Putting it together - Distal, Proximal, Where To?

At outset this was an assignment about MY career path. I focused on my distal goal.I set my proximal goals, spending much time considering my monthly schedule. 

Week 1 I was off to the races, motivated to create blog, post first, research, research.

After three weeks, I couldn’t remember what we were here to achieve. Where were the assignment directions? Am I researching my career or something else much bigger?

The research of (Paris and Paris 89-101) specifically says, “students need to be able to engage in strategic, purposeful thought over what may seem to be very disconnected aspects of action, it places the responsibility on the students to find information, to coordinate actions and people, to reach goals, and to monitor understanding.”  The word disconnected is what has stuck with me in this article. How did me researching my career relate to SRL?

I felt quite disconnected, who do I ask?  I recognized a need to to reach out to my Professor for clarification this helped me to clarify the assignment expectations.  But, I still wasn’t motivated to continue. Why not?

As life became busy, we decided to go on a trip at end of March, I found myself  spending  time on TripAdvisor or shopping for trip clothes.  My SRL skills were not working.  But, that was okay. This inquiry was to teach me that failure is good, if it leads to a positive outcome.

During the third week of my inquiry while reading (Wolters, 2003) he discusses lack of motivation, “self-regulated learners are thought to hold a collection of adaptive beliefs and attitudes that drive their willingness to engage in and persist at academic tasks.”  This article resonated.What was eluding me from completing my tasks? Sitting on TripAdvisor is not achieving my goals. Would I fail my assignment because I held greater concern with internet pictures of a beach, certainly not?

My Awareness - My conscience is needed to achieve my goals.  For future assignments, I believe my awareness that I need to not be so specific in my monitoring plan, I need to set a plan and try to set times to re-evaluate the plan and adjust. If it is not working, take a holistic look, tweak and get back on track.

One of the great assets to this term was the feedback from peers and my Professor. This can be difficult in an online environment. (Cranton, 2010) has written that the  transformative learning  can be fostered in an online environment. We need meaningful interaction where people can express divergent points of view, feel supported by their peers and teacher.  Meeting online with two peers, chatting with my classmates and soliciting feedback additional from classmates was very helpful.  It can be tough to know if you are on track or have a community of learning, these small activities aided me to know that others were at a similar point.

Putting it all together.  How do you know when you are self-regulated?

(Paris and Paris 89-101) state that “self-regulated students display motivated actions, that is, goal-directed and controlled behaviors that they apply to specific situation.” I know that I achieved behaviours this term that worked toward achieving my goal. My goal was likely too specific, but in addition to finding out many new and important things about my career, I learned how to monitor and get myself on track.

My self-reflection throughout this inquiry is a major component to achieving SRL skills. Self-generating feeling and actions that I have adjusted to get myself on track and attain my goal is the main component to achieving SRL success.

Take a read of this last article found in my research I believe is useful and helpful to all academic administrators managing busy lives and school.

Thank you again for coming along with me on this journey.

Resources

Paris, Scott G. and Alison H. Paris. "Classroom Applications Of Research On Self-Regulated Learning". Educational Psychologist 36.2 (2001): 89-101. Web.

Wolters, Christopher A. "Regulation Of Motivation: Evaluating An Underemphasized Aspect Of Self-Regulated Learning". Educational Psychologist 38.4 (2003): 189-205. Web.

Cranton, Patricia. "Transformative Learning In An Online Environment". International Journal of Adult Vocational Education and Technology 1.2 (2010): 1-9. Web.

I have transformatively learned...

This blog post focuses on my awareness, what have I learned and what do I know now.

Back to the week of February 25th, this will go down as the week that I know I transformatively learned. I achieved what ((Cranton 63-72) discusses is achieved transformative learning. It does not have to be a major event that causes this to take place, an ordinary or unexpected question can cause someone to become aware. 

I achieved this on Saturday, February 25^th at 7:00 a.m., after several days of purposeful procrastination, while the house was quiet, my coffee was warm and despite so many other things that were looming in life I made an agreement with myself to focus efforts for a short time period to review materials, research and get things done.

At the outset of my inquiry my focus was placed on my distal goal, career research. A very important topic. Where would I look? What would I learn? How would I plan my future? When I originally planned my monitoring plan my 7^th blog (my last one coming later this week) was focused on how I will use my research. Yes, my research into my own career plan was important. What I didn’t realize was whether I had planned an inquiry into stem cell research or into watching TV that was not what I was here to achieve. My inquiry was really about one key word in my Distal Goal, “Execute.”

 My Inquiry Distal Goal

Create and execute a basic research plan that identifies sectors of growth, transferable skills and experience that are needed for career growth in the post-secondary field.

When I wrote my distal goal I didn’t think about the word execute. But, that sums up what I was here to do. How would I use SRL strategies to execute something, anything? To come full circle what I have learned during my inquiry and research that is different than what I knew in week 1. Let’s put a David Letterman spin on this…

My last post will take place later this week. Let's pull it all together...

Resources

Cranton, Patricia. "Teaching For Transformation". New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education 2002.93 (2002): 63-72. Web.

Pondering...

Ponder – a verb that means to think about something carefully, especially before making a decision or reaching a conclusion.

I have now finalized all my research into career growth. My proximal goal for March 3 (I recognize it is now March 6^th) was to consider and short list information of interest and think about options.

Before I set out to complete my final proximal goal, I have put on my thinking cap to wonder or ponder if I have all the information I need?   The module 4 asks us to consider a few questions, I have included them in this post.

I believe a lot has gone well for me. I have really begun to regulate myself and saw my SRL skills increase in a sense of less self-efficacy about my career options, I am aware of my own conscience and I have made an effort to stay on track and recognize when I am not. At this point no supports are needed. I at first thought more peer feedback was needed, I was very fortunate that several peers took time this week to read and respond to this blog. Very thankful.

(Tobey & Goldmith, 2013) identified that formative assessment seeks to develop ownership and self-regulation promoting development of successful learning. I need to ask myself, if I haven’t yet met my goals, what do I still need to do?

My answer, not enough. I could have spent hours trolling the internet. However, time is what I do not have enough of. At the outset of my information searching, I was strategic, went to websites. Looked up organizational charts etc., but as time prevailed I found myself spending more time reading about people in roles. Not just a list of soft skills and credentials. The work that someone else was doing. On Academica, the Muse or MacLean’s, I found stories highlighting work of Schools and individuals this gave me pause for thought. I could continue to read sites and stories like this for a long time. This was one from earlier in the week I found interesting.

What I have done over the last month is take time to read these stories. Inspiration needs to come from somewhere, if I hadn’t regulated myself to make time to read these stories to do this research I might never have read about.  

I was fortunate to receive direct peer feedback this week. This was greatly appreciated. Peer feedback is an essential form of formative assessment.  This direct feedback was very useful, my peers were able to constructively solidify some of the feelings I was experiencing. I also had a great link sent by a peer that really made me ponder my entire position on my direction. And maybe that’s okay. Very few things in life come with a plan. My life direction has been much unplanned.

Where do I leave off? I am now ready to move towards Goal #4. Putting it all together. Stay tuned…

Resources

Tobey, C., & Goldmith, L. (2013). The critical role of Feedback. , 8(11)

Have I created a habit?

It takes 21 days to build a habit. Said someone likely pretty important once upon a time.

Based on this alone as of February 27th,  I should have created a new habit. (Alderman, 1990) stated, “The focus on a learning goal is how much progress I have made, not how smart I am.” Just this idea alone tells me that in 29 days I have made progress.

On March 1^st when evaluating my proximal goals I asked myself, "what have I learned?"

Reflecting on this, I can identify I know a great deal more about my inquiry topic then prior to February 6th.  That is not as important as the fact that I have begun setting aside time to research information. I have an Evernote filled with data and just today found myself opening my Evernote midday and dumping in a link related to achieving Proximal goal#1.

What I hadn’t been considering were roles at the Director level. Many opportunities in private and public sector listed under this title had a wide array of future opportunities.  I explored geographic areas outside my own and have gone as far as considering if this could be a future option.

Career planning requires a person to consider the following; What do I want to do? And how do I get there?  I won’t admit that I am convinced on what do I want to do? But believe some of my learning thus far has made me more aware of options.

What I have learned about myself & what has surprised me?

I need to apply common sense to everyday situations. If I do not set aside time to achieve my goals, they won’t get done. If I find trolling the internet more important, something else slides.  What have I have decided is that I have a cricket on my shoulder. I am proud to have an inner voice of reason. Multiple times over the last 3 weeks I have told myself to get up and review information.

Alderman, M. K. (1990). Motivation for at risk students. Educational Leadership

My failure is a good failure…

(Paris & Paris, 2001) stated that, “Perhaps the greatest source of individual difference lies in the failures to self-regulate thinking and behavior.”

February 20^th came and went. My monitoring plan goal to post by this date was not achieved. Over the course of this week as other things loomed, work deadlines, children’s hockey, an extra episode of House, my conscience pulled at me. However, I could not motivate myself to put together the necessary research to complete my assignment.

Epiphany – I have achieved SRL behaviour. This assignment isn’t about SRL, it’s about the ability to create, recognize, motivate and redirect behaviours to achieve your goal. So, here I am working on things again. I have identified my lack of motivation, I am redirecting my efforts with a revised monitoring plan in relation to my proximal goals.

Reviewing my monitoring plan, 

1. What are the goals for my learning?

Always at the forefront – my distal goal

Create and execute a basic research plan that identifies sectors of growth, transferable skills and experienced that are needed for career growth in the post-secondary field.

2. Where am I right now in relation to my goals? Am I on track to achieve goal by the 20^th?

        I believe I have now found 105 pieces of information. But, not necessarily in the manor I expected to. My Evernote is full of links. My Excel spreadsheet is a disaster of pasted information. What I did find as I searched sites were links to articles. That is where I was slowed down. Instead of finding actual posted information on career opportunities, I found articles about the future. These journals and magazine articles slowed me down and required me to reconsider things.

    

3. If I haven’t yet met my goals, what do I still need to do?

I am revising my monitoring plan, which is okay. I still have the same target date to complete, but I need to sit myself down and ensure that I complete each step by the new date set. 

Revised Monitoring Plan

 

 Feedback questions:

1. Does what I have proposed seem reasonable?

Resources

Paris, S. G., & Paris, A. H. (2001). Classroom applications of research on self-regulated learning. Educational Psychologist, 36(2), 89–101. doi:10.1207/s15326985ep3602_4

Can my plan create an iceberg illusion?

Achieving Proximal Goal 1

I fully admit I might procrastinate. I might admit I have a tendency not to take ideas to fruition. I have written entrepreneurial ideas in so many books and  never moved forward. I take that back,  I went as far as creating a domain, but never used it.

Setting proximal goals and my monitoring plan took 2 hours. 2 hours to set a plan on how I would conduct research on one of the most important things to guide my life. It took me longer to fight with popplet to create a diagram to show my plan then it did to develop content.

(Locke & Latham, 2006) imply that goal setting is a discrepancy creating process. It can imply discontent and different desired outcomes.

My end goal is not just to develop career direction. My end goal is truly to train myself if setting proximal goals, creating a structured plan, and regulating myself to execute the plan I can achieve this distal goal. If by March 5^th, I have successfully followed my plan, I aim to apply same principles on those many books of dreamed entrepreneurial projects.

From February 13 – 20 all the research needed to complete proximal goal 1 should be undertaken.  I am dependent on myself to complete my distal goal. As a busy hockey mom going into AAA play-offs over the next 4 weeks, I wanted a distal goal whereby I was not dependent on the results of others. Something I could work at any time of day, arena lobbies, and my lunch hour and monitor my progress based on myself. 

Being prepared. The key to this is “learn to.” (Tobey & Goldmith, 2013) identified that formative assessment seeks to develop ownership and self-regulation promoting development of successful learning. Using formative assessment to address three questions, students learn to receive and incorporate feedback, and monitor their own learning.

1. What are the goals for my learning?

Always at the forefront – My Distal Goal

Create and execute a basic research plan that identifies sectors of growth, transferable skills and experienced that are needed for career growth in the post-secondary field.

2. Where am I right now in relation to my goals? Am I on track to achieve goal by the 20^th?

I sat down and fully invested myself in my plan. Set up a new Evernote account already pinned two things. What I need to do is focus back on the specifics I set to looking for 105 things. Not go off track looking at other things of interest. I am fortunate Family Day is this week, gives me an extra day to work on things. Though, it’s family day so I should likely focus on them.

        
     3. If I haven’t yet met my goals, what do I still need to do?

We will see. I am confident and believe that all this work below the surface will have positive results. 

(Locke & Latham, 2006) indicate feedback is needed in goal setting to track progress. Between today and March 5^th, I encourage you to visit this blog and provide feedback to me. I will post specific feedback I am seeking and appreciate any constructive or critical suggestions.

 

1. For anyone in the academic field specifically, do you have any suggestions on sites for career information in academics? 

2. Does my plan seem reasonable? 

Resources

Tobey, C., & Goldmith, L. (2013). The critical role of Feedback. , 8(11)

Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2006). New directions in goal-setting theory. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15(5), 265–268. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8721.2006.00449.x