break rules, climb mountains, and cross seas in order to "win" the realization of our ideal.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Apprenticeship
From my experience there are certainly opportunities for Freshmen to interact with upperclassmen and be in an apprenticeship position on campus. The source of these interactions can be as wide ranging as college dormrooms, RSOs, classes, or outside social experiences.
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As a freshman I lived in a certified private dorm, and I was assigned a room with a senior and a suite including another senior. Although there experience in the biology curriculum did not directly apply to chemical engineering, they each had more than two cents to tell me about what I should do in college. The two of them were really a stark contrast of the kind of “wisdom” that passes down from older to younger U of I students. On one hand, my roommate would tell me of easy classes that I can take, encouraged me to spend less time studying, and generally offered advice on how to “work the system” at the university. On the other hand, my suitemate would talk to me about opportunities to get involved on campus to get help or give help, how I can better prepare for a career, and generally offered advice on how to be an active participant in making my college years fruitful.
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The difference in “wisdom” from these two sources was like night and day. Had I followed one set of advice completely, I would have gotten relatively little out college and aimed to just “glide” to graduation to get my degree, while not going out of my way to make friends or have healthy focused relationships. Had I followed the other set of advice completely, I would probably be even better off than I am now, with much accomplished academically and many connections made with people through reaching out as much as possible.
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Herein lies my major concern with social apprenticeship in college- it seems to be very hit-or-miss. And I feel from the size and composition of the student body at U of I that quite a few sadly turn out to be misses. This may be an unalterable ill of American society though, that there are few motivated individuals with pure motives that want to help others to be motivated, too. Unfortunately, this is highly contagious in the college setting, when high school valedictorians can become “gliders” in four short years (my roommate with little motivation is an example of this).
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Academic apprenticeship gained through such avenues as professional clubs and RSOs, although more narrow, can yield a more consistently positive influence, since the tie that bonds members has an underlying tone of fostering personal and professional growth and pursuit of goals. The problem for such a high enrollment university, though, is that many students may “slip through the cracks” and never reach out or be reached out to through these organizations. It seems that this is more of the hole we are trying to help fill as a class project. If through the avenue of high enrollment classes we can reach students typically lost in the shuffle and start them on the path of focused relationships that foster personal and professional growth and pursuit of goals as the professional clubs and RSOs do, it may effectively form a bridge for students.
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Across the chasm that lies between a successful high school career with familiar faces and activities, and the “new” experience of life and study at a large public research university like U of I is where freshmen need refocusing. This can be effectively directed by older students that have experience and a drive to motivate younger students.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Fred's Learning
Whether I have learned from an experience can seem an easy thing to know, but a hard thing to explain (sometimes I just know that I know that I know). I think probably the best evidence for whether I have learned is whether an experience has been transformative. If I gain knowledge but it does not change the way I perceive the world, even a little bit, then I have not actually learned- I have just memorized. This idea is especially relevant now at a time when Google and Wikipedia have made rote facts about as important as knowing Morse code, and thus the transformative action of learning experiences is almost the exclusive goal for an individual. Granted, there are some experiences that cause great transformation; for example, the awareness of poverty that comes with spending time working in a deaf village in Jamaica. Other experiences seem smaller but still shift or enhance our perception; for example, learning how the calculus can be applied to optimize profits in a business application. Whatever learning experience I go through, however, I don’t feel I’ve learned if I don’t come out a slightly different person.
In courses, typically my learning is communicated to the teacher by way of their evaluation methods (e.g. exams, papers, homework) and this is usually a good indicator for me. I can really think of few times when I felt like I knew the material, but could not perform in these tests of my learning. However, it is completely possible that throughout my sixteen-plus years of formal education that these traditional methods of evaluation have infiltrated my personal definition of learning to where the test not only measures my learning, it defines my learning. This would be a disappointing conclusion since it reduces the richness of an experience in my own mind to an algorithm.
The only possible exception to learning despite what the exams show is the rare case when a teacher’s expectations are ill-defined and the study material is unknown to the class. This usually can only happen when there is a very small class size, perhaps making the teacher relax too much- one particular class of mine where this situation occurred had an enrollment of six students. In this case, I remember feeling that I learned every time I left class or did the homework, but the exams seemed to emphasize random subjects that I had not taken the time to master. This lack of communication with regard to expectations between teacher and student could have been helped by the implementation of a more specific syllabus or study guides outlining what he wanted us to know.
The communication of evidence of my learning outside a class depends on if the course is closer to general education or technical education. To communicate my mastery in an area of general education is easier, as many people will have gained enough knowledge of their own to relate to what I have learned, even if it is above and beyond what is common; this could be explaining grammar learned in my English class, which many can remember learning back in high school. To communicate mastery in an area of technical expertise to the average person is difficult because they may be so removed from the background of the material in vocabulary, methods, or history, that no bridge can be built in a short amount of time that allows them to understand if I know my stuff or if I just seem “fluent” in the foreign language that is “magnetohydrodynamic modeling algorithms” or whatever. Context determines whether others can see evidence of learning.
In courses, typically my learning is communicated to the teacher by way of their evaluation methods (e.g. exams, papers, homework) and this is usually a good indicator for me. I can really think of few times when I felt like I knew the material, but could not perform in these tests of my learning. However, it is completely possible that throughout my sixteen-plus years of formal education that these traditional methods of evaluation have infiltrated my personal definition of learning to where the test not only measures my learning, it defines my learning. This would be a disappointing conclusion since it reduces the richness of an experience in my own mind to an algorithm.
The only possible exception to learning despite what the exams show is the rare case when a teacher’s expectations are ill-defined and the study material is unknown to the class. This usually can only happen when there is a very small class size, perhaps making the teacher relax too much- one particular class of mine where this situation occurred had an enrollment of six students. In this case, I remember feeling that I learned every time I left class or did the homework, but the exams seemed to emphasize random subjects that I had not taken the time to master. This lack of communication with regard to expectations between teacher and student could have been helped by the implementation of a more specific syllabus or study guides outlining what he wanted us to know.
The communication of evidence of my learning outside a class depends on if the course is closer to general education or technical education. To communicate my mastery in an area of general education is easier, as many people will have gained enough knowledge of their own to relate to what I have learned, even if it is above and beyond what is common; this could be explaining grammar learned in my English class, which many can remember learning back in high school. To communicate mastery in an area of technical expertise to the average person is difficult because they may be so removed from the background of the material in vocabulary, methods, or history, that no bridge can be built in a short amount of time that allows them to understand if I know my stuff or if I just seem “fluent” in the foreign language that is “magnetohydrodynamic modeling algorithms” or whatever. Context determines whether others can see evidence of learning.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Well-roundedness or Specialized Curriculum
Could required courses be taken out of college majors?
One could see that freeing up the student’s schedule to take electives of his or her choice could help the student become more well-rounded. This notion of well-roundedness is not just an idea that a graduate will have broad learning in multiple unrelated areas not directly linked to the concentration of their studies. It is also important that a student build perspective from taking classes outside their major, so that when performing on a job after college they can see the “big picture” of what they are trying to accomplish. They should be able to see the societal impacts of their actions and how they fit into historical and business contexts, even in highly technical areas. However, there are already general education requirements and an amount of free electives (for most majors) for this exploration and perspective building to take place without taking away from the major requirements.
One argument against more free electives, however, is that many students looking for the “path of least resistance” through college will jump on the opportunity as a way to just become more disengaged from college learning by taking the easiest classes possible and minimally participating in using this opportunity to gain understanding of more diverse perspectives.
As mentioned in my previous blog post, I feel that all of the required courses in my major served to give me knowledge that I was expected to already have entering into my internship with ADM. This is not to say that I did not at times sense the presence of outdated or nearly-irrelevant material in some of my required courses.
One of my professors from the department of chemical & biomolecular engineering once explained that undergraduate ChemE courses are kind of like a hazing. They are forced upon us young ones because the older ones had to go through it, and thus as graduates we can be welcomed into the camaraderie of those who persevered in spite of an often grueling curriculum.
This is just to say that some courses in a major might seem non-utilitarian (“when am I going to ever use this?”), but they facilitate perspective-building within the major so a student can know the historical contexts, foundational development, important innovators, and major societal issues under otherwise technical subjects. Often, these supporting classes come under the heading of “technical electives” which are focused on this supporting knowledge or specific technical branches of study.
So, then a better question than the one first put forth is perhaps, “If employers want college graduates to be well-rounded and experts in their technical area, is the current balance of free electives and required courses giving them what they want?” At this time, it would seem that required courses should not be dropped.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Experiential Learning replaces Classes?
Apologies for not taking on this week’s prompt. For tying class themes together, I see the suggested prompt as a theme each week. I must say, though, that everyone in the class has unique methods and styles that I enjoy reading more than my own. This is not so much a disrespect to my own writing as a realization that I like hearing perspectives that help promote my 1-dimentional view of things to a more 3-dimensional view of class and general topics. This in turn gives me the warms satisfaction of a higher level of understanding more apt to be communicated to others in future discussions.
I instead would like to reflect on one example of my own experiential learning. Would what I have gained from my internship have been able to substitute for required courses in my major of chemical engineering?
Company: ADM in research park
Time: May 2009 to present
Job: Research and develop computer simulations of chemical processes in the area of sustainable biofuels
First of all, what have I gained? I would say to categorize what I have learned, (1) context of my academic material into real world application, (2) “duh” points not mentioned in my academic studies, (3) communication skills.
One good thing that I have taken away from my job experience that I would expect from any internship is an understanding of how the technologies and knowledge base from my science and engineering classes are applied to work in the real world. Software used in my senior design class is extensively used for simulation of processes, in place of the 60-plus-year-old pencil and paper techniques taught in most of my classes. On the other hand, the qualitative understanding of underlying system physics that is emphasized in all of my classes is very important because equations can’t tell you when or if they are to be used. I was also amazed that thinking back, I have probably directly used on the order of half of required course material in my internship. There are also some topics used in my internship that are beyond the scope of undergraduate courses, but that are usually studied in graduate school. So, in relation to my required classes, some material is indeed used in my experiential learning, but as more of what I should already have mastered. The role of my internship has been to give context to the learning, which improves the quality of the students that are able to participate in such a program.
Perhaps the most noticeable difference between academic learning and experiential learning is the “duh” points that I have taken from my job. Most of these points in engineering disciplines are closely ties to economics and business considerations of products and processes. Some quick examples:
--Platinum and gold are superb catalysts; they are also too expensive to use in almost every situation
--It is a pain to deal with and dispose of millions of tons of highly corrosive acid on a yearly basis; alternatives should be seriously considered
--Sometimes you just use what’s lying around the lab because it’s more time and capital efficient, but it often makes for some odd laboratory setups and difficult calculations
This “duh” learning definitely improves the quality of the education of graduates from the department, but it doesn’t replace the material already being taught in my required courses. Thus, it is a plus for experiential learning that does not support reduction of required courses.
Communication. Yes, in required classes I have been taught to give nice informative presentations. My experiential learning has focused on what in a presentation is most important to hand off to the audience. In other words, my classes focused on clarity whereas my internship emphasized brevity and compactness of information (graphs not numbers, figures not words). I believe personally, both have been essential to my development in verbal and non-verbal communication.
In conclusion, my required courses could not be replaced with experiential learning, although experiential learning is very helpful to my professional preparation. General education courses, however, could be a target for replacement. And courses for majors with looser requirements could perhaps be replaced with more success than mine.
I instead would like to reflect on one example of my own experiential learning. Would what I have gained from my internship have been able to substitute for required courses in my major of chemical engineering?
Company: ADM in research park
Time: May 2009 to present
Job: Research and develop computer simulations of chemical processes in the area of sustainable biofuels
First of all, what have I gained? I would say to categorize what I have learned, (1) context of my academic material into real world application, (2) “duh” points not mentioned in my academic studies, (3) communication skills.
One good thing that I have taken away from my job experience that I would expect from any internship is an understanding of how the technologies and knowledge base from my science and engineering classes are applied to work in the real world. Software used in my senior design class is extensively used for simulation of processes, in place of the 60-plus-year-old pencil and paper techniques taught in most of my classes. On the other hand, the qualitative understanding of underlying system physics that is emphasized in all of my classes is very important because equations can’t tell you when or if they are to be used. I was also amazed that thinking back, I have probably directly used on the order of half of required course material in my internship. There are also some topics used in my internship that are beyond the scope of undergraduate courses, but that are usually studied in graduate school. So, in relation to my required classes, some material is indeed used in my experiential learning, but as more of what I should already have mastered. The role of my internship has been to give context to the learning, which improves the quality of the students that are able to participate in such a program.
Perhaps the most noticeable difference between academic learning and experiential learning is the “duh” points that I have taken from my job. Most of these points in engineering disciplines are closely ties to economics and business considerations of products and processes. Some quick examples:
--Platinum and gold are superb catalysts; they are also too expensive to use in almost every situation
--It is a pain to deal with and dispose of millions of tons of highly corrosive acid on a yearly basis; alternatives should be seriously considered
--Sometimes you just use what’s lying around the lab because it’s more time and capital efficient, but it often makes for some odd laboratory setups and difficult calculations
This “duh” learning definitely improves the quality of the education of graduates from the department, but it doesn’t replace the material already being taught in my required courses. Thus, it is a plus for experiential learning that does not support reduction of required courses.
Communication. Yes, in required classes I have been taught to give nice informative presentations. My experiential learning has focused on what in a presentation is most important to hand off to the audience. In other words, my classes focused on clarity whereas my internship emphasized brevity and compactness of information (graphs not numbers, figures not words). I believe personally, both have been essential to my development in verbal and non-verbal communication.
In conclusion, my required courses could not be replaced with experiential learning, although experiential learning is very helpful to my professional preparation. General education courses, however, could be a target for replacement. And courses for majors with looser requirements could perhaps be replaced with more success than mine.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Writing as a Sinking Ship
I must admit, blogging as a new experience for me has been a little like jumping from a sinking Titanic into the icy waters of the sea in winter. Let me explain.
All of my shared writing that I’ve done up to now has been for a very specific audience- in most cases an audience of one- my teacher. I have been a very efficient learner growing up about what people want to hear. Teachers want to know that you understand the presented material, and that you can use it in correct context. This includes subjects directly related to writing, like grammar and literature, or indirectly related to writing, like chemical engineering. This type of writing, if published openly, would probably either bore most people, or be irrelevant enough for them not to want to read it. This type of writing is also ultimately self-alienating, and somewhat like going down with the Titanic in the way it confines individuals.
For me, the publishing of work to the open internet has a duality of effect on my attitude when composing. It is frightening because the audience could end up being anyone from my classmate to my mother, but it is freeing because I don’t feel pushed to please one person or type of person. The frightening part is coupled to by indoctrination by parents and teachers at a young age that the internet is a place where you must always be careful when inputting information; anyone connected to your past, present, or future could be reading. The freeing part allows me to write more about how I perceive things, and less how my audience may want to perceive things. Because the audience is an open one, I don’t even try to cater to their background, circumstances, beliefs, or biases. Instead, all I can do is humbly present my own experience and understanding with reasoning, and resign to the fact that there will be some people that vehemently disagree and some people that see my perspective as it is. The frightening part of publishing to an open internet is akin to jumping into a freezing sea, as it both hurts and can easily paralyze a person by the shock. Jumping in, however, allows an escape from a sinking ship and a way of freedom.
As a self-critique, I am not taking full advantage of the idea of posting to the internet as an open source. The benefits from openness are realized on my blog, but not necessarily the benefits of the internetness. The internet is a network of two-way streets, and I have not yet fully transferred the advantage of this structure to my blog. One thing that has happened is an exchange between individuals in the class reading and commenting on fellow classmates’ blogs. Ideally (and if each of us had more free time) we would fully extend this utilization outside the nucleated community of our classroom and outward to incorporate published writing and other media of outside sources that have meaning to us individually elsewhere. Unfortunately, there are only so many hours in a day, and for now it may be satisfactory for me to benefit from reflective writing on a blog as a way to get used to the open waters that invite me to express myself more freely.
All of my shared writing that I’ve done up to now has been for a very specific audience- in most cases an audience of one- my teacher. I have been a very efficient learner growing up about what people want to hear. Teachers want to know that you understand the presented material, and that you can use it in correct context. This includes subjects directly related to writing, like grammar and literature, or indirectly related to writing, like chemical engineering. This type of writing, if published openly, would probably either bore most people, or be irrelevant enough for them not to want to read it. This type of writing is also ultimately self-alienating, and somewhat like going down with the Titanic in the way it confines individuals.
For me, the publishing of work to the open internet has a duality of effect on my attitude when composing. It is frightening because the audience could end up being anyone from my classmate to my mother, but it is freeing because I don’t feel pushed to please one person or type of person. The frightening part is coupled to by indoctrination by parents and teachers at a young age that the internet is a place where you must always be careful when inputting information; anyone connected to your past, present, or future could be reading. The freeing part allows me to write more about how I perceive things, and less how my audience may want to perceive things. Because the audience is an open one, I don’t even try to cater to their background, circumstances, beliefs, or biases. Instead, all I can do is humbly present my own experience and understanding with reasoning, and resign to the fact that there will be some people that vehemently disagree and some people that see my perspective as it is. The frightening part of publishing to an open internet is akin to jumping into a freezing sea, as it both hurts and can easily paralyze a person by the shock. Jumping in, however, allows an escape from a sinking ship and a way of freedom.
As a self-critique, I am not taking full advantage of the idea of posting to the internet as an open source. The benefits from openness are realized on my blog, but not necessarily the benefits of the internetness. The internet is a network of two-way streets, and I have not yet fully transferred the advantage of this structure to my blog. One thing that has happened is an exchange between individuals in the class reading and commenting on fellow classmates’ blogs. Ideally (and if each of us had more free time) we would fully extend this utilization outside the nucleated community of our classroom and outward to incorporate published writing and other media of outside sources that have meaning to us individually elsewhere. Unfortunately, there are only so many hours in a day, and for now it may be satisfactory for me to benefit from reflective writing on a blog as a way to get used to the open waters that invite me to express myself more freely.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Criticism
Criticism is important to relay direction and guidance from an expert to a novice, or from someone would feels they are an expert to someone who is believed to be a novice. I can offer criticism well to others only for subject areas that I have a considerable amount of knowledge to draw from.
Criticism only works when there is a measure of understanding between the two parties. I am highly reluctant to receive criticism, especially if it is harsh, from a stranger than someone who knows me at least somewhat. On the receiving end the person needs to accept that the critic:
(1) is knowledgeable in the subject of work
If my cousin who works in construction says that my interview suit is too flashy, I may brush the comment off. If a corporate executive suggests that my pink tie dominates the interview suit, I will probably take that criticism to heart and change my tie.
(2) is familiar with the environment, background, and circumstances the criticized person
If I am criticized for turning in an assignment late by my professor, I may tell myself that they are in the dark on how busy a student’s life can be. If my roommate recommends that I should use a day-planner to better manage my time for homework, I will probably consider doing it.
(3) is motivated exclusively by wanting to improve the person
If a salesman suggests that I can improve my life by buying a product, I immediately shut out the drone of his voice. If my mom suggests the same idea, however, I know that she wants the best for me and she must sincerely believe that product ABC will help me sleep better at night.
One main way I believe I am effective at giving criticism is making my comments both specific and general. There is an essential balance in good criticism between making specific statements and making general suggestions. Be too specific, and the other person may not come away with a gauge of their achievement on the task. But be too general, and it becomes near impossible for the other person to make corrections in the right areas or improve specific techniques. Because I tend to think in a deliberate and logical manner, I prefer to lean towards specific criticisms. When receiving criticism, it is hard for me to bear the correction of someone who expresses an overall sense that my work needs to improve by moving in one direction or another. I am much more accepting and am able to apply myself to utilizing others’ criticisms when they direct me to correct X by improving Y which comes from practicing Z. When I give criticism in an area of my own expertise, I try to be specific as possible so as to provide the other person with a high level of clarity. However, a measure of generality is needed to make sure criticism has a maximum effect. This is an interpretation of the popular saying, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” The specific can be limited in how helpful it is if context is not built, and students can easily forget nuggets of information not attached to a broader system of understanding.
In light of a mentoring program, it is important that the mentors are mature enough to understand that helping others to learn is not ultimately about memorizing facts, or techniques, or methods, or protocols, or formats, or heuristics. When you commit to helping others learn, you commit to making sure that the mentee receives the ability to generalize to situations that come from diverse areas of study, areas of study that may only exist in the future, and perhaps even life outside study.
Criticism only works when there is a measure of understanding between the two parties. I am highly reluctant to receive criticism, especially if it is harsh, from a stranger than someone who knows me at least somewhat. On the receiving end the person needs to accept that the critic:
(1) is knowledgeable in the subject of work
If my cousin who works in construction says that my interview suit is too flashy, I may brush the comment off. If a corporate executive suggests that my pink tie dominates the interview suit, I will probably take that criticism to heart and change my tie.
(2) is familiar with the environment, background, and circumstances the criticized person
If I am criticized for turning in an assignment late by my professor, I may tell myself that they are in the dark on how busy a student’s life can be. If my roommate recommends that I should use a day-planner to better manage my time for homework, I will probably consider doing it.
(3) is motivated exclusively by wanting to improve the person
If a salesman suggests that I can improve my life by buying a product, I immediately shut out the drone of his voice. If my mom suggests the same idea, however, I know that she wants the best for me and she must sincerely believe that product ABC will help me sleep better at night.
One main way I believe I am effective at giving criticism is making my comments both specific and general. There is an essential balance in good criticism between making specific statements and making general suggestions. Be too specific, and the other person may not come away with a gauge of their achievement on the task. But be too general, and it becomes near impossible for the other person to make corrections in the right areas or improve specific techniques. Because I tend to think in a deliberate and logical manner, I prefer to lean towards specific criticisms. When receiving criticism, it is hard for me to bear the correction of someone who expresses an overall sense that my work needs to improve by moving in one direction or another. I am much more accepting and am able to apply myself to utilizing others’ criticisms when they direct me to correct X by improving Y which comes from practicing Z. When I give criticism in an area of my own expertise, I try to be specific as possible so as to provide the other person with a high level of clarity. However, a measure of generality is needed to make sure criticism has a maximum effect. This is an interpretation of the popular saying, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” The specific can be limited in how helpful it is if context is not built, and students can easily forget nuggets of information not attached to a broader system of understanding.
In light of a mentoring program, it is important that the mentors are mature enough to understand that helping others to learn is not ultimately about memorizing facts, or techniques, or methods, or protocols, or formats, or heuristics. When you commit to helping others learn, you commit to making sure that the mentee receives the ability to generalize to situations that come from diverse areas of study, areas of study that may only exist in the future, and perhaps even life outside study.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Social Impacts and Social Problems
While reading chapter 5 of Drucker, “Social Impacts and Social Problems” I was somewhat shocked that there are politically active men and women (an example is Ralph Nader) who promote unlimited social responsibility for big business. They have asked themselves, “should businesses bear the burden of having both responsibility and authority in all matters of social problems occurring in their communities and societies?” And their answer has been an emphatic, “yes, responsibility in all matters.”
This philosophy necessarily urges businesses to assume a position of authority in the realm already served by other (non-profit) institutions. For example, to say that Du Pont is responsible for using its economic success to push for racial equality, health care reform, and the improvement of public schools is to say that Du Pont should usurp a large amount of authority outside its area of expertise. Du Pont should take over the role of several non-profits- including the government- that already concentrate on these issues and prove themselves a boon to society by accepting all authority to solve these problems.
The first problem with this expectation to me is a glaring probability of conflict of interest. The implication of a profit-biased company running multiple “noble” efforts to curb and correct social problems, is that each correction must ultimately be profitable or it becomes doubly a cost to the business. If Du Pont believes (correctly or incorrectly) that promoting racial equality will decrease the quality of workers it can hire in its factories, the company must pay to run a program for racial inequality and it must pay the cost of decreased profits from poorer quality workers. To expect such a sacrifice from a company in a capitalist economic system is unrealistic in my mind. It immediately brings the danger of insincere and damaging social authority by businesses to replace the clear-minded goals of non-profits.
Although putting all responsibility of social problems squarely on the shoulders of big business is not reasonable, it is always important for companies to be mindful of social problems surrounding their customers, as this can be directly linked to their effectiveness as an institution. If the main objective of a business is to create a customer, it should behoove the business to see customers coming from the pool that is the local community as living in a society that has problems. I do not feel like it is good or possible to separate the needs of a customer (or potential customer) from his or her relationship to the society that has problems that affect everyone. Although Drucker made a good point by stating that some social problems can be seen as economic opportunities, and thus the connection to the customer make sense, the connection of the customer to problems that are not solvable by business innovation are just as important or more important to consider. It seems that these problems, because they are less likely to be “solved” in a defined and specific way, are going to be a part of the customer’s everyday context for some time into the future, which influences the wants, needs, practices, and habits of the customer.
So, is Ralph Nader correct for pointing out that companies neglect social problems too much and congratulate themselves for positive social impacts too much…probably. Is Ralph Nader right in demanding complete responsibility for correcting social problems from big business… for the ultimate good of society, probably no.
This philosophy necessarily urges businesses to assume a position of authority in the realm already served by other (non-profit) institutions. For example, to say that Du Pont is responsible for using its economic success to push for racial equality, health care reform, and the improvement of public schools is to say that Du Pont should usurp a large amount of authority outside its area of expertise. Du Pont should take over the role of several non-profits- including the government- that already concentrate on these issues and prove themselves a boon to society by accepting all authority to solve these problems.
The first problem with this expectation to me is a glaring probability of conflict of interest. The implication of a profit-biased company running multiple “noble” efforts to curb and correct social problems, is that each correction must ultimately be profitable or it becomes doubly a cost to the business. If Du Pont believes (correctly or incorrectly) that promoting racial equality will decrease the quality of workers it can hire in its factories, the company must pay to run a program for racial inequality and it must pay the cost of decreased profits from poorer quality workers. To expect such a sacrifice from a company in a capitalist economic system is unrealistic in my mind. It immediately brings the danger of insincere and damaging social authority by businesses to replace the clear-minded goals of non-profits.
Although putting all responsibility of social problems squarely on the shoulders of big business is not reasonable, it is always important for companies to be mindful of social problems surrounding their customers, as this can be directly linked to their effectiveness as an institution. If the main objective of a business is to create a customer, it should behoove the business to see customers coming from the pool that is the local community as living in a society that has problems. I do not feel like it is good or possible to separate the needs of a customer (or potential customer) from his or her relationship to the society that has problems that affect everyone. Although Drucker made a good point by stating that some social problems can be seen as economic opportunities, and thus the connection to the customer make sense, the connection of the customer to problems that are not solvable by business innovation are just as important or more important to consider. It seems that these problems, because they are less likely to be “solved” in a defined and specific way, are going to be a part of the customer’s everyday context for some time into the future, which influences the wants, needs, practices, and habits of the customer.
So, is Ralph Nader correct for pointing out that companies neglect social problems too much and congratulate themselves for positive social impacts too much…probably. Is Ralph Nader right in demanding complete responsibility for correcting social problems from big business… for the ultimate good of society, probably no.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Alignment of the "Saltshaker"
Alignment is “a state of agreement or cooperation among persons, groups, nations, etc., with a common cause or viewpoint” according to dictionary dot com. I immediately thought of the house where I live on campus, endearingly referred to as the “Saltshaker”. Eight young men from my church live there including me, and we generally are supposed to function as a unit in order to maintain a pleasant “home away from home”. In addition to this main purpose, objectives outlined include such things as: keeping the house clean, cooking dinner four nights a week, and providing a healthy atmosphere physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
Formal management of the house is responsibility of a “house dad”, but because of the small size of the group, personal accountability to each other is a significant part of how the house of managed informally. Because we each come from different families and different hometowns (albeit all in central Illinois), we will each naturally deviate to operating according to our own ideas of “how things should be” if not aligned.
The largest practical means of aligning the group to focus on our objectives is the semesterly house meeting, where we evenly divide up all jobs (from cooking to cleaning bathrooms) based on a point basis. All jobs have rules which are written down in a list of job descriptions, and additionally include motivations like: “if dishes are not done, party responsible will acquire all subsequent dirty dishes until job is completed.” And because we know each other well enough, we can feel free to refer each other to the job description if someone is neglecting their duties. On the other hand, the reward system for doing jobs is weak in my opinion, as it consists only of a sticker chart for each person’s job each week. Although everyone is pretty honest in withholding their sticker if they failed to do their job, the chart seems to hold little importance in terms of shame or pride in completing duties.
What management (the house dad) might do to maintain alignment in doing jobs correctly and completely is to institute a better reward system by peer evaluation- perhaps a system like a rent surcharge to poor job performance as indicated by a simple survey of the house residents each month.
Another part of alignment that has become evident at the Saltshaker is difference of opinions in procedural and organizational matters. Two examples are whether the shopper can buy groceries at a more expensive store if the food quality is slightly higher or the store is easier to shop at, and the arrangement of parking to get eight vehicles in a single driveway without creating the environment for fender benders or trapping others’ vehicles. What management can do to align us in these matters is to consider the options in light of the overall house objectives and write down the procedures to give concrete direction to us all. Also, it helps that we each are thankful to have such a nice place to stay with cheap rent, and thus are somewhat internally motivated to maintain the house. “For the good of the ‘Shake’” is a popular slogan we say occasionally (when someone needs to “take one for the team”) to remind us that personal sacrifices must sometimes be made to keep the good thing we have. Thus the most effective way to maintain alignment in the situation of the Saltshaker is to well define our objectives and tasks, and then promote each resident to take a personal stake in this home of ours.
Formal management of the house is responsibility of a “house dad”, but because of the small size of the group, personal accountability to each other is a significant part of how the house of managed informally. Because we each come from different families and different hometowns (albeit all in central Illinois), we will each naturally deviate to operating according to our own ideas of “how things should be” if not aligned.
The largest practical means of aligning the group to focus on our objectives is the semesterly house meeting, where we evenly divide up all jobs (from cooking to cleaning bathrooms) based on a point basis. All jobs have rules which are written down in a list of job descriptions, and additionally include motivations like: “if dishes are not done, party responsible will acquire all subsequent dirty dishes until job is completed.” And because we know each other well enough, we can feel free to refer each other to the job description if someone is neglecting their duties. On the other hand, the reward system for doing jobs is weak in my opinion, as it consists only of a sticker chart for each person’s job each week. Although everyone is pretty honest in withholding their sticker if they failed to do their job, the chart seems to hold little importance in terms of shame or pride in completing duties.
What management (the house dad) might do to maintain alignment in doing jobs correctly and completely is to institute a better reward system by peer evaluation- perhaps a system like a rent surcharge to poor job performance as indicated by a simple survey of the house residents each month.
Another part of alignment that has become evident at the Saltshaker is difference of opinions in procedural and organizational matters. Two examples are whether the shopper can buy groceries at a more expensive store if the food quality is slightly higher or the store is easier to shop at, and the arrangement of parking to get eight vehicles in a single driveway without creating the environment for fender benders or trapping others’ vehicles. What management can do to align us in these matters is to consider the options in light of the overall house objectives and write down the procedures to give concrete direction to us all. Also, it helps that we each are thankful to have such a nice place to stay with cheap rent, and thus are somewhat internally motivated to maintain the house. “For the good of the ‘Shake’” is a popular slogan we say occasionally (when someone needs to “take one for the team”) to remind us that personal sacrifices must sometimes be made to keep the good thing we have. Thus the most effective way to maintain alignment in the situation of the Saltshaker is to well define our objectives and tasks, and then promote each resident to take a personal stake in this home of ours.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Intrinsic Motivation in My Experience
One class for which my motivation was mostly internal was an introduction to economics course offered by the Campus Honors Program. Economics and economics reasoning of how goods and services are exchanged in society and every person’s life individually was new to me- I had never taken a class on this subject before. My interest of this academic area outside of my major was enough to drive me to learn all that was taught in class and all that was taught in the textbook. Good grades were not hard to obtain; otherwise I might have been tempted to focus more on them. I was now free to ignore this most basic and essential extrinsic motivator in school and do as I was directed or recommended by the professor without biasing the direction of my efforts based on how each assignment or activity will affect the ever-present grade. This seemed to me to be the most trustworthy way of gaining a good grasp of the material and coming away from the course with a working understanding of the impacts of economics in my personal finances, my career in engineering, my home town in central Illinois, and the global markets at large. I wanted to expand my comprehension of the connections in the material that I was starting to make as a newcomer to economics, not regarding the extrinsic motivations present.
A couple of ways the professor helped the learning in this class was by providing illustrative small group activities during class and by forcing active participation in discussion when students offered an answer to his question. Activities usually involved trying to come up with a model for an interesting economic and social situation (e.g. illegal drug trade) based on our limited knowledge of basic principles in economics. In the ensuing whole-class discussion, if student Jane Doe had a reason why the studied event A would happen, could they come to the board and illustrate to the class why on a plot of supply and demand on the chalkboard?
To bring students into a joint exploration of the class material where student and teacher work together to uncover ideas and principles that have been discovered by other professionals in the past- and just happened to be our curriculum for the class- seemed to be an very effective method of making learning a more intrinsically- motivated activity. This is in contrast to the motivation resulting from a class in which the professor just lectures the material and described in a syllabus what will be covered and how grades will be determined. Students just see the syllabus and the memorizable facts from lectures and decide that “getting a good grade and getting out” consists of “playing a game” of catering to the grading rules and emphasis instead of focusing on learning as driver to work in the course.
Outside of the classroom, I am lucky enough to be working in a part time job where my motivation is intrinsic. I work developing sustainable biofuels with ADM in the University’s Research Park. The subject of this work keeps me motivated by knowing the importance of finding a renewable fuel source for the world’s energy needs in the future. Reaching the goal I am working towards would mean vastly better management of our current renewable and nonrenewable resources, a big score in the fight against global warming, and downgrading of large sources of political strife regarding crude oil extraction in unstable world regions. Even if I cannot see an end product or significant steps toward a solution during my time at the company, I am pushed onward by the “nobility” of the cause and the attractiveness of the potential solution. I also do not feel a large pull to accomplish in order to be recognized by other people, but to just be a part of a larger effort to resolve one of the world’s largest issues. Unfortunately, I don’t see how this method of motivation can be transplanted to most other areas of work. However, seeing one’s work as intrinsically positive and impactful to people is sure to lessen the presence of salary, recognition, and other extrinsic motivations which are ever-present in one’s mind.
A couple of ways the professor helped the learning in this class was by providing illustrative small group activities during class and by forcing active participation in discussion when students offered an answer to his question. Activities usually involved trying to come up with a model for an interesting economic and social situation (e.g. illegal drug trade) based on our limited knowledge of basic principles in economics. In the ensuing whole-class discussion, if student Jane Doe had a reason why the studied event A would happen, could they come to the board and illustrate to the class why on a plot of supply and demand on the chalkboard?
To bring students into a joint exploration of the class material where student and teacher work together to uncover ideas and principles that have been discovered by other professionals in the past- and just happened to be our curriculum for the class- seemed to be an very effective method of making learning a more intrinsically- motivated activity. This is in contrast to the motivation resulting from a class in which the professor just lectures the material and described in a syllabus what will be covered and how grades will be determined. Students just see the syllabus and the memorizable facts from lectures and decide that “getting a good grade and getting out” consists of “playing a game” of catering to the grading rules and emphasis instead of focusing on learning as driver to work in the course.
Outside of the classroom, I am lucky enough to be working in a part time job where my motivation is intrinsic. I work developing sustainable biofuels with ADM in the University’s Research Park. The subject of this work keeps me motivated by knowing the importance of finding a renewable fuel source for the world’s energy needs in the future. Reaching the goal I am working towards would mean vastly better management of our current renewable and nonrenewable resources, a big score in the fight against global warming, and downgrading of large sources of political strife regarding crude oil extraction in unstable world regions. Even if I cannot see an end product or significant steps toward a solution during my time at the company, I am pushed onward by the “nobility” of the cause and the attractiveness of the potential solution. I also do not feel a large pull to accomplish in order to be recognized by other people, but to just be a part of a larger effort to resolve one of the world’s largest issues. Unfortunately, I don’t see how this method of motivation can be transplanted to most other areas of work. However, seeing one’s work as intrinsically positive and impactful to people is sure to lessen the presence of salary, recognition, and other extrinsic motivations which are ever-present in one’s mind.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Effortful Study and The Expert Mind
The article “The Expert Mind” had a number of interesting points made about the mechanism of forming, retaining, and recalling memories in novices and experts. The learning of an expert is to be desired over that of a novice not because more knowledge is committed to memory, but because experts learn material in a way that allows them to demonstrate a mastery and deep understanding of the subject area that novices lack.
The difference between novice and expert learning was one of stark contrast. According to the article, the novice and expert both have similar memory skills outside the bounds of their very specific training, such as the mental catalogue of chess board configurations. Inside this area of training, however, the expert has a huge advantage from a long term memory organization system that has fine structure to help bring the right connections quickly out of storage. The novice, on the other hand, may have nearly the same amount of information learned and stored in long term memory, but because of the lack of structure only random (however correct) recall of individual pieces of information is possible.
My question which was not answered in the article- perhaps because it cannot be- is how, or when does the transition take place between the novice learning and expert learning in an individual pursuing “effortful study”? Does the structure to the memories of an expert just emerge on its own after a certain number of hours of study, or does the structure more or less need to be put in place as expert learning begins, neglecting the alphabet soup of previously learned novice memories? My guess is that when starting to put forth effortful study, by definition structure is sought and added to the learning mind. This is in contrast to the novice who does not decide to put forth effortful study, and thus subjects the mind to repetition and anarchical organization of individual pieces of information.
Another interesting point was made that in developing an expert mind, effortful study matters much more than innate talent. One fascinating example was Laszlo Polgar’s three daughters, who were all trained rigorously in chess, resulting in one international master and two grandmasters. There was also a study of British chess players that found no correlation between playing strengths and visual-spatial abilities. This emphasis on effortful study tells those who want to educate effectively that in order to get students to learn like experts, motivation for them to put forth this “effortful study” is key. When a child is having trouble learning, it is not that the teacher has reached the limit of the student’s innate ability, but that the child perhaps needs more motivation from a variety of sources to provoke focused, structured, intense, time-consuming study to reap intellectual dividends. Somehow aspiring chess players developed expert minds through tens of thousands of hours of effortful study, and each had to have his or her own motivation to put in the time and sweat. Is it possible for educators to develop the minds of students everywhere by finding the right motivations to push each one to their own “effortful study”? I would venture to say, “yes”.
The difference between novice and expert learning was one of stark contrast. According to the article, the novice and expert both have similar memory skills outside the bounds of their very specific training, such as the mental catalogue of chess board configurations. Inside this area of training, however, the expert has a huge advantage from a long term memory organization system that has fine structure to help bring the right connections quickly out of storage. The novice, on the other hand, may have nearly the same amount of information learned and stored in long term memory, but because of the lack of structure only random (however correct) recall of individual pieces of information is possible.
My question which was not answered in the article- perhaps because it cannot be- is how, or when does the transition take place between the novice learning and expert learning in an individual pursuing “effortful study”? Does the structure to the memories of an expert just emerge on its own after a certain number of hours of study, or does the structure more or less need to be put in place as expert learning begins, neglecting the alphabet soup of previously learned novice memories? My guess is that when starting to put forth effortful study, by definition structure is sought and added to the learning mind. This is in contrast to the novice who does not decide to put forth effortful study, and thus subjects the mind to repetition and anarchical organization of individual pieces of information.
Another interesting point was made that in developing an expert mind, effortful study matters much more than innate talent. One fascinating example was Laszlo Polgar’s three daughters, who were all trained rigorously in chess, resulting in one international master and two grandmasters. There was also a study of British chess players that found no correlation between playing strengths and visual-spatial abilities. This emphasis on effortful study tells those who want to educate effectively that in order to get students to learn like experts, motivation for them to put forth this “effortful study” is key. When a child is having trouble learning, it is not that the teacher has reached the limit of the student’s innate ability, but that the child perhaps needs more motivation from a variety of sources to provoke focused, structured, intense, time-consuming study to reap intellectual dividends. Somehow aspiring chess players developed expert minds through tens of thousands of hours of effortful study, and each had to have his or her own motivation to put in the time and sweat. Is it possible for educators to develop the minds of students everywhere by finding the right motivations to push each one to their own “effortful study”? I would venture to say, “yes”.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Opening up Conversations
To start, I am not an expert on conversation, and as a natural introvert I doubt I ever will be. There are some recurring rules of thumb in my experience, though, that I might mention. In order to open up a prospective conversation partner, in most cases where the other is not a very close friend it is best to start small and build meaning as the conversation progresses. Beginning a conversation with profound or controversial topics can most often discourage participation or provoke passionate, unthoughtful monologging of someone’s personal absolutes. I usually try to start conversation on mundane topics such as weather, school, news, or the surroundings. This allows most people to begin to feel comfortable whether they be outgoing or not. As conversation progresses, I try to wean away from the mundane to more personal subjects that are largely unobtrusive such as one’s family, weekend plans, state/town of origin, hobbies, or pets.
When in conversation, I usually try to talk in a straightforward and clear manner of vocabulary and voice. I generally have not had good conversational experiences with overly “elegant” (a.k.a. confusing) speech or someone that speaks in mumbles or too softly or quickly to be heard. Eye contact is important to a point, although I realize that I naturally look away from time to time to reduce the possibility of becoming imposing or too intense. It is also helpful if the speaker tries to not make excessive movements with the rest of his or her body, as this can be quite distracting.
For troubleshooting conversations, I usually try to be a defensive driver. When resistance is sensed, I usually maneuver to a different topic. Despite what anyone else may think, I believe that there is always something on a person’s mind that they want to share or discuss. And it is usually worth finding, if the other person is in a fair mood. When someone has high resistance to continue conversation, I usually feel fine stopping. Ultimately, it is not my obligation to continue, and sometimes the sound of silence can bring forth more mutual understanding and respect between people than hot air could ever hope to yield.
When in conversation, I usually try to talk in a straightforward and clear manner of vocabulary and voice. I generally have not had good conversational experiences with overly “elegant” (a.k.a. confusing) speech or someone that speaks in mumbles or too softly or quickly to be heard. Eye contact is important to a point, although I realize that I naturally look away from time to time to reduce the possibility of becoming imposing or too intense. It is also helpful if the speaker tries to not make excessive movements with the rest of his or her body, as this can be quite distracting.
For troubleshooting conversations, I usually try to be a defensive driver. When resistance is sensed, I usually maneuver to a different topic. Despite what anyone else may think, I believe that there is always something on a person’s mind that they want to share or discuss. And it is usually worth finding, if the other person is in a fair mood. When someone has high resistance to continue conversation, I usually feel fine stopping. Ultimately, it is not my obligation to continue, and sometimes the sound of silence can bring forth more mutual understanding and respect between people than hot air could ever hope to yield.
Friday, September 4, 2009
The Motivation of Numbers
One item of discussion from class which I felt especially interesting was the effect that numbers have on the direction and magnitude of someone’s efforts. As simple and impersonal as numbers are, they are routinely able to profoundly push and pull our motives. The Apgar score, a way to quantify the health of a newborn baby, was able to bring about a push from doctors to strive for best practice when their effort could be quantified, maximized, and compared among others. There are other examples of “grades” or “scores” which have been effective in other areas as well, and some that are not (e.g. ICES results for full professors). But the question I want to bring up is something else.
Is there a danger to numbers? Can a counterexample be found in which the influence of objectivity in professions or social situations offered by numbers is negative? My answer is yes. One area where positive change can be at odds with numbers nowadays is the public school system. The increased emphasis of former President George W. Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” program on standardized test scores has furthered a gap between what teachers want to teach and what teachers feel they need to teach. One the one hand, what teachers want to teach foundational material in ways that can be effective and stimulating to students. This includes activities beyond the textbook such as taking fieldtrips to art museums, making advertisement posters in Spanish, and building Rube Goldberg contraptions in physics classes. One the other hand, teachers in lower-performing classrooms of high-minority, underfunded public schools feel the need to teach material that will raise the class’s standardized test scores to secure their job and secure the school’s future funding. This includes cutting out peripheral activities that may be more interesting for kids, paring down class material to only that covered in standardized tests, and investing a certain amount of class time to specifically teach standardized test-taking skills and techniques.
What’s the effect? Well, if my actual objective for America’s future generation is to have them be taught to be creative thinkers with a broad knowledge base in a way that has made learning fun for them (thus encouraging further education), numbers can really get in the way. Teachers at poorer schools in inner city districts that are striving for acceptable test scores are hamstringed by fear of losing their job for bad (or stagnant) student performance, as administrators become keen on the new ties of public funding to standardized test performance. Even worse, some teachers are tempted to allow their students to cheat on these tests to help out the class’s results.
Thus, as mentioned in class, numbers can prove powerful agents for effective change as standards of measurement. Competition can drive men and women to achieve best practice, and numbers can provide the metric. However, numbers can also pull motivation away from the goal of overall excellence and push motivation toward a narrow, confined definition of achievement. When looking to bring about effective change, one must know if the difference between an “A” and an “F” is the difference between success and failure, or simply a matter of how much help you had taking the test.
Is there a danger to numbers? Can a counterexample be found in which the influence of objectivity in professions or social situations offered by numbers is negative? My answer is yes. One area where positive change can be at odds with numbers nowadays is the public school system. The increased emphasis of former President George W. Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” program on standardized test scores has furthered a gap between what teachers want to teach and what teachers feel they need to teach. One the one hand, what teachers want to teach foundational material in ways that can be effective and stimulating to students. This includes activities beyond the textbook such as taking fieldtrips to art museums, making advertisement posters in Spanish, and building Rube Goldberg contraptions in physics classes. One the other hand, teachers in lower-performing classrooms of high-minority, underfunded public schools feel the need to teach material that will raise the class’s standardized test scores to secure their job and secure the school’s future funding. This includes cutting out peripheral activities that may be more interesting for kids, paring down class material to only that covered in standardized tests, and investing a certain amount of class time to specifically teach standardized test-taking skills and techniques.
What’s the effect? Well, if my actual objective for America’s future generation is to have them be taught to be creative thinkers with a broad knowledge base in a way that has made learning fun for them (thus encouraging further education), numbers can really get in the way. Teachers at poorer schools in inner city districts that are striving for acceptable test scores are hamstringed by fear of losing their job for bad (or stagnant) student performance, as administrators become keen on the new ties of public funding to standardized test performance. Even worse, some teachers are tempted to allow their students to cheat on these tests to help out the class’s results.
Thus, as mentioned in class, numbers can prove powerful agents for effective change as standards of measurement. Competition can drive men and women to achieve best practice, and numbers can provide the metric. However, numbers can also pull motivation away from the goal of overall excellence and push motivation toward a narrow, confined definition of achievement. When looking to bring about effective change, one must know if the difference between an “A” and an “F” is the difference between success and failure, or simply a matter of how much help you had taking the test.
Friday, August 28, 2009
What do I want to get out of this course?
To be honest, I have no objective expectations for this class. My personal philosophy on learning in a class environment is to approach with an open mind and take what seems to emerge as applicable. However, for the sake of looking forward and making public what my thoughts are on “Designing for Effective Change” I have come up with a couple of thoughts about what may be useful from this class. First of all, I am technologically semi-illiterate so publishing reflective writing on a blog and using the class project wiki will be a useful exercise for gaining additional tools to effectively communicate and collaborate. As an engineer I understand that technical problem solving in the modern world many times requires the synchronization of individuals from different backgrounds and different locations to form a synergetic team which can effectively communicate between themselves and to others.
As far as the subject matter of the class goes, I don’t know what Professor Arvin thinks of as examples of the so-called “effective change”, but I would like to be introduced to ways in which change was brought about effectively without the formal “blueprint planning” which students typically learn in traditional courses. Few educated people are able to think outside this box to find more creative ways to implement changes in organizations or societies. Although, it is my impression that these are the ways which may be able to stir the minds of employees, professionals, students, teachers, citizens, and humans beings in general to implement stable changes better than the plans that simple logic is able to provide.
I would like to know if the methods of effective change are completely unique to each situation or if some ideas of implementing change are more or less effective in all situations. I would like to find out under what environments effective change takes hold. Is it in environments of internal pressure or external pressure? I would like to find out what promotes effective change to spread? Is it people, personalities, and relationships or economics, accessibility, and impression? Can effective change be sped up or made more “contagious” by the actions we take? These are just a few of the questions that may be good for me to answer through this class.
In the chemical engineering profession the answer to what is the nature and method of “Designing for Effective Change” will be very helpful to me. It will provide perspective on change that will inevitably happen around me in a rapidly evolving scientific field. It will also help me to take improvements that my colleagues and I find through our mathematic and technical knowledge and implement them in ways that will catch on and stick in an industry setting. These may cover such important areas as plant safety procedures, the management of new process designs, implementation of more economic operating procedures, or just efficient ways to objectively communicate from engineers to laboratory technicians to process operators to management to accounting personnel in a company.
All in all, the only constant I foresee in my personal and professional future is change. Even though the nature of this change is unclear at the present, I look to this class for the opportunity to learn how to effectively deal with and influence the change as it comes to better myself and those around me.
As far as the subject matter of the class goes, I don’t know what Professor Arvin thinks of as examples of the so-called “effective change”, but I would like to be introduced to ways in which change was brought about effectively without the formal “blueprint planning” which students typically learn in traditional courses. Few educated people are able to think outside this box to find more creative ways to implement changes in organizations or societies. Although, it is my impression that these are the ways which may be able to stir the minds of employees, professionals, students, teachers, citizens, and humans beings in general to implement stable changes better than the plans that simple logic is able to provide.
I would like to know if the methods of effective change are completely unique to each situation or if some ideas of implementing change are more or less effective in all situations. I would like to find out under what environments effective change takes hold. Is it in environments of internal pressure or external pressure? I would like to find out what promotes effective change to spread? Is it people, personalities, and relationships or economics, accessibility, and impression? Can effective change be sped up or made more “contagious” by the actions we take? These are just a few of the questions that may be good for me to answer through this class.
In the chemical engineering profession the answer to what is the nature and method of “Designing for Effective Change” will be very helpful to me. It will provide perspective on change that will inevitably happen around me in a rapidly evolving scientific field. It will also help me to take improvements that my colleagues and I find through our mathematic and technical knowledge and implement them in ways that will catch on and stick in an industry setting. These may cover such important areas as plant safety procedures, the management of new process designs, implementation of more economic operating procedures, or just efficient ways to objectively communicate from engineers to laboratory technicians to process operators to management to accounting personnel in a company.
All in all, the only constant I foresee in my personal and professional future is change. Even though the nature of this change is unclear at the present, I look to this class for the opportunity to learn how to effectively deal with and influence the change as it comes to better myself and those around me.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
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