Reflection on Engagement

Reflection on Engagement

I found this a very interesting reflection topic this week. This is actually something that I have been struggling with this term. 

All the courses that have come before this have been interesting and for the most part well-organized. While I found them interesting, I did not find them particularly challenging. They were set up in a prescriptive format with a set of readings and posts due each week with the occasional test thrown in here or there. There was usually a mid-term project and almost always a research paper of some sort due at the end of the class. I felt that the classes were set up so that if you did the readings, you would be able to do well on the postings, tests and papers. They were not particularly set up to be engaging or to promote thought and there was a sense of a "set it and forget it" mentality from the professors. This is not what I was expecting a Masters level course to be like, but I chalked it up to being structured this way due to being an online course.

In contrast, I am finding that this term's course work (this class in particular) has taken a sharp turn in philosophy as compared to my previous courses. It is more engaging with far more interaction from the professor than any of my other classes so far. It is asking very open ended questions that promote thought and discussion. It is also following a much less prescriptive pattern which I find refreshing and frustrating all at the same time. All in all, a good exercise in adult education.

I preface my reflection for this week with this information in an attempt to add clarity to the reasoning behind my answer. The question asked in the reflection is "can anyone/would anyone doubt the energy and effort you put into your work?" I would have to say that if I was an outsider looking in at the work that I have been doing previously, they would say that I put little effort and energy into my work. I didn't have to in order to succeed. That is not the case now. As a result, I feel that I am floundering a bit. An outsider would now say that I do indeed put effort into my work but the energy is often unorganized and haphazard. I have to say that it is nice to have something that requires effort to be completed, but it has taken me some time to adjust to the change in teaching philosophy. Hopefully, as the time continues in this class, the energy will become more streamlined and organized and promote growth in the KM field instead of just exercises in theory.

Comments

  1. AnonymousJune 20, 2019 at 9:07 PM

    Thank you so much for this, Apryl. The goal with adult learning is to induce real reflection around personal growth and career design, regardless of the topic at hand. (Otherwise, why would an adult learner attend grad school? There are some/few who attend because they enjoy school, but the topic is simply a "means" to and "end," not the end unto itself. We're after your growth. The "right" stress is a touch of fear around putting oneself out there, combined with maybe some cognitive dissonance if challenged to think or approach something relatively well known (perhaps "working") a bit differently.

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