Carrie Ann’s Reading Log (Week of April 4th)
Posted onApril 5, 2010
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Are we doing enough for those who are serving our country and defending the rights of all Americans? This is the question resonating in my thoughts as I read the article that Aracelie will present to us this week. Having had family members that have served in the United States Armed Forces, I believe that we need to do all that we can to support the transition that our soldiers make back into civilian life after being in combat.
It was interesting to read that there has been research on veterans’ adjustment post WWII and Vietnam, but not on the most recent wars in our history (including the 1990’s Gulf War Conflict). The researches also bring to light the condition that most soldiers have unfortunately been identified with, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This disorder can affect all aspects of a veterans’ life and especially the assimilation into the college setting. As I read through this article, the quotes about the emotional desensitization and change of personality you must overtake to get you through the combat situations really did make me shutter inside. Also, this article went into the idea of maladaptive coping mechanisms that some of the subjects took part in and how some did not know about the VA services that could be available to them in order to make the adjustment easier into college life.
It was interesting to me that this article brought into light the “Whole Person” transition of these veterans into civilian life, not just merely the college experience, because we must remember that there is life outside of the academic setting. I look forward to discussing this article and topic more in class this week and to hear what my colleagues believe about this topic as well.
Teddy’s CTCH604 Reflection of Jason’s Reflection 04.05.2010
Posted onApril 5, 2010
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Teddy’s CTCH604 Reflection on Jason’s Reflection 04.05.2010
Reflecting on Jason’s reflection posted April 04, 2010, I too have witnessed many reports of research projects that provided data of a one-sided nature. On many occasions, I have found myself floating breathlessly in my over-zealous attempt to report the facts. As Jason reported, it could have resulted in a discreditable situation. I truly appreciate the fact that he took the time to re-evaluate his own evaluation of the article. Most of all, I was impressed by his honesty and willingness to make his re-evaluation public! A great attribute of a great SoTL student! Enthusiasm has often thrusted poorly documented projects into the hands of society, even those that were well intentioned inquiries. Easily, we can see how researchers might prefer to report data of successful experiences and leave out the negative stuff. But, SoTL is about accurate reporting of data as well as the sharing of responsible reporting.
We must set up check points for ourselves while conducting research that will help keep us grounded. Flawed reporting could have devastating effects on the SoTL movement and hamper efforts to obtain the support of political and academic leaders. Just like Institutional Review Boards, we must make every effort to protect out subjects, students, researchers and their institutions. SoTL work should accurately report all data, positive and negative, acquired during the research process. This is serious business and I feel that stated outcomes should reflect just that while keeping student related aspects as non-public. Our goal as researchers is not be selective information gatherers, but to present valid facts. Without accurate reporting, the SoTL mission would soon become one of unreliable fact finding. Careful appraisal of information is needed to ensure that others using this data are building on a firm foundation. Scholarly review is essential to the success of the SoTL project.
Teddy’s CTCH604 Reading Log 04.04.2010
Posted onApril 4, 2010
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Teddy’s CTCH604 Reading Log 04.04.2010
For class session 04.06.2010
Our assigned article for this week explores the experiences of soldiers in Iraqi and Afghanistan combat. With so many people involved in such conflicts it is hard to believe that so little research exists on the topic of transitioning soldiers from the battle field to the college life. Many questions began to surface in my thoughts as I read this week’s assigned article. In a country where we supposedly pride ourselves and our military might, why is there so little mental health assistance to veterans. Why are soldiers made to do back to back combat tours of duty? How many veterans commit suicide due to their combat experiences? How many marriages are destroyed due to PTSD? What can colleges do to prepare and make easy the transition of military personnel? How should colleges and universities go about educating their learning communities about transitioning veterans? These and so many other inquiries are overwhelming my thoughts as this prelude opens a new chapter of discovery.
The first thing I wanted to do was to put myself in the shoes of those soldiers and feel what they feel. More than likely, they have experience some or many horrific events that keeps them awake at night. The witnessing of dead bodies belonging to a friend, an enemy or persons you do not know can take its toll on one’s psyche causing flash backs. With these things being possible, colleges and universities need to make sure that veterans have the best of mental health services. This would help to lighten the stress levels that cause more of a burden to lives of veterans in the process of transitioning back to society. Veterans are use to a highly structured life of military standards. Now, they are shifting to a civilian life of less structure and they are faced with making many decisions that are normally made by their commanding officers. School psychologists and psychiatrists should be re-trained to the sensitivities of soldiers who were wounded, attacked, ambushed, faced gunfire and other unpleasant realities of military life.
Second, colleges and universities can make the transition from military life to college a sweeter one by providing crucial services. This segment of the student population needs services assisting students with GI bill applications, college tuition, health insurance, housing, nursery services, employment and other benefits. Veterans should receive some form of tuition reduction that allows military personnel to keep as much of their money in their pocket. The students should be allowed free parking services to reduce the stresses of getting to class. Colleges need to promote more veteran oriented organizations and events on campus. They should never feel that they are alone and without support in the country they served. Each of us has the responsibility to support our men and women of our military. It is morally, the right thing to do!
Aracelie_Reflections_23 Mar
Posted onApril 4, 2010
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At last…my language is being used, even if only very briefly. My old friend SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) has reappeared in my life. Last class, Darren gave us an outline to use for creating an Action Plan when beginning work on a research question, and SWOT is one of the elements of that plan. It is a tool commonly used in business planning, so I saw it frequently while doing my MBA.
The Action Plan includes situational updates (current and ideal), benchmarks on a timeline (if possible), SWOT Analysis, and resources to be used. We spent a few minutes applying these steps to our own questions. The topic of whether it was easier to write on paper then type, or simply type directly onto the computer from the start came up at this time. Ironically, I wrote down initial thoughts, then typed the rest and saved them onto a flashdrive. When I tried to retrieve the files, the drive had malfunctioned, and I have not been able to access the work I did. Lesson learned? When conducting idea-generating exercises and not near your home computer (where you can backup info immediately), beware of relying entirely on hardware. (I know, I know; email it to myself from now on.)
Finally, we spent some time going over the community college-focused articles. It was interesting to hear how the community college differs from larger and/or four-year institutions from a faculty perspective. Jason offered much of his experience to the discussion and was adamantly against forcing faculty members into the “publish or perish” state of mind. After much discussion, we convinced him that was probably not what the author intended. However, it did get us talking about why community college faculty would not be more willing participants in the higher education arena. It is not always that there is no money available; some schools receive millions of dollars to be able to incorporate aspects of SoTL. Many community college educators are content to remain only in the world of similar educators.
I would venture to guess, though, that much of it is awareness. As Prager mentions, a good deal of knowledge is passed on by word-of-mouth, essentially as folkloric tales. For new “tales of SoTL” to be created, someone would need to be there dedicated to advocating its use. It may not be that SoTL for the masses will apply to the community college realm, but there are so many aspects, as pointed out in McKinney’s ch8 that can be tried and possibly instituted. It is as I said before about sending a Tiger Team. They would be a dedicated team to focus on what was being done with SoTL, and then hand out copies of McKinney’s book to help faculty get started on the journey to implementing SoTL.
Jason’s March 30th Reading log
Posted onApril 4, 2010
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For this week we were responsible for reading one chapter from both Mckinney and Cross. We also read the article that I chose to present on, which was titled “overcoming doom and gloom”.
Chapter eight in the McKinney book related very well to the article that I chose. I chose the article because I felt that it was very discipline specific, however it does not fully qualify as SoTL. The Mckinney chapter was striving to answer the questions: How does SToL differ between disciplines (and institutions) in its methodology and status?
There are discipline specific characteristics to SoTL, for both practical reasons and for historical reasons. While I think SoTL should be easily integrated into sociology, after all teachers of sociology are trained in social scientific research methods, classroom research by sociologists can run into similar barriers as other disciplines (low status, lack of reward, etc.). Besides those cross discipline barriers, I could see sociology running into unique discipline specific barriers. For example, historically sociology has struggled to legitimize itself as a science (on par with say psychology). I could see many sociologist being reluctant to join an emerging form of scholarship that is running into the same stigma.