link to google doc
For this phase of the project my group set specific tasks for each member of the group. Our goal was to gather information from end users and experts around the possible topics we brainstormed in phase 1. That included surveying students and staff, gleaning information from experts, and looking for recurring themes. My job was to search out experts. Because I do not have access to students or staff during summer vacation, I searched through videos on YouTube and found quite a variety of resources. There were videos of university professors speaking about inclusion and diversity, teenagers defining diversity and speaking out in favor of diversity, Muslim children and LGBT teenagers being interviewed about their treatment by others, and news outlets like CNN reporting on studies conducted in the area prejudice, discrimination, and diversity. As I watched the videos I took notes on a google doc, notes that I then went back to in search of themes and key ideas. My challenge for this phase was narrowing down the information I gathered into themes. I found it challenging to go from the specific information from the experts to more general umbrella themes. I did end up categorizing information into several different “themes”, but even now I don’t have a clear vision of how these categorizations will lead into the next step. I think next time it would be beneficial to have the group work together as a team, ideally in a face-to-face meeting, to review the information gathered from experts. I think in discussion a group of people would have made it easier to zero in on key ideas and group these ideas into categories or themes. This type of conversation would have helped to push my thinking into new areas, and would have exposed me to unique ideas from other perspectives as well. In using this process with colleagues at my site I would definitely put the focus on the collaborative work. I think having more than one set of eyes, or ears, available when interviewing end users and/or experts would be helpful in gathering information. And a face-to-face meeting would be very beneficial when discussing the information that had been gathered. Then, working together to place that information into themes or categories would bring up new ideas, and allow everyone in the group to bounce ideas off of each other. Several of the 9 Tenets of critical thinking were relevant to this process. Open mindedness was important to really listen to what the experts and end users had to say. Metacognitive thinking comes into play in mulling over the information to come to a clear and accurate understanding, and empathy is crucial because the topics we researched were very personal for many of the experts and end users, but not necessarily for those of us looking deeper into these issues. I think the critical thinking skill of reflection is important as well because of the need to constantly reflective on the ideas being shared and the best way to work through the process. |