SelfAssessLayne

Racheal Layne
Exit Self-Assessment

Describe for each goal
a) something that reflects what you have achieved well related to this goal, and
b) something you have struggled with/ need more help on/ want to work further on.

My Synthesis Product Shows That...
Developing as a Reflective Practitioner

I. "MY SYNTHESIS PRODUCT SHOWS THAT..."
(adapted from the "Phases of research and engagement" in the Practicum course in the expectation that these are also relevant goals for students' work in moving towards the synthesis product)

A. I can convey who I want to influence/affect concerning what (Subject, Audience, Purpose).

- Understanding my audience was a key part of developing the curriculum in my synthesis work. There are a lot of stereotypes and poor attitudes towards training in the military and I did my best to understand this and work around it by teaching CCT concepts through the guise of occupational training.

- I am still learning the balance between knowing my audience and taking a risk that may end up being received well.

B. I know what others have done before, either in the form of writing or action, that informs and connects with my project, and I know what others are doing now.

- In research and engagement, I learned a lot by being forced to find a variety of articles and to learn how to use the scholarly sources site on the UMB library website. In some ways, what I saw from what others have done refined my project to be more concise and better supported by sources. In my synthesis, I felt like I had already done a lot of the research needed to make this happen via my previous courses.

- A single article can give me a lot of ideas and opinions, so I have a tendency to want to drive a single article into the ground rather than compile a large number of sources. This isn’t always a bad thing, but I need to be better at looking at a range of different sources.

C. I have teased out my vision, so as to expand my view of issues associated with the project, expose possible new directions, clarify direction/scope within the larger set of issues, and decide the most important direction.

- As my project developed from being the single action of creating a curriculum to being more of a reflective process that drove the foundation of the curriculum, I was able to see how my intent for a well-built curriculum wasn’t just about the curriculum, it was about the burden I have to see my team be CCT practitioners and how I can use this curriculum to make that culture shift.

- I think it will take a good amount of time to see the far edge results of my teasing – to provide my team with a greater sense of purpose. I’m a little concerned that the motivation to make it to this goal will wane with time, but I hope that I can keep the good progress that I’ve already seen in motion.

D. I have identified the premises and propositions that my project depends on, and can state counter-propositions. I have taken stock of the thinking and research I need to do to counter those counter-propositions or to revise my own propositions.

- One thing my team is good at is giving push back, so I have been faced with a number of counter propositions that have had to be worked into the training program already. I have had to use the phrase “modules” instead of assigning the training tasks based on weeks because my trainers and trainees get locked in a time-based mindset rather than a conceptual mindset.

- I know that there are a lot of counter propositions that will need to be countered as time goes on. At times, I can find myself in the zone of putting on my officer pants and saying “I don’t care what the arguments against this is, we’re doing it.” While there is a time for that in the military, I need to be okay with taking some extra time to go further in depth with potential resistance

E. I have clear objectives with respect to product, both written and practice, and process, including personal development as a reflective practitioner. I have arranged my work in a sequence (with realistic deadlines) to realize these objectives.

- I think one of the most helpful things I did at the beginning of this course was to create a calendar for my trio where we all knew what our weekly group and individual responsibilities are. In this course, it is challenging to see a deadline and then know how to get to it without any given structure. Seeing deadlines written in red and seeing the ever-decreasing amount of time between our current day and the due date helped a lot. This helped with developing concise guiding questions, getting narrative outlines done on time, etc.

- I struggled to be overly proactive in the early stages of the semester. I am not generally the type of person that likes to work on things a bit at a time, I like to knock it out all at once and make edits here and there as new information or thoughts emerge. Because I wasn’t required to show specific stages of development, I didn’t complete some of the interim developmental tasks that may be more helpful for others.

F. I have gained direct information, models, and experience not readily available from other sources.

- What I have really loved about this project is I have been able to slowly implement the training concepts into my workplace as they are developed. From this, I have been able to gain ground truth insight as to how my team will perform with certain tools that I wouldn’t be able to find in any written work. It has been a really neat project to see how reflecting on observations of leaders that I have worked under have manifested in my leadership abilities.

- I think maybe some sort of designated pilot program would have assisted in making this process more organized and structured. In the future, I will try to incorporate the idea of a pilot program.

G. I have clarified the overall progression or argument underlying my research and the written reports.

- I think that showing the oscillation between introspective and extrospective projects helps my readers see how I have progressed as a reflective practitioner and how I have arrived at this particular synthesis project. It was really a novel realization that this oscillation existed when I reflected back on my CCT experience and I hope that my readers feel the same way.

- Initially, I struggled with making my paper cohesive. It felt a little bit like I was grinding gears between my reflection and my synthesis project. I think that I was able to smooth most of this over with the introductory paragraph providing a theme that I could string through the remainder of the paper.

H. My writing and other products Grab the attention of the readers/audience, Orient them, move them along in Steps, so they appreciate the Position I've led them to.

- I think the introductory paragraph that I included in my paper really helped me to accomplish this goal. It gave me a theme that I could weave throughout the paper so my readers could see how each idea connected with the rest.

- It took a while for me to accept the personal position from which I was writing this paper. At times, it felt like I was simply writing a journal and that seems weird for a graduate-level synthesis essay. However, I think I’m happy with the casual tone that I took throughout the paper because it really was a personal journey and I want my readers to be able to relate on a personal level.

I. I have facilitated new avenues of classroom, workplace, and public participation.

- I have already begun to implement my training curriculum and have gotten really great reviews from my team as well as during an inspection done by our unit training managers. I think that having the buy in of these individuals will help to make this a permanent cultural change in my flight.

- I think this is a product that could be tweaked and altered a little bit and shared with other weather flights across the air force. I need to look more into this possibility and gauge the interest of other units.

J. To feed into my future learning and other work, I have taken stock of what has been working well and what needs changing.

- Though I mentioned above that I feel like I need to be better at identifying necessary risks, I think that I am in the habit of continuously taking stock of programs and processes that I interact with on a daily basis and proposing changes as necessary.

- I need to begin to focus my attention outwards. Even if I don’t identify a problem or area of improvement within my sphere of influence, I can find better ways of doing things when I maintain an awareness of the work of others.

II. DEVELOPING AS A REFLECTIVE PRACTITIONER, INCLUDING TAKING INITIATIVE IN AND THROUGH RELATIONSHIPS

1. I have integrated knowledge and perspectives from CCT and other courses into my own inquiry and engagement in social and/or educational change.

- As mentioned earlier, I felt like in many ways I had already done the research for this project through my previous CCT courses. I had very few new references that I cited in this synthesis project. The concept of PBL is really the driving factor behind the curriculum I built.

- Because I have been in this program for so long, I really need to go back and brush up on some of the smaller concepts that didn’t come to mind immediately when I started thinking about my previous classes. This will be used to continuously refine my training program.

2. I have also integrated into my own inquiry and engagement the processes, experiences, and struggles of previous courses.

- Again, this project was the next logical step in the work that I had done in previous courses. The work that I did in research and engagement led me to look past the “text book” answers and to use this project to make a real life change.

- I feel like there were probably some smaller pieces of theory and ideas from previous courses that would have made my project even more well-rounded. I didn’t do a lot of re-reading textbooks, but focused more on the big, paradigm-shifting concepts that immediately came to mind.

3. I have developed efficient ways to organize my time, research materials, computer access, bibliographies, etc.

- The shared google docs calendar that I mentioned earlier was really helpful in this course. I know full-well that I am a visual learner and need to see the vision for my project before I can complete it. The same goes with organizing materials – I need to see it in a visually appealing way. Making folders and trackers for organizing my information has been really helpful.

- I still struggle with finding a way to organize materials on my work computer and my home computer as the military network blocks a lot of websites.

4. I have experimented with new tools and experiences, even if not every one became part of my toolkit as a learner, teacher/facilitator of others, and reflective practitioner.

- Absolutely. Dabbling in dialogue processes, structured research concepts, creative problem solving are just some of the big-ticket items that I will be taking away from CCT. Though many of these concepts were not new to me, they were provided in a structured and digestible format that make them applicable to many different scenarios.

- One of my biggest struggles throughout CCT has been slowing down enough to focus on the process rather than the project. While I understand the importance of a well-developed process, there is always just so much going on that I find myself trying to be as efficient as possible.

5. I have paid attention to the emotional dimensions of undertaking my own project but have found ways to clear away distractions from other sources (present & past) and not get blocked, turning apparent obstacles into opportunities to move into unfamiliar or uncomfortable territory.

- We talked about turning obstacles into opportunities in one of our later synthesis courses. What I took from this was that my lack of seemingly relatable material gave me a great opportunity to teach others about new concepts. Furthermore, I was able to see how my “boring” life experiences can actually be interesting to others and provide much needed context for my project.

- Again, one of the biggest obstacles that I face as an individual is getting into the appropriate mindset to trust the CCT journey. Through reflection I see that it’s important, but in reality I have a hard time adhering to specific processes.

6. I have developed peer and other horizontal relationships. I have sought support and advice from peers, and have given support and advice to them when asked for.
- I hadn’t had much success with peer-mentoring in CCT until Action Research. My trio was fantastic and I feel grateful for their perspectives and friendships. They are stellar CCT practitioners and were incredibly helpful in providing me with feedback for various struggles that I was experiencing in and outside of the course.

- Online learning is really hard. It was challenging to develop relationships with others when everything was so task oriented and we were all in different time zones with different stressors preventing us from fully engaging. I think smaller, more frequent breakout sessions in all the CCT classes would have been helpful.

7. I have taken the lead, not dragged my feet, in dialogue with my advisor and other readers. I didn't wait for the them to tell me how to solve an expository problem, what must be read and covered in a literature review, or what was meant by some comment I didn't understand. I didn't put off giving my writing to my advisor and other readers or avoid talking to them because I thought that they didn't see things the same way as I do.

- I think that the CCT program allows ample time and drives personal acceptance for dialogue and peer suggestions. I have received a wide range of feedback on my work throughout the program and find it to be generally very helpful.

- There were times in the CCT program where I felt like a specific answer or product was expected, however we were given vague guidance or were given the expectation that the project would be student driven. These were the times where I was most frustrated in dealing with the standards of the CCT program.

8. I have revised seriously, which involved responding to the comments of others. I came to see this not as bowing down to the views of others, but taking them in and working them into my own reflective inquiry until I could convey more powerfully to others what I'm about (which may have changed as a result of the reflective inquiry).

- Plus-Deltas are always a welcome read! I also really appreciated Peter’s generalized/theme based feedback that he gave for my synthesis project rather than nit-picking various ideas or grammar in the writing. I have learned a lot from my professors and peers and value their inputs.

- There were certainly times where I felt like those who were giving feedback didn’t seek to understand my writing or my projects. However, I think I gained enough maturity as I have gone through the program to select the feedback that is relevant and set aside the feedback that was not particularly helpful.

9. I have inquired and negotiated about formal standards, but gone on to develop and internalize my own criteria for doing work—criteria other than jumping through hoops set by the professor so I get a good grade.

- In most courses, I felt like the ownership of my project was with me, not a grading rubric. It was up to me to show that I have learned something that I can apply to my own life and that other students may be able to apply to theirs. I have usually been able to select a topic of interest to me that motivates me to find answers to personal questions that may or may not be required by the rubric.

- I do recall times where I certainly humored steps in various processes only because they were required for the course. Though I see the significance of them, I don’t think I will be as thorough with some of the steps for action research or dialogue processes, as examples.

10. I have approached the CCT synthesis course and the CCT program as works-in-progress, which means that, instead of harboring criticisms to submit after the fact, I have found opportunities to affirm what is working well and to suggest directions for further development.

- I always try to ask questions and make suggestions that I think will improve a course as it progresses.

- There were a few times in the program where there aren’t any appropriate platforms for certain feedback outside of the course that I would feel comfortable giving to the professors prior to grades being posted.