Logistics – In Class
Tasks for NEW people
• Sign up at front of room
• Get with your team
• Fill in your part of the Team Contact
information
Tasks for EVERYONE
• Sign your TEAM attendance sheet (1st half, 2nd
half)
COMM 250 Agenda - Week 2
Housekeeping / Logistics
• Form the Remaining Teams
• ?? Syllabus Questions ??
• Folders: Attendance Sheets
• Team Pictures – We Start Tonight
In-Class “Practice RAT”
Implicit and Explicit Course Agreements
Setting Grade Weights I – Team Negotiations
Lecture
• Concepts, Theories, & Paradigms
Team Exercise 2
Logistics – In Class
Assignments Due Next Week:
• RAT1 Next Week (begins at 4:30)
• TP1
• Practice RAT test on Web CT (Required)
• I Will E-mail WebCT Details to the Listservs
Thursday by 12 midnight
Tasks for each TEAM:
• Team’s First Cut at 2 Grade Weights Decisions
• Set Meeting for TP1, TP2
Housekeeping – After Class
Tasks for EVERYONE:
Sign up for your TA’s LISTSERV
• “comm250a” = # 1-12 = Green = Judy Knight
• “comm250b” = # 13-24 = Red = David Mercer
• “comm250c” = # 25-36 = Yellow = Joseph Wen
Tasks for each TEAM:
Only if you did NOT get and fill out the TA’s MS Word
document last week:
• E-mail your TA and request the MS Word document
• Return that doc with “Team Contact Information” to
your TA by Saturday
How Do We “KNOW” Things?
• Experiential Reality

Firsts Hand Experience
 Done There; Been That !
 Agreement Reality

Second Hand Knowledge
 Tradition and/or Authority
 Both Can Assist or Hinder Inquiry
 Science: A Special Standard for
“Agreement Reality”
The Research Process
• Conceptualization
• Planning & Designing Research
• Methods for Conducting Research
• Analyzing & Interpreting Data
• Re-Conceptualization
Types of Research
Research based in Positivism
• Objective World
• Quantitative Methods
• Researcher is a Dispassionate Observer
Research based in Naturalism
• Subjective World
• Qualitative Methods
• Researcher is Part of the Research
The World of Concepts
Concepts are:
• “Mental images;” Ideas
• Can represent things in the physical world
• Concepts are not real – that is,
• They don’t exist as physical objects
• IQ, love, anger, conservative, liberal, life,
death, terrorism
• Some physical objects are also concepts
• Table, chair, tree, building, sky, computer
The World of Theories
Theories are:
• Structures of knowledge
• Representations of the physical world
that live in the world of ideas
• (Rough) approximations of events
• Theories are “Useful Fictions”
• Scientists don’t think of theories as “true”
or “false” - because they are simply tools
• When a better approximation is available,
scientists switch theories
• Lessons: The Theory of Evolution
Theories Outside of Science
We all have many “informal” theories
• Beliefs about how the world works
• Predictions about what will happen
• Judgments about how people are
• Sometimes these are based on data
• Sometimes even on good data!
• Scientific theories are different – they are
“informed” theories
The World of Paradigms
Paradigms are:
• Over-arching structures of knowledge
• Representations of the physical world that live
•
•
•
in the world of ideas
Approximations of events
Paradigms are “Useful Fictions”
• Paradigms are not “true” or “false” - they
are simply tools
• When a better approximation is available,
scientists switch paradigms
Lessons: Newtonian Mechanics  Relativity
Paradigms Outside of Science
The term is used freely today • Stuffed crust pizza is a “new paradigm”
Paradigm is used to denote smaller changes
• In accepted processes
• In common practices
• In common beliefs
• That’s ok; just keep in mind that in science,
“paradigm shifts are very rare
In-Class Team Exercise # 2
1) Two rounds of “Name Calling!”
• Deliverable: no written deliverable
2) Paradigms & Paradigm Shifts
•
• Deliverable: list 6 major paradigm shifts in society
Additional Team Work
• Discuss Grade Weights
• Choose a team name
• Plan TP1: Meet before next Wed.
• Plan TP2: Peer Evaluation P&C