A Lesson in Humility

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

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

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

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

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

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

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