This is a wikipage I created for the Critical and Creative Thinking course CrCrTh693, Action Research.
It will also be part of my Personal/Professional Workbook (PPD). We have the option of doing the PPD completely on our wiki (should that be an upper case W?) but I think I will also need a binder for some hard copy materials.
I am excited for the opportunity to learn how to use a wiki. I love Wikipedia, but haven't contributed anything. I have contributed a little to a small hobby-based wiki I visit, but not very much.
I don't actually know how to format a page into different sections. I'll have to figure that out.
I am excited about our Action Research class. It is very applicable to the work I have been doing, and very useful for imagining how to create change.
In the first class we reviewed cycles and epicycles of action research, which was very interesting. In my last job I tried to creat lots of change. Much of it was successful, but ultimately it all fell apart. One major contributing factor to that was that I didn't do enough work to build supporting constituencies. I wasn't naive to the need for constituent support. I focused on what I thought my primary constituencies were, but I neglected a constituency that turned out to be very important, and that oversight eventually played a major role in undermining what I was doing.
So the cycle offers a nice visual overview, and great insight into key aspects of creating change.
We also started a "compressed action research" project in class, and were given a great handout breaking down the phases. Again, very useful in understanding the various steps, although sometimes I found it challenging processing all of the details on both handouts, especially because the cycles use a lot of steps that are repeating or overlapping. But practice and review should help with that.
I love our book Practical Action Research for Change, by Richard Schmuck. It is beautifully well written, and breaks down the idea of action research into very realistic steps and phases.
My work (previosly and hopefully in the future) involved helping mobilize and empower college students to become part of positive changes in their community. As part of that work I did a lot of training introducing knowledge, skills and attitudes that would assist in the process. Training, in fact, was one of my favorite parts of the work. I can really see using Schmuck's work as a tool to frame all the other training students would be exposed too, as a great way to help them see themselves as agents of change.
Although I'm happy to be a full time student, I miss my job. If I was still working I could practice introducing and implimenting some of the action research ideas right now. But for the moment I'm limited to doing it theoretically. Eventually I'll have similar work again (knock wood), and I can use what I'm learning now as a foundational component.
This entry is pretty much a ramble. I'll work on editing and formatting it later. I just wanted to get started on my PPD and playinig with the wikispace. Yay!
Oh, before I forget, I should have links to two other pages on here somewhere:
This is my personal blog. I think it will have a lot of overlap with the PPD (I'll have to figure out how to balance the two):
As far as I know, only one other person has ever actually read my blog..but it's still fun to do!
This is my CCT network space. I have been tending to post reflections on my blog, then post links to the CCT related reflection on my CCT network space, so, again, there is lots of overlap with the blog. But if you're in the CCT network, you can also "friend" me:
This entry is pretty much a ramble. I'll work on editing and formatting it later. I just wanted to get started on my PPD and playinig with the wikispace. Yay!
Entry 2: Thursday, February 5, 2009
Youtube Video in the spirit of Action Research
This video is a cute little animated piece by a teacher about a (successful) change he introduced into his classroom teaching. It doesn't mention all the aspects of Action Research, but he does mention several components, and the spirit of continual improvement is certainly there. He identifies a problem, attempts a solution, reflects on the solution, and then that solution leads to a series of other changes and improvements in his teaching.
And I'm going to try and embed it here (I've never done that before!):
It worked (although, note to self, I had to insert it as a widget).
Entry 3: Thursday, February 5, 2009
I just did a (long) post on my blog about building constituent support when making change. I used the example of Brandeis University's plan to close their museum (The Rose Art Museum) as and example of a change process that alienates constituents.
In class we've focused on positive changes (action research as continual improvement), not changes in response to crisis, but I think the idea of building constituent support is essential in both.
This is a wikipage I created for the Critical and Creative Thinking course CrCrTh693, Action Research.
It will also be part of my Personal/Professional Workbook (PPD). We have the option of doing the PPD completely on our wiki (should that be an upper case W?) but I think I will also need a binder for some hard copy materials.
I am excited for the opportunity to learn how to use a wiki. I love Wikipedia, but haven't contributed anything. I have contributed a little to a small hobby-based wiki I visit, but not very much.
I don't actually know how to format a page into different sections. I'll have to figure that out.
I am excited about our Action Research class. It is very applicable to the work I have been doing, and very useful for imagining how to create change.
In the first class we reviewed cycles and epicycles of action research, which was very interesting. In my last job I tried to creat lots of change. Much of it was successful, but ultimately it all fell apart. One major contributing factor to that was that I didn't do enough work to build supporting constituencies. I wasn't naive to the need for constituent support. I focused on what I thought my primary constituencies were, but I neglected a constituency that turned out to be very important, and that oversight eventually played a major role in undermining what I was doing.
So the cycle offers a nice visual overview, and great insight into key aspects of creating change.
We also started a "compressed action research" project in class, and were given a great handout breaking down the phases. Again, very useful in understanding the various steps, although sometimes I found it challenging processing all of the details on both handouts, especially because the cycles use a lot of steps that are repeating or overlapping. But practice and review should help with that.
I love our book Practical Action Research for Change, by Richard Schmuck. It is beautifully well written, and breaks down the idea of action research into very realistic steps and phases.
My work (previosly and hopefully in the future) involved helping mobilize and empower college students to become part of positive changes in their community. As part of that work I did a lot of training introducing knowledge, skills and attitudes that would assist in the process. Training, in fact, was one of my favorite parts of the work. I can really see using Schmuck's work as a tool to frame all the other training students would be exposed too, as a great way to help them see themselves as agents of change.
Although I'm happy to be a full time student, I miss my job. If I was still working I could practice introducing and implimenting some of the action research ideas right now. But for the moment I'm limited to doing it theoretically. Eventually I'll have similar work again (knock wood), and I can use what I'm learning now as a foundational component.
This entry is pretty much a ramble. I'll work on editing and formatting it later. I just wanted to get started on my PPD and playinig with the wikispace. Yay!
Oh, before I forget, I should have links to two other pages on here somewhere:
This is my personal blog. I think it will have a lot of overlap with the PPD (I'll have to figure out how to balance the two):
http://higheredobservations.blogspot.com/
As far as I know, only one other person has ever actually read my blog..but it's still fun to do!
This is my CCT network space. I have been tending to post reflections on my blog, then post links to the CCT related reflection on my CCT network space, so, again, there is lots of overlap with the blog. But if you're in the CCT network, you can also "friend" me:
http://cctnetwork.ning.com/profile/JeremyPoehnert
This entry is pretty much a ramble. I'll work on editing and formatting it later. I just wanted to get started on my PPD and playinig with the wikispace. Yay!
Entry 2: Thursday, February 5, 2009
Youtube Video in the spirit of Action Research
This video is a cute little animated piece by a teacher about a (successful) change he introduced into his classroom teaching. It doesn't mention all the aspects of Action Research, but he does mention several components, and the spirit of continual improvement is certainly there. He identifies a problem, attempts a solution, reflects on the solution, and then that solution leads to a series of other changes and improvements in his teaching.
Here's the URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rtPhSb9g2k
And I'm going to try and embed it here (I've never done that before!):
It worked (although, note to self, I had to insert it as a widget).
Entry 3: Thursday, February 5, 2009
I just did a (long) post on my blog about building constituent support when making change. I used the example of Brandeis University's plan to close their museum (The Rose Art Museum) as and example of a change process that alienates constituents.
In class we've focused on positive changes (action research as continual improvement), not changes in response to crisis, but I think the idea of building constituent support is essential in both.
Here's a link to the post:
Action Research Example: Building Constituencies
http://higheredobservations.blogspot.com/2009/02/action-research-example-building.html