Tools and Processes

(For the Taking Yourself Seriously wiki/book. The annotations are intended to provide an entry point to the items listed, but not a full definition or description.in development)

Annotated Bibliography

• check the significance of the reading against your current project definition and priorities (Phase B)

Background Information

• what others have done that informs and connects with my project... (Phase B)

Background Research

• using catalogs and databases to locate articles or sections in books that provide what you need to move forward in your research (Phase B)

CheckIn

• an opportunity for every participant to begin to participate and have their voice heard

Clarification Through Communication

• overall progression or argument underlying my research and the written reports... (Phase G)

ClosingCircle (CheckOut)

• an opportunity for every participant to take stock of the session and/or their plan for the time ahead and to have this heard (witnessed) by the rest of the group

Complete Draft

• get to the end (even if you only sketch some sections along the way) to allow readers to see if you are clear about the Position you want to lead them to and the Steps needed to get them there... (Phase H)

Compelling Communication

• Grab the attention of the readers/audience, Orient them, move them along in Steps, so they appreciate the Position I've led them to... (Phase H)

Component Propositions

• identify the premises and propositions that my project depends on... (Phase D)

Critical Incident Questionnaire

• five minute feedback that can be fitted in at the end of almost any session

Design of Further Research and Engagement

• clear objectives with respect to product and process, in sequence of steps... (Phase E)

Dialogue around Written Work

• written and spoken comments on each installment of a project and successive revision in response facilitates generative interactions between researcher and advisor...

Dialogue Process

• a shared meaning that emerges from a group through listening, inquiry and reflection...

Digestion

• What was demonstrated? Where could it have been taken further? Where does all this connect with my project?... (Phase B)

Direct Information, Models, and Experience

• information, models, and experience not readily available from other sources... (Phase F)

Direct Writing and Quick Revising

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Discussion

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Eliciting Comments

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Engagement With Others

• facilitated new avenues of classroom, workplace, and public participation... (Phase I)

Evaluation Clock (to review completed evaluations)

• put yourself in the shoes of the person(s) who conducted the evaluation and fill in the steps they appear to have taken...

Evaluation Clock (to plan evaluations)

• framework to design your own evaluation or systematic study, working both sequentially and recursively...

Final Report

• conceive of this as something helpful to peer readers—what would they need to know to get interested in and understand what you've done? Also, explain why you have pursued this project, convey your process of development during the project, and lay out your personal/professional development plans for the future...

Focused Conversation

• a series of questions that begin with concrete things you observed and move through feelings and associations, on to interpretations and finally get to the overall implications

Gallery Walk

• activity for a group's first meeting that introduces participants to each other and acknowledge sthat they already know a lot about the topic at hand

GOSP (Grab->Orient->Steps->Position)

• Grab the attention of the readers/audience, Orient them, move them along in Steps, so they appreciate the Position I've led them to... (Phase H)

Governing Question

• focuses you on what you need to find out that you don't already know or can't yet demonstrate to someone else

Guided Freewriting

• write non-stop for seven-ten minutes and expose some thoughts about the topic that had been below the surface of your attention

Historical scan

• review a group's progress or set the scene in which a project is to be undertaken...

Initial Informant

• to guide your inquiries in their early unformed stage (Phase B)

Iterative Development

• revisit the different phases in light of other people's responses to your work and what you learn in other phases.

Jig-saw discussion of texts

• allows all members of a group to get up to steam on issues raised by a set of readings without everyone having read every reading in depth...

KAQF

• identify what you need to Find out by examining the interplay between Knowledge, Questions for inquiry, and ideas about possible Actions

Key Article

• points to many other publications so you move towards "know[ing] what others have done that informs and connects with my project" (Phase B)

Mapping

• tease out connections from the central issue that concerns you (Phase C)

Models from Before

• review previous reports to get a sense of the scope of previous projects and the look of the final products (Phase A)

Narrative Draft

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Narrative Outline

• outline with explanatory sentences that the point of each section and interconnections among sections... (Phase G)

One-on-one Session

• discussions between researcher and advisor are typically free-form, but it is possible to give them a more mindful structure...

One-on-one consultations for a group that meets over an extended period

• provides opportunities to solicit advice one on one during a meeting or workshop when there is 45-60 minutes to spare.

Overall argument, clarifying

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Overall Vision of project

• who I want to influence/affect concerning what... (Phase A)

Paragraph Overview of project

• a single paragraph (not a set of bullet points) orient readers to your project (Phase A).

Phases of Research and Engagement

• ten phases that researchers move through, then revisit in light of other people's responses to their work and of what they learn during the other phases...

Phase A. Overall vision

• who I want to influence/affect concerning what...

Phase B. Background information

• what others have done that informs and connects with my project...

Phase C. Possible directions and priorities

• expose possible new directions and clarify direction/scope within the larger set of issues...

Phase D. Component Propositions

• identify the premises and propositions that my project depends on...

Phase E. Design of further research and engagement

• clear objectives with respect to product and process, in sequence of steps...

Phase F. Direct information, models & experience

• information, models, and experience not readily available from other sources...

Phase G. Clarification through communication

• overall progression or argument underlying my research and the written reports...

Phase H. Compelling communication

• Grab the attention of the readers/audience, Orient them, move them along in Steps, so they appreciate the Position I've led them to...

Phase I. Engagement with others

• facilitated new avenues of classroom, workplace, and public participation...

Phase J. Taking stock

• what has been working well and what needs changing...

+Δ Feedback

• feedback in the form of an appreciation (+) and a suggestion for change (Δ)

Possible Directions and Priorities

• expose possible new directions and clarify direction/scope within the larger set of issues... (Phase C)

Process Review

• selected examples that capture the process of development of your work and thinking about the subject of the project or course

Probe and Discuss

• take each point and ask whether there's any controversy there, whether anyone else would formulate it in a different way

Pyramid of Questions

• a compilation of questions arising during your research, with later questions building on earlier ones... (Phase C)

Questions for opening wide and for probing

• Where? Who is implicated? Arguments, categories, definitions, holes, ambiguities,… (Phase C)

Reflective Practitioner Goals

• emphasizing taking initiatives in and through relationships...

Research Design

• design should address: What do you most want to see happening in your project in the next two and a half months? What things might be blocking you from realizing this vision? What can you do to deal with the obstacles—what new directions do you need to move in? What achievable steps would move you in these directions?

Research Organization

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Reverse Outlining

• after making a note on the topic(s) or thesis(theses) of each paragraph, see how these can be rearranged, streamlined, discarded, combined, split, so that each paragraph makes a distinct contribution to a definite GOSPing path (Phase H)

Revising in Response to Comments

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Self-Assessment, mid-process/course

• what I like about my work so far; what I plan to do differently; support I need... (Phase J)

Self-Assessment, at the end, in relation to process goals

• describe for each goal: one thing that reflects what you have achieved well related to this goal, and one thing that you have struggled with/ need more help on/ want to work further on (Phase J)

Sense-making

• form of contextualization that teases out what has helped me and what has hindered me... (Phase B)

Sense of Place Map

• a picture that addresses: Where am I? Where have I come from? Where am I going?

Sequence of Steps (in research design)

• do the steps allow you to fulfill your purpose, answer your Governing Question, support your arguments? When you get to any step are you prepared for it? (Phase E)

Sharing of Written Work

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Small group roles

• roles that don't divert participants from participating in the activity and in which everyone has to reflect and synthesize what happened...

Statistical Thinking

• a simple chain of thinking to be understood before enlisting a statistician to analyze the data...

Strategic Participatory Planning

• elicit participation in a way that brings insights to the surface and ensures the full range of participants are invested in collaborating to bring the resulting plans or actions to fruition...

Strategic Personal Planning

• acknowledging a wide range of factors and wishes that your work could (should?) take into account... (Phase E)

Subject-Purpose-Audience

• Who you want to reach? What you want to convey to them? Why do you want to address them about that?

Support and Coaching Structure

• consideration of ways that the group can function as a support & coaching structure to get most participants (students) to finish their reports by the target date (Phase J)

Supportive listening

• each person has half the time available to be listened to and simply paid attention to even if not talking...

Taking Stock (evaluations of process)

• what has been working well and what needs changing... (Phase J)

Ten Questions, for opening wide then focusing

• write down 10 questions then circle two that interest you the most. Take these two and list 10 questions under each... (Phase C)

Think-pair-share

• prepare your thoughts on your own, share with a second person, then with group as a whole

Work-in-progress Presentation

• through preparation, delivery, and feedback clarify your overall argument and plans for subsequent research... (Phase G)

Writing Preferences

• When you see your strengths you may keep that in mind as a resource; when you see your weakness, you may do remedial exercises to try to reduce that as a liability... (Phases G and H)

Written Evaluation, at end of process/course

• Starting with self-evaluation and moving through steps towards composing a synthetic statement aimed at helping the advisor/instructor and some third party appreciate the course’s strengths and weaknesses. (Phase J)