A Moment of Contemplation: Rules of Persistence

What are principles of persisting through challenges? What are the thought processes that occur? Can this be trained? Difficult times are often when new stages of development emerge.

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Chronicle of Higher Education

James R. Zanewicz: Marketing Academic Inventions in a Tough Market

With the economy on the ropes, moving academic inventions from the lab to the marketplace is increasingly important — and increasingly challenging. James R. Zanewicz, director of the Office of Technology Transfer at the University of Louisville, says universities need to be more flexible in the deals they negotiate and more realistic about the money they expect to earn.

[Audio]

A Subtle Thought

"Me We"
-Ali

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Pon the Stone (The Silent Mix)

Reading from the book: A Chinese Kid Named Santiago

True Learning Comes Through Experience

A careful analysis of the teacher-student relationship at any level inside or outside the school, reveals its fundamentally narrative character This relationship involves a narrating Subject (the teacher) and patient, listening objects (the students). The contents, whether values or empirical dimensions of reality, tend in the process of being narrated to become lifeless and petrified. Education is suffering from narration sickness.
The teacher talks about reality as if it were motionless, static, compartmentalized, and predictable. Or else he expounds on a topic completely alien to the existential experience of the students. His task is to “fill” the students with the contents of his narration — contents which are detached from reality, disconnected from the totality that engendered them and could give them significance. Words are emptied of their concreteness and become a hollow, alienated, and alienating verbosity.-Paulo Freire

Esclavitude

"What am I feeling" he thought. The precession of the day's activities rushes forward like a river busting forth from a damn. He fears that his goal should slip through his fingers like sands upon a desert landscape. The lack of profound thoughts caused a slight fearful stir to emerge within his core. For at this very moment in the silence of night and nature, he did not feel extraordinary. No thoughts of significance called aloud in defiance. Only the creeping caress of normality embraced him that night.

"The path of heroes is tough" the man thought. "For the endurance required maybe outside of my capacity to give". The man paused after this solitary thought echoed about through his mind. Looking out into the distance the man contemplated the meaning of valor and what it must feel like to dive headlong into Glory. "To gladly give all of myself unselfishly to the service of others without a second glance must be an experience to savor". The man had a secret so deep that he was barely cognizant of its presence, and that secret is to rid his mind of fear….

A fear of life, a fear of death, fear of success, fear of failure, fear of himself , a fear of others, a fear of being trapped within the company of the crowd, a fear to be alone, a fear to be normal, a fear to be great……

As the litany continued a sense of fatigue pricked the man's mind with a disturbing familiarity this feeling he knew all too well. From within the haze of thought and contemplation an insight rang aloud….the clarity was pristine ….

"Fear enslaves"…...

The expression of research in the language of identified behaviors

This week has offered me a chance to reflect upon quantitative and qualitative methods and how using a variety of statistical tests can provide a researcher with a holistic view of studied phenomena. An area of growth for me proved to be the interpretation of statistical data into the language of human behaviour and practice. When one uses research to guide operational improvement findings will be of little use if they cannot be made relevant to the actual behaviours inherent in a given discipline. I found that bridging the gap between statistical understanding and the articulation of recommendations to be a distinct skill set unto itself.

Leaders within organizations would benefit by understanding that improving performance through research must be backed by the ability to articulate specific, measurable behaviours. It is not enough to merely comprehend areas of opportunity, but one must be able pull this comprehension into the realm of human experience, allowing it to transform the organization.

In engaging in my own work I must remain vigilant in identifying practical ways that improvement can be attained. In ensuring that I do not become lost in a haze of data and conjecture, a prudent practice would be to filter potential plans of action through the lens of actual practice. Much as the grounded theorist establishes constructed theory upon actuality, I will establish recommended actions upon specific behaviours.

Using behaviour or performance based outcomes to express the intent of statistical findings allows organizations to take advantage of research efforts. For determined strategies and plans to be effective it must filter through the multiple layers of the organization. They best way to do this is to distil research findings into the palatable format of lived experience.

 
 

Importance of Validity in Intellectual Inquiry

Throughout this academic journey I have been challenged to view research presented in journals with a more discerning eye. Two things which I look for in much greater depth is the systematic approach of the data collection process and the strategies used to ensure personal bias is not introduced into the research findings. These elements are crucially important as they influence the internal validity of one's study. The goal of research in many instances is to draw an inference about the world through the investigation of a smaller piece. If factors which detract away from validity are not minimized the ability to draw insight from one's research efforts will be precluded. Neuman (2003) is of the sentiment that through effective research and maintaining a diversity of perspectives, research techniques will advance knowledge of the social world, I concur with this position.

 

Reference:

Neuman, W.L. (2003). Social research methods (5^th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.