COMM 250 Agenda - Week 15
Housekeeping
• RP3 – Due Today (Put in Folders)
• Peer Evaluations (Using MY Form)
• Course & Instructor Evaluations
• Questions about the Final Exam
Lecture
• Naturalistic Inquiry
• Intellectual Development
• (Bonus Content: the Purpose of College)
• ITE 15
Overall Peer Evaluation
Rate Your Teammates
• Do NOT Rate Yourself
• Total Points = 10 x the # Teammates
• You Can’t Give Everyone the Same Score
• Use Whole Numbers; Make Sure They Add Up!
This is a Secret Ballot
• No Talking or Comparing Scores
• Place Rating Sheets Face Down
• Staple or Clip Them Together
“You do not get an education in the
classroom: you learn how to get an
education, which in the long run you only
acquire by yourself. In fact, the word
"educate" comes from the Latin, educare
which means "leading out" the student in
a wider world of knowledge.
It is by stimulating a zest for learning in general
that teachers can perform their greatest
service to those in their care, for a zest for
learning is a zest for life.“
- The Importance of Teaching
.
Teaching is not presenting a lesson.
The result of teaching is learning.
If learning does not occur, there has been no teaching.
- www.teachingtips.com
Education is not the filling of a pail,
but the lighting of a fire.
(William Butler Yates)
Exercise
Each person spend 1 minute giving a VERY BRIEF
SUMMARY of a situation that happened to them in a
college course, where:
1.
2.
3.
4.
You were still confused about an issue you had
studied about in depth.
A professor talked about something (theoretical) that
you did not understand.
You and/or the professor confused fact and
interpretation.
You disagreed with a professor’s argument that
knowledge was “subjective” in some way.
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No Written Deliverable
Intellectual Development
William Perry –
“Forms of intellectual and ethical development in
the college years: A scheme”
• A Qualitative Research Study
• Interviewed Harvard Students in the 50s, 60s
• Asked: “What stands out for you this year?”
• Perry “Tracked” Individual Development
• Created a 9-Position Model Using Induction
Caveats Before Presenting ‘Perry’
• Everyone goes through these stages
• College simply accelerates your movement
• This is Finn’s version of Perry
• Remember: Models are not “the truth;”
• Models are approximations (in the world of
ideas) of phenomenon (in the physical world)
Preview of Perry
A summary of where we’re headed
There are several major stages of intellectual and
ethical development:
1. Duality
2. Multiplicity
3. Relativism
4. Commitment
The concept of ‘relativism’ is not to be feared:
• It does not imply you can’t have beliefs & commitments
• Relativism actually strengthens your beliefs & commitments
• Yet people speak out “against it” all the time
Relativism
Several Types:
• Aesthetic Relativism
• Cognitive (Rational) Relativism
• Moral Relativism
Two Things in Common:
• Any concept (e.g. art, knowledge, or values)
is relative to the particular framework or
world view being used (e.g. the individual,
the culture, the era, the language).
• No one point of view is uniquely privileged
over all the others
Basic Duality (Position 1, 2)
• Our first view of knowledge is basic duality
• Everything is either:
• Right or wrong, Black or white, Good or bad
• There are no shades of gray
• All questions/problems are solvable
• Authorities have the answers, or can get them
•
•
(parents, teachers, experts, government)
Knowledge: an objective body of facts
Assignments: Designed to get the right answer
Positions 1 & 2: Duality
1. Basic Duality
2. Multiplicity: Pre-Legitimate
•
As we get older, we notice that conflicting
points of view exist
•
We assume not all authorities have “the
truth” – some are mistaken
•
“I know there are other viewpoints AND,
they are wrong.”
•
Assignments: Work through the issues, but
come up with the (one) right answer
Multiplicity (3, 4a)
3. Multiplicity: Subordinate
4a. Multiplicity: Correlate
In “multiplicity subordinate,” there are 2 kinds of
problems: those with known answers, and those
where the answer is not yet known; Authority still
has the answers
• In “multiplicity correlate,” people accept
epistemological uncertainty as a legitimate view
• Knowledge: facts and principles that can be proven
• Assignments: worry about whether this is a
problem where the answer is not yet known
Relativism (4b, 5, 6)
4b. Relativism Subordinate
5. Relativism: Correlate, Competing, Diffuse
6. Commitment: Foreseen
In “relativism correlate:”
•
•
•
•
there is more than one approach to a problem
Math / science has answers; humanities, criticism
do not)
Knowledge: the way anyone choose to
organize and interpret the information
Assignments: the goal is to give the teachers
what they want; many students learn to
“shoot the bull”
Relativism (4b, 5, 6)
4b. Relativism Subordinate
5. Relativism: Correlate, Competing, Diffuse
6. Commitment: Foreseen
In “relativism diffuse:”
• Full-blown acceptance of relativism
• Knowledge by its nature, is seen as contextual
• Assignments: some answers are better than
others, depending on the context. The
student’s job is to practice evaluating
solutions.
The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability
to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same
time and still retain the ability to function.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald
Commitment (7, 8, 9)
7. Initial Commitment
8. Orientation in Implications of Commitment
9. Developing Commitment
In “Initial commitment:”
•
•
•
People realize they need to make choices about
what (base of knowledge) to believe in
To take action, to be effective, you must put a
stake in the ground
Not as w/ Duality, but having examined
legitimate, competing alternative structures of
knowledge
Knowledge: constructed from one’s experience
Commitment (7, 8, 9)
7. Initial Commitment
8. Orientation in Implications of Commitment
9. Developing Commitment
In # 8 and # 9:
•
•
#8: people see the trade-off between expansive
possibilities and then narrowing after choosing
#9: a continual expansion and updating of
commitments
Knowledge: relativists apply a complex test to
novel ideas and issues
Commitments are defensible and explainable in
the context of a tested belief structure
Final Thoughts on Intellectual Development
• Perry is a simply one roadmap
• It’s a structure to help explain the process – in
•
•
college and beyond
Think about Perry’s “Positions” when you
don’t understand why a teacher did something
(graded, critiqued, asked questions)
The frustration, upset or confusion you feel
may be traceable to being “pushed” to think at
the next position (before you’re actually there)
Naturalistic Inquiry
The Basic Motives:
Understanding and Explanation
• What makes people tick?
• Why do they believe what they believe?
• How do their beliefs translate into some
•
behaviors and not others?
What are the political consequences of their
beliefs and actions? How do they affect others
or the society as a whole?
Assumptions of the
Traditional “Scientific” Approach
• Determinism
• Objective Reality, Objective Science
• Human behavior (DVs) is caused by (objective)
social attributes & social forces (IVs).
• The Task  Determine which attributes or
forces cause or shape specific social actions or
behaviors.
• Example  Studies of the “Glass Ceiling”
Missing from the “Scientific” Approach?
• What does the “Glass Ceiling” mean,
•
•
•
experientially?
What is the experience of women in large
organizations?
What is it like to be a woman in a large
organization? What daily experiences add up
to a sense of frustration or alienation?
Imagine the benefits, to a researcher, of
talking with, and getting to know, women who
work in large organizations.
Assumptions of Naturalistic Research
• No assumption of determinism, objective
•
•
•
reality, objective research
Human action is not guided by objective social
forces.
What people do depends upon what they
perceive, upon their internalized
understanding of their social world.
“Human behavior is guided and patterned by
the meanings that are created by communities
and held by individuals."
Four Assumptions Naturalistic Inquiry
1. What people say and do are the result of how
they interpret and understand their social
world. (It’s a Question of Ideology and
Worldview.)
2. These ideologies are socially constructed.
(We are socialized into a particular way of
looking at ourselves and the social world.)
Four Assumptions Naturalistic Inquiry
3. Different communities/societies impose
different “senses” onto the same social
reality. (Loggers versus environmentalists in
the Pacific Northwest.)
4. Different Ideologies/Worldviews carry
different political implications. (Researchers
should pay attention to the political
implications of their consultants’ worldviews.)
The Goals of Naturalistic Inquiry
• Understanding peoples’ social world and
social actions from THEIR point of view.
• What social experiences make up an
individual’s or community's reality?
• And how do people "make sense" of their
reality? How does this "sense" guide their
actions?
• What are the social and political implications
of their actions, ideologies, and worldviews?
The Practice of Naturalistic Research
Immersion in Social Settings
• Being There.
• Listening: Immersion in Language and Informants’
“Way of Speaking.”
Immersion in Natural Settings
• What practices and rituals make up the daily life of
this social community? What ideologies about the
world inform and animate these daily rituals?
• Discovery through breaking the rules.
Immersion in Language
• The language informants use holds vital clues re:
how they interpret their world.
• The stories they tell… The metaphors they use…
Naturalistic Research:
A Journey of Discovery
• The researcher journeys into new, unknown,
•
•
or misunderstood social terrain.
The researcher immerses her/himself in the
ideologies and practices that distinguish this
social terrain.
The researcher tries to interpret and make
sense of this social reality, from the subjects’
(consultants’) points of view.