Thinking Things Through

A Lesson in Humility

2008-02-10T01:47:00.001-08:00

I learned something during the course of my dissertation writing. It's about the virtue of humility.

I'm not the type of person who usually asks for help from others. Lately I learned that it's nice to have people cheering you on. It makes hard tasks much more bearable.

I also learned that I'm my own worst critic and enemy. Sometimes I tend to impose such a tall standard on myself that I barely get to do it. The result: HARDLY ANY WORK DONE!!!

It also pays to follow the ways of established scholars. They know more that I do so it's wise to learn and follow them. When the time comes when I 'm good enough I can have my way.

Dissertation writing is such a humbling experience. For now I better keep my head down and go with the flow.

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Illustration Cited:

http://www.zindamagazine.com

Never Underestimate Students

2008-02-09T07:24:00.000-08:00

There's a trend among universities, especially third rate ones, which belittles students' abilities. Administrators of such universities encourage professors to not let students have a "hard time."

They said that today's students are not as smart as the early generations because they're not as disciplined. Technology made them lazy. There's a lot of diversions nowadays so they have little focus.

To address this problem they tell professors not to make students' lives difficult by not giving heavy course requirements. Examinations should be "easy recall" types so students won't have a hard time.

This attitude seriously undermines todays students. They may not have much focus and discipline but they're very creative and resourceful. Thanks to modern media they have innovative ideas how to do things.

I believe the task of schools these days is to train students to focus their creativity towards productive endeavors. Administrators should not handle modern students with kid gloves. They're adults after all and adults learn best through experience and usually through the hard way.

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Illustrations Cited:

http://www.jonschallert.com/seminar_descriptions/default.asp

http://www.hyeline.com/creative.htm

Teacher's Pay

2008-02-02T21:31:00.000-08:00

I often wonder why teachers are among the lowest paid professionals in the world. Bankers, engineers, doctors especially lawyers among others have high potentials of striking it rich. Teachers on the other hand cannot even be assured of a comfortable life when they retire.

This causes tremendous problems for the education sector. Poorly paid teachers are likely to be demoralized which may compromise their teaching. How can they teach well when they problematize where they'll get the money to pay the latest bill?

People say this is a logistical problem. Schools are not for profit institutions. Therefore, they cannot give higher salaries beyond what they charge for tuition.

While such a response has merit it is best for schools to become more entrepreneurial. Schools should be more creative in generating income to maintain good teachers and to improve its facilities.

Singapore's Biopolis, a city like facility devoted to biological research, is a prime example. The Singapore government invested in a high tech facility to attract the best scientists in the world and gave them superb compensation. In exchange their output will then be shared with the Singapore government to be used for the best interest of the city state.

Teachers like Biopolis scientists should also be treated like invaluable resources of the country. Not only do teachers train future generations of citizens but they also produce new knowledge through their researches. Giving dignified wages for teachers is a first step in improving the quality of education in a country.

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Illustrations Cited:

http://bernardoh.wordpress.com/category/education/academic/

http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup/?id=1984671&refnum=427242

http://www.waseda.jp/prj-wobri/images/photo-biopolis.jpg

A Challenge to Paper Presenters

2008-01-05T08:39:00.000-08:00

My abstract's acceptance to the 8th ASEAN University Seminar in 2008 is a breakthrough in my scholarly activities. I am slowly growing to become an independent scholar. Someday I aspire to come up with innovative ideas that can make this world a better place.

As I was reading through the compilation of abstracts I noticed that majority of the papers were quantitative researches. Quantitative research uses hard facts to support its claims. Such research is intended to describe certain state of affairs.

While I have nothing against quantitative research I feel that it is quite limiting. Quantitative research is descriptive by nature so much of it is devoted to data interpretation. A conference seeking to promote solidarity among nations should focus more on new ways of thinking.

Quantitative researches on the other hand focus more on arguments. It also makes use of examples but only to emphasize certain points. These types of researches seeks to convince people to see things in a different light.

Some scholars may fume at such a simplistic view of research. Despite whatever criticisms my views entail I only wish to drive a single point. Scholars gather in a conference in order to espouse and deliberate on new ideas to address certain problems.

Peter Smith in his essay "Getting Published" has insightful ideas regarding problems with some scholars' works. He said that some scholars get too hooked on data analysis and literature reviews that they leave only a page or two for presenting new ideas.

Organizers spent lots of effort to bring together the best and brightest ideas they deemed worthy to be discussed in a public fora. Other scholars travel great distances just to hear their peers speak. Paper presenters should make their peers' and organizers' efforts worthwhile by advancing ideas worth pondering on.

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Illustrations Cited:

http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/m/motifs.asp

http://www.atpm.com/9.10/design.shtml

http://blog.lib.umn.edu/perry032/impossible/cat_grad_student_life.html

Trouble With Portfolios

2008-01-03T07:01:00.001-08:00

Early on I was wondering about the potential of portfolios as an alternative student assessment method. Portfolios are like family albums. It chronicles memorable events as you were growing up.

Like an album portfolios can also chronicle students' intellectual developments. By compiling and comparing their old and current work both teachers and students can determine how much they have progressed.

Ideal as portfolios are it has some limitations. The most pressing of those problems is class size. With more than 40 students in a class and roughly 8 sections per semester it would be virtually impossible for teachers to read and evaluate all of them.

Teachers will literally drown in a sea of papers if every student submits a portfolio. Teachers don't just check works they also have extra curricular activities to attend to in addition to teaching.

The best way for portfolio assessment to work is to limit class size to around 15 students per class. Teaching loads should also be pegged to a maximum of 6 subjects per semester. Roughly 90 course works to evaluate for every requirement.

If school administrators wish students to have worthwhile experiences in classes they ought to limit class size. Fewer students means more chances for students to participate. It makes teachers' task of evaluating student output more bearable too.

Such a proposal is almost logistically impossible especially for private schools. Nonetheless school administrators have to find novel ways to overcome this to give students the best learning experience possible.

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Illustrations Cited:

http://childrencomefirst.com/icannotdoeverything.shtml

http://www.pritchettcartoons.com/newsprint.htm

The Portfolio Alternative

2008-01-02T09:23:00.000-08:00

Lately I have been thinking of new ways to asses student performance. There's always the objective exams but its effectiveness is questionable since it promotes rote learning. Under that system students merely remember lessons they need to pass a test and forget the rest later on.

When students quickly forget what they learned the previous semester no learning occurred. True learning occurs when students are able to get something useful from a class. If they did not then everything was a waste of time.

The problem now is whether there is a method of assessment which will determine if students ACTUALLY LEARNED ANYTHING. Is there such a thing? Can teachers determine if their lessons had an impact on their students?

This is where portfolios come in. Portfolios are students' compilation of their best and meaningful works. It chronicles their development through the duration of the course. This gives the teacher a perspective concerning how far students have grown intellectually and even emotionally.

Portfolios give teachers a unique view into their students' minds. They can see how certain ideas were nurtured or changed as the course progressed. Portfolios are hard proof that at one point in time students were actually engaged in the learning process. How educators can keep students engaged in their studies is another matter.

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Illustrations Cited:

http://zineculturefiles.pbwiki.com/f/cramming.JPG

http://zineculturefiles.pbwiki.com/f/cramming.JPG

Too Much Reading

2008-01-01T10:21:00.000-08:00

Reading Arthur Schopenhauer's "On Thinking for Oneself" was very enlightening. It made me realize what it really means to be a thinker. Serious study for me will never be the same again.

Before I thought that reading more will help people grow wiser. Schopenhauer thought otherwise because he believed that too much reading is counterproductive. Why? because the more people read the less the less they think.

Reading is a passive activity. You merely understand the message writers wish to convey. Reflective thinking is proactive because you cultivate your own ideas.

In the end what matters most is not the amount of books a person read but the novelty of a person's ideas. Greatness is measured by the creativity and usefulness of people's ideas and not on how much they know.

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Illustrations Cited:

http://www.biblepicturegallery.com/free/Pics/Readmuch.gif

http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/g/great_idea_gifts.asp

People to Avoid When Asking for Advice

2007-11-03T07:27:00.000-07:00

When asking for advice whether it be for life problems or in school it is best to avoid two types of people: The Critic and The Fanatic. These people have nothing good to offer. Oftentimes they are far too self righteous to give any sound advice.

Let's begin with the critics. Critics have an eye for detail and are quick to see your flaws. Not too shabby but beware! These people tend to exaggerate those flaws in order to reduce you or your work to a pile of rubble. They pounce at your weaknesses and are quick to make fun of them. In the end they have nothing useful to say because they got too carried away with their demolition job.

People should also be wary of fanatics. They live to convert people's souls to their side. They may seem like good listeners but they've closed their mind long before you made your first point.

Watch out for these people at all cost! They can only make life more miserable for you than it is now.

Sometimes it's even better to talk with your dog every once in a while. Dogs will never disturb you when you're speaking. They just listen and they love you for who you are warts and all.

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Illustrations Cited:

Exclamation Point from Operations Manuals
http://www.manuals.deere.com

Politicalcartoons.com
http://www.cagle.com/artists/Wolverton/main.asp

Close Minded Bible Hugger by JadedInNowhere
http://www.jadedinnowhere.deviantart.com

Frustrating Journals

2007-10-30T07:18:00.000-07:00

The hardest problem I constantly encounter in my research would be the process of selecting the right journals to include in my study. There are thousands of journals ripe for the picking but only a handful are worthy of inclusion. Only those with the best content deserves to be cited.

The thing is you need to read the whole article in order to determine it's worth. Reading a scholarly work takes tremendous time and effort. It usually takes me more than an hour to have a critical reading of an article.

What is most frustrating about journals is the possibility that it's content will prove useless in the end. To think you spent all that reading for nothing?!? Perhaps that is the reason why including abstracts became a necessary requirement for all submitted articles. It gives the reader a glimpse of the hole they want to jump into.

Researchers have to be wary of abstracts as well. Authors can make the soundest abstracts and yet fail to deliver the content. I believe that it would be better if researchers glance at the sub headings of an article and read 1-3 sentences each heading.

This may not be a fool proof way of reading the most worthy journals but it will definitely trim the competition down. At least it's better than wasting time reading an entire article which in the end will not prove useful. Editors should come up with a policy requiring authors to formulate descriptive headings. This way readers will have a better chance of reading articles that may truly be useful to them.

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Illustrations Cited:

Coloniarmanormotel.com
http://www.colonialmanormotel.com/Default.asp?ID=1183

About.com: Political Humor
http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/n/k/1/political_abyss.jpg

Good Internet Writing

2007-10-24T02:28:00.000-07:00

A conversation with my tech savvy sister made me rethink my ideas on writing. I realized how writing blogs is different from academic writing that I'm used to. Both are two different things.

Academic writing involves too much details. Texts have to be crammed with arguments and examples.The result is usually a cramped, boring text.

Blogs on the other hand should be made for light reading. Texts should be short and concise. Take the reader in mind by making texts readable and entertaining.

I have outlined her suggestions for good internet writing:

1. Limit paragraphs to 3-5 sentences.

2. Paragraph lines should be confined to 12 words.

3. Always use left indent when writing.

4. Make texts big enough to be read on screen.

I admit that these suggestions are a tall order. It simply restricts the flow of ideas. However, this is the internet. The eyes can only take too much radiation.

Blogging is all about sharing experiences in the open. You can't share anything to anyone if your texts are a pain to read. Making texts readable is the least an author can do. Only then could interest and meaningful sharing can happen.

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Illustrations Cited:

Florida Sunlink Project
http://www.sunlink.ucf.edu/presentations/fetc2004/writing.html

Thinkquest Library
http://library.thinkquest.org/J001156/penny.htm

A Collector's Psyche

2007-10-22T11:03:00.000-07:00

Ever since I started graduate school I developed a great love for reading and collecting books. At this point I have more than a thousand volumes of books in my personal collection with titles coming from diverse fields such as philosophy, politics, history, economics, psychology among others. I especially love collecting Filipiniana books because such books are extremely rare especially once such books have been sold out. Philippine publishers do not usually publish a new edition of a certain book unless the title is very popular like Reynaldo Ileto's "Pasyon at Revolution" (Ateneo de Manila University Press) which was originally published in 1979 but still continues to be printed up until 2003. A total of 6 printings since its original publication. Sad to say but it is very rare for Philippine books to be reprinted once its first edition is off the press. The most common reason for this is that only few Filipinos are interested in academic books and it takes years for book sellers to sell out their initial inventories. If sales are slow it takes considerable effort on the part of the publisher to recuperate publication costs. They prefer to publish salable titles rather than academic titles which I love because popular titles like novels (especially those written in Tagalog) are easier to sell than academic tomes.

Given the rarity of Filipinianas I purchase my favorite titles almost immediately whenever I get the chance. I don't care if I ruin my week's or even my month's budget as long as I can get a hold good titles especially the old ones. I have been so engrossed in my collection that I have practically visited every major and out of the way book stores that specializes in Filipiniana in the Metro Manila area. You name it and chances are I've been there. I have even come to a point when my fiends ask me where they can find a certain title or better yet, if I have a copy of a book they are looking for. Academics do help their own.

What seems to be the driving force in the desire to collect? I sometimes amaze at the way how I am both able and willing to deprive myself of many things and to even brave the elements just to get a hold of a book which may be purchased by a fellow collector like myself. I guess collectors are able and willing to endure and even to sacrifice much for their collections because they feel an insatiable desire to preserve things which they consider of value. A lot of people keep things that are of value to them as well but perhaps collectors feel a certain responsibility to preserve their valuables for the sake of posterity. They feel that what they have is something that is of value to future generations. Their collections is posterity's link to the past. A 2000 edition book may not be worth much now but 10 years from now when the book is long out of print it immediately becomes a collector's item which will allow future generations a glimpse of how people used to think and behave in the distant past.

I feel a great deal of pride and accomplishment every time I discover an out of print book. It's just like finding a long lost treasure in some distant wasteland. Sometimes I feel really bad that I never got the chance to read the books that I get to buy. People just have so much time in their hands. My personal collection did provide an invaluable resource for many of my papers but my to-read list leaves much to be desired. I'll just have to cut some slack and get more work done. Maybe someday when I get to produce a work that i really worthwhile my collection will receive the recognition that it rightfully deserves because it helped in bringing about something that a lot of people finds most helpful in their lives. I think this is he reason why a lot of personal collections like that of Elvis Presley memorabilia are still adored to this day because in a way such items were able to reach out to other people's needs at certain points in their lives in more ways than one.

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Illustrations Cited:

Columba Publishing Co.
http://www.columbapublishing.com/FramingCollectibles.jpg

Pasyon and Revolution by Reyaldo Ileto published by Ateneo de Manila University Press (1979/2003)
http://www.ateneopress.org/images/PASYON%20AND%20REVOLUTION.jpg

Egypt Cartoon
(http:/www.nyu.edu)

The Misuse of Sources

2007-09-24T09:30:00.000-07:00

Including the references consulted in one's research is a standard practice in the academe. It is a way of acknowledging and paying respect to scholars who gave ideas on how to go about one's work. Some people, out of ignorance or pride, tend to forgo citing their references and end up as plagiarists. It is only fitting then that we take some time out in at least jotting down good ideas found in every good book read before forgetfulness sinks in.

The need for citing references is all the more evident in scholarly journals. References that were consulted for the work can be found either at the end of the article or as footnotes. Citing references can be quite useful for readers so that they may be able to trace the paper trail which enabled the author to arrive at the conclusions that were reached in the article. Such information is most useful for verification purposes.

In the Philippines intellectual property rights is a most recent phenomenon. Despite its recentness it is reassuring to know that almost every academic in the country observes reference citations. Virtually every article is brimming with references!

Despite the virtues of reference citations I am quite disturbed as to how references are used in many articles. A quick count at some random article will reveal that there is an average of at least 7-10 references consulted for each work. Sad to say but despite the sheer number of works consulted there are times when the authors fail to do justice to the works they cite. Imagine citing big names like Plato only in passing without even contextualizing nor justifying the citation. For some scholars having an extensive reference lists with big names in them is enough for an article to qualify as "scholarly." This is obviously the case in the the social sciences and the humanities.

This Really should not be the case. Scholars should spend more time reflecting on their sources rather than merely citing this or that source with half baked ideas. It is worth knowing that the Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein who is popular for revolutionizing Analytic Philosophy only had less than 10 books in his possession (Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir by Malcolm and Wright). He was not fond of reading but the little he read, he read well. As a result he came out with one of the most insightful works in Western Philosophy given his very few limited publications.

Perhaps it is best that we learn from Wittgenstein in treating references. Whatever reference at hand should be read and read well. After all, articles are written for the innovative insights that were supposed to be communicated and not the number of references cited.

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Works Cited:
The following images were derived from the following sources:

http://web.ncf.ca/ek867/2006_02_16-28_archives.html
http://aerade.cranfield.ac.uk/newsletter0503/journals.gif
http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780199247592

For further reading in Wittgenstein's life please read the excellent book
Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir by Norman Malcolm (Oxford University Press, 2001)

Why I Love Teaching

2007-09-23T13:16:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I just finished my classes this summer and I am now in a long hiatus to finish my dissertation. It's funny how you come to think of the most unusual things when you're not doing much. Perhaps it's because one's mind tends to wander when one gets bored with the daily grind.

I never seriously asked myself before why I love teaching but it all became clear to me one day when I was cleaning my room. As I was filing my records from last summer's class I took notice of the index cards my students submitted in class. Memories of last summer filled my head with the happy moments we shared at the time. I really can't believe that it's all over and that I will not be able to be with my students again.

Why do I feel this way? We were only acquainted for a month but why do I miss my students? What have they done for me to feel a great yearning for them? Is this yearning related to the job of teaching or the company of being with students?

The answer to all these questions is quite simple. I miss and yearn for my students because I love them and that loving someone does not require a reason for it to exist. It's just the way it is. It may sound cheesy but a perceptive student once wrote that I treat students as if they were my friends. How true. Every time I enter the classroom I don't see students in there but young peers or siblings. My main job there is to teach them to be good people and nothing more. When the semester ends and I see an improvement (no matter how little) in the way how they think and act then I will be very happy. Though such things are quite different to quantify by usual methods all it takes is some sensitivity and a little intuition for one to determine if you've made a mark. Though I am not sure if all my classes are successful in achieving my goals but seeing 2 or 3 students improve for the better is good enough for me. Rome wasn't built in a day after all.

The reason why I love teaching is because it gives me an opportunity to be with such young people. I am very happy why I'm with them. I always make it a point to challenge them in every way both intellectually and physically because it is a way of making them think big. This is the reason why it's common to see me competing in brawn with many of my students because I want them to learn confidence in dealing with people. There's no better way of developing confidence than in a competition.

I'm really grateful that I was given a chance to become a teacher. Someday I'll return to being one when everything is in order. For now I pray that the Almighty may keep my "dears" safe and that they may be properly guided even when I'm not around. Someday in their own good time they may be able to do things that can make this world a better place.