Mini Steps in Research and Big Steps in Confirmation

As I wrote 2 weeks ago in the Hamster blog, I gave myself some goals:

1. Read the books and get the relevant extracts
2. Start on the introductions for my essays and put my subject matter into context
3. SAVE the blog as I write 

1. I got through a lot of the books I got from both the library at AUT, and the one at MIT, Interesting in itself, I know the MIT library very well, & got some great advice from one of the librarians about using the online website. At AUT on the North Shore, first I had to find what I thought were the relevant sections, and then find the books. Not happening, so I finally found a computer that would allow me to search for books - I was allowed 10 minutes only and I wanted about 6 titles so that was hard, then I found out that the books were all in unexpected places, that is, if they were in the collection to start with. Somewhat frustrating, and found myself wanting to be in a familiar library where i knew how it worked. To top it off I could only have the books for 2 weeks, not the 4 weeks I am used to from MIT! I finally found about 3 from the list as well as one or two that I thought looked suitable for my 2 courses. It was good advice from Linda to look at the Introduction and the conclusion to see if I was interested in the text or not.

2. I did get started on the introductions and I tidied up the working essays quite a lot. Added references from the books as well as form internet documents that I managed to find through Google Scholar - that's another interesting website. So many likely looking works require a log-in to their site, or else they demand payment for the work. It took quite some time to find some readings that looked suitable for my topics - I had to work out what to formulate as a search topic as well; my questions as they stand, brought me in circular motions to where I needed to go. While looking for deeper learning and compressed time frames, I ended up with a fair amount on studies about block vs semester vs trimester delivery (Impact of Course Length on Student Learning by Adrian M. Austin and Leland Gustafson 2006), as well as studies about flipped classroom and reversing delivery, ie going away from didactic delivery to student centered activities. (Flipping for Success: Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Novel Teaching Approach in a Graduate Level Setting by John Moraros, Adiba Islam, Stan Yu, Ryan Banow and Barbara Schindelka, 2015). What I seem to be discovering, is that what I began doing in July 2015, is more or less what the writers of these documents themselves delivered after a significant amount of time researching methods and preparing lessons.

The data from student surveys indicate that despite students' wish for teacher led delivery, they discovered that group work and preparation beforehand, gave them deeper learning in the long term. Now to find something that connects deeper learning with compressed time frames - (or have I got it already implicit in these findings already? Or, if it is not to be found, then I really do have a researchable topic!)

3. SAVING is now something I have learned and will keep doing, not putting myself through that again. I used to always tell myself to write in a Word Document and then transfer that over - which really is the wisest thing to do, but psychologically, I find that I like to write within the blog because that is more tangible as I write my reflection.

Goals for next week:

1. Take the time to write a lot of what I have been reading in a way that fits both my Research Question, and my Special Topic. I can feel deeper down that they are very interchangeable. I'm thinking to the future as well, as I have a dark brown feeling I'll be researching something next year or the next (all going according to plan) - so I need a topic for research that will last the distance. If I can't find much about deeper learning in a compressed time frame, and at the moment that's my Special Topic. So if I stick with that then I can see how that develops in there and apply that to research at a later date. Hopefully the Research paper will allow me to get a good feeling for the way I would like to conduct research in the future, and apply that to the deeper learning in a compressed time frame.
2. Prepare for class on 30 April, I need to put together a short presentation about where I am in both topics. For Research it's a 5 min presentation, and for Special Topic it's another summery to be used for feedback from my classmates - so will need to be very careful that I follow the guidelines more effectively than I did a month ago.

Last Big Step for the week:
I found a great website for an interactive Wordle: https://tagul.com/
So my latest foray is for my Level 4 baking students:
Interactive Biscuit Wordle

The beauty of Tagul is that each word will act as a link to a website, so I can link each word to a relevant website to get the definition I want in a baking context. This picture is not linked but the link Interactive Biscuit Wordle above it is. This is my first attempt so it is about 85% accurate, but you'll get the idea.

This week's conclusion:

While I write, I catch myself reflecting on what I have achieved in the last 2 weeks. Even though I don't have a lot of pages of my own written work to show for it, there is a lot of material that I have gathered up, both online and in books. I've photocopied and highlighted a LOT of pages, and discovered a lot of common ground between what my readings have shown me and what my deeper thoughts tried to tell me. It's been very satisfying being able to confirm such a lot of my current practice as being relevant and useful to student activity and their successes.
I want to incorporate more of my reading into the writing that I produce, I think it will be a good habit to refer back on a regular basis, as it should actually consolidate the thinking that resonates within my mind. I'm pleased with the progress in my head, but still find it incredibly challenging to translate that into tangible efforts. I allow myself to get caught up in what is going on at home - keep saying I'll do it later and of course before I know it, it is Sunday evening and I wanted to do more  seem to struggle with the concept of an hour here and there - once I am into it, I want to keep going, as I find I can keep my train of thought going better when I spend 3-4 hours working.

So, my Mini Steps in Research are bigger than I think, and my Big Steps in Confirmation are very satisfying to my current professional practice.