Now that the grades for the final projects, presentations, and journals are in, i have a chance to reflect/meditate on the semester's purple cow research method's experience, resulting in the following LEARNINGS for Dr B:
1) Letting students pursue their purple cow dreams is the best way to motivate and engage students in research methods.
when students realize that they NEED certain methods to solve some of the challenges that they face in pursuing their purple cow dream, learning the methods make sense.
i wish we had more time to learn further details about the methods, maybe breaking people into groups based on their method and letting them explore/share would be beneficial?
2) Serendipitous/synchronistic moments cannot be planned for, but they often turn out to be one of the most important things that students report learning.
often when reality hits student's ideals/plans, there is a "disconnect" and the accompanying emotions of frustration and anger are quick to surface for many of them--the students who can reframe their set-back, regroup, come up with another plan, and try again...these students often end up being the success stories, learning vital things they could not anticipate at the start of the game.
3) Most people rate themselves fairly close to my approximation of their efforts/work in the self-evaluation of their own work, but some do not, and of this later group, there appears to be two types: ones with an exaggerated view of the worth of their work (i remind them that no one's work is perfect), and ones with a humble opinion of their work (i remind them that their work may be worth more than they might think).
in general, i dislike evaluating student's work for a letter grade. i don't mind providing critical feedback, followed by an opportunity for improvement, then providing more feedback, adjusting again...this cycle is beneficial and students seem to thrive in their learning...
but when the grade is at the end, and there is no chance to change anything...for every critical comment i write, i wonder, why am i staying up late/getting up early at the end of the term to do all this? students will not have another opportunity to "fix" the issue because we're going into finals week...yes, they can learn for next time, but for most of them, there won't be a next time for this project.
i hope that some of them will continue to carry on their dream...for most students they could only work on "a piece of their dream" given the constraints of time during the semester, but for many i fear that this is the end of the road. i can only hope that parts of their experience will translate into helping them in their life.
only the student truly knows how much they learned (i can only glimpse this through their journal writings, their presentation and responses to questions, and through the work that they produce) and how much time/energy they put into the work...i'm not completely satisfied with the data based self-evaluations that i have set up for the students, but overall, it's the best system i've come up with to date...what did you say you were going to do (the plan), what did you do week by week (evidence), and did you fully, partially, or not complete the tasks you assigned to yourself.
perhaps there are other alternatives to grades? perhaps credit/no credit would help refocus the motivation for learning from extrinsic to intrinsic? perhaps some version of peer evaluation groups, or outside evaluation from expert sources that are familiar with the topic area--kind of like external reviewers? other ideas...?
4) the proposal is an helpful way to provide feedback on the student's plans for their purple cow dream, but i need to build in another checkpoint after the initial proposal feedback.
most students revised their original ideas in line with the feedback i provided on the proposal. some students deleted things in their revision that i wish they would have retained, some added things that i wish i could have given them more advice about (e.g., survey, focus group, website), some simply did something different that i wish i could have provided some counsel before they did it...next time, i will have them turn in a revised proposal before they begin their actual work...
5) the affective learning for many students is not quantifiable in any numerical sense, but through the journals, i get a sense of the affective dimension of their learning experience which is often a profound one.
for some of the students, their positive emotions, connected with researching their purple cow dream, is nothing short of remarkable...the feelings of satisfaction, pride, gratitude, transformation, happiness, and excitement are almost palpable as i read them--i feel a great deal of satisfaction when i read such emotions, knowing that in some way, i helped provide the context for them to experience those positive emotions in a research context.
6) i wish i had more time to talk about the role of presenting evidence in writing and presenting research results...
how to do an ethnography, interview, focus group, survey, experiment are things we touched on in class, but we didn't have enough time for discussing how to write up the results for the different methods, especially how to make probability based claims and then display evidence to support the claim.
7) part of me thinks this is just too much to do in one semester...so easy to go back to the old ways...
you know the drill...take attendance, lecture, put them in groups for projects, multiple choice tests, grade on the curve rather than individually..
student feedback this week will be the deciding factor in whether i continue the purple cow research methods approach for this class in the future or return to the old ways...
Classes are over, student feedback is in...following are some of the themes:
Things students would like to KEEP:
meditation
purple cow orientation
ted.com talks
back of the napkin
sharing dreams in groups and getting feedback
1 to 1 feedback sessions with the professor
Things students would like to CHANGE:
give more examples of purple cows in the beginning
(good idea, i will post them on this blog)
meet in the middle of the 4 weeks off to work on project for accountability
(i was here and people could sign up for "coaching sessions" but few did--sounds like people are asking me to make it mandatory to check in? if we do this in small groups, maybe we can all learn?)
mandatory weekly journal posts to a class blog
(students could have this option to keep their journal on a class blog but i don't want to make it "mandatory")
review the traditional methods throughout
(good idea, maybe i can make it into a game?)
FINAL NOTE ON THE PURPLE COW PENCIL
I wanted to give students a parting gift...a purple pencil to symbolize the "purple cow ideology", but after visiting 4 stores and not finding any purple pencils, i spied a roll of purple tape on the bottom shelf at Office Max...my imagination kicked in and soon i was rolling purple tape to the upper 2 inches of 70 some regular pencils and writing the names of each student on the purple tape in indelible ink.
The CHALLENGE was to continue meditating on their purple cow dream, and after each meditation, to journal about their insights using the purple cow pencil. As they meditate, journal, and "do the work", the pencil sharpens and the lead gets closer to the purple tape. When the lead meets the purple tape, they hopefully will have accomplished their purple cow dream...if not, they mail me the stubby pencil with an update on their dream, and i promised to mail them a new purple cow pencil so they can keep meditating/journaling/working...this iteration of sending in pencils to get new ones can continue until they've reached their purple cow dream.
My last class spontaneously started clapping after i presented them with the purple cow challenge--for me, this was the highlight of the semester, an affirmation of the vision i started with: a purple cow research method's dream.
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