The Other AR - New Researcher Observations

The last couple weeks have been really, really busy for me at work.  Two trips out of town sandwiched a week of instructing at home, I have put in nearly 227.3 hours of work in two 14 day periods.  The point of my mentioning all of this is to underscore the constant go-go-go of my recent schedule and also note that I have had a lot of recent experience to analyze the training that is the subject of my Action Research project.  

It has been hard at times to allow adequate time to research for my AR project, and after many attempts of searching for pertinent articles I have finally been able to find examples that provide a wealth of information as well as unplanned potential directions to aide in my AR.  

Particular items that I have noted recently:

·         I had forgotten how tiring personalized training can be when training small groups on new information (specifically, information that trainees have not been exposed to in the past)

·         I need to give more attention to removing our assumptions of the knowledge level of those we are instructing

·         There is a need to provide a “Big Picture” outlook for personnel undergoing training

·         We are missing examples to help learners develop ways to use their analytical ability

The first bullet above is personal, and is noted to call out the need to involve students more in the process; less time of the instructors teaching, more time of the students learning and collaborating among themselves.  

The last three bullets will likely be where I spend a lot of time formulating my AR work.  The second bullet, removing instructor assumptions may be addressed by a short foundational course to lay the groundwork for the rest of the training.  This may require re-tooling the rest of the training courses to incorporate different learning strategies to aide in skill development coupled with the material.  The big picture need may be able to be addressed with new learning objectives and skills exercises while verbally engaging trainees to think about steps of the process and how they relate to overall objectives.  The last bullet is where I really feel like we are failing at training right now (albeit we get very positive notes on our current training), we can do better to help unlock the true potential of those we are training.

CogTools - This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Stuff

129.4 hours of work in a 14 day period (not bad, considering all we got done!!).  Throughout this week and the last, I have had a bit of time to reflect on just how much time it takes to learn the simplest things, (and retain them for later use,) when your brain is inundated with new or different information.  

Day to day tasks when working with software are usually considered routine or mundane, but when one has to trouble-shoot issues the brain gets involved in a deep problem-solving of software or extraneous network issues.  De-bugging software anomalies presents a very interesting dilemma (CHALLENGE) for those tasked with it. For those who are not skilled with the aptitude afforded to those with software engineering, computer science or similar backgrounds, de-bugging and trouble-shooting system issues is an arduous task.  With potential issues that become known when working on closed networks, through a multitude of domains, hosting disparate software packages, with varying levels of privileges… levels of socket layers, firewalls, installed software package accessibility to execute commands across domains, etc… issues may seem to be endless to track down the root-cause of.

Even the simple act of “remoting-in” to another machine across a different network can present potential issues.

Isolation, may be the key.  Not isolation in the sense that the trouble-shooter is isolated, but isolating the components that are NOT the cause (or potential cause,) of an issue may become the most helpful in trouble-shooting system issues.

It seems obvious enough, but if one can isolate what is NOT the source of a perceived problem, then it is easier to employ process-of-elimination to identify anomaly sources.  One may have to look at ALL of the most minor details to get at the root of a problem.  In many ways this is a test of active learning coupled with the patience required of trial and error.  For many technology trainers and SA’s it would be hard for them to list and quantify all the ways of going about how to solve a system problem they are responsible for.  

 In most cases it seems, SA’s will employ memories of past issues and their resolutions to formulate a plan for attacking current issues.  In this way, one can mark-off and identify any system issues caused by the usual suspects.  Specifically, this refers to past issues that have not been properly worked through (and thus, the resolutions to them haven’t been completely solidified,) and removing them as possible causes of the current state of breakage.

I would identify much of what was mentioned above as fact-finding or fishing trips.  Depending on the complexity of what is being worked on, the first stages can probably be completed by a single person, while later success will usually involve multiple people working together to detail the holes in previous information.

It is easy for one to take for granted their software working cleanly with other kinds of packaged software, but when this is coupled with disparate versions, timing requirements, privileges, licenses, OS’s, etc. one can have a plethora of potential sources to isolate as the culprit of any number of system issues.

The Other AR - Action Research Example Assignment

1.      Summarize the focus or problem that the action researcher is tackling.

I chose Kelly M. Guenther’s thesis An Exploration of How Childhood Experiences and Well-Being Affect the Learning Process in Adulthood (2008), as the basis for this assignment.

In this thesis, Guenther explains that it is a fact that adult learners have a lifetime of unique experiences that are different from adult to adult.  She further identifies two key questions (numbers 2, and 3 below,) that question; why adults use positive or negative experiences of learning from when they were a child as influences on their adult learning interest, and what factors from these positive or negative past experiences were impactful on them as life-long learners?

2.      Describe the structure of the review of literature – 

Guenther’s literature review is nearly 29% of the overall thesis (30 of nearly 105 pages).  I found it to be structured quite well for the first 25 pages; going through citations and analysis of the importance of emotions, childhood past experiences with emotions and how their attempts to cope with issues affects their learning.  Next she noted a number of theoretical perspectives (many with associated studies that she references and comments specifically on constructivists, Mezirow, Friere, and Baxter Magolda’s studies and analyzed commonalities and disagreements between them.  Lastly she touches on citations and studies of different ways of knowing and confidence adults have from past experiences that they know certain information and how they came to that perspective.

I enjoyed reading her literature review and found the first three-quarters of it to be laid out well, with concise explanations and analysis of key points and (possible) implications of how they may influence her surveys, and research of study participants.  I would have organized the last section on knowing differently however.  Guenther’s last section appeared too brief to me (given the importance of the points and components she mentioned), and links between items lacked the perception of completeness that was present through the earlier part of the literature review.  I would have found or offered more citations and analysis into this last segment, in addition to working it out more fluidly in ordering to give the reader/researcher an easier path to understand the key points she wanted to convey.

Questions:

1. Do childhood experiences and well-being (emotions) affect the learning process of adulthood? (p. 8)

2. How is it possible that adults, particularly those seeking further advancement in a career and therefore, required to attend additional training, may view learning as a daunting, frightening, and/or unpleasant experience while other adults may view learning as a new and welcoming challenge filled with opportunity and excitement? (p. 8)

3. What factors cause adult learners to approach learning situations with feelings of excitement and empowerment?  What factors cause adult learners to approach learning situations with feelings of doubt, fear, and anxiety? (p. 8)

I found these questions to be well constructed.  As the basis for the thesis they describe the scope and direction of the research very well.  However, I would have liked a question that posed an expansion on the positive experiences of research participants that would discuss commonalities between them (participants,) in what they felt were the most positive beneficial experiences.  In short, I wish there was a question framed to note the causal reasons that participants felt were contributors to their positive views of life-long learning.  That may have offered an interesting side-bar of statistics and factors.  Overall, I enjoyed reading this thesis.

Bibliography

    

Guenther, Kelly M.  (2008). AN EXPLORATION OF HOW CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES AND WELL-BEING AFFECT THE LEARNING PROCESS IN ADULTHOOD. Carroll University Library. Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.carrollu.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/edthesis/id/10/rec/2