Ms. T. J., a blogger over at the New Social Worker Blog, recently posted about a research class she is taking. In her own words:
For Research II Class, our charge is to have a client, a consent form and a tool. The data we collect will be evaluated and we will present our findings to the class and our field instructors at the end of the semester. The assignment is more an exercise in completing a research project than it is conducting therapy of any kind. In the professor's words: "The assignment is not about whether your client improves or not; it's about doing the assignment."
I've asked for some additional insight on the situation but something about what this professor said irks me. Perhaps this is a teaching method of some sort, something akin to advising students to focus on the work involved to learn about it and perhaps not get overwhelmed. Perhaps the nature of the research she is conducting won't allow her to assess the nature of how or why the client is improving. There are many unknown unknowns.
I may be grabbing a statement and blowing it out of proportion. However, I'm wishing the professor would have "gone to where the student is" (and we have no way of knowing if the professor did or did not do this) and tried to tap into the student's passion for helping her client to carry out the research. To what end is this research conducted, on some level, if not to ultimately help the client, whether directly or indirectly to help similar clients in the future, and to help this student learn how to do so?
I'd love to hear thoughts from other research professors out there. Help me understand this better?
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I am really "flummoxed" (to use my mother's made up word) by this assignment. I read this for the first time last night, pondered it, had a weird gut reaction to it, pondered it, couldn't understand it and then decided to sleep on it. I still don't understand the point this mornnig. What about the development of a question? What is the use of this assignment? Is this about learning how to talk to a research participant about a consent, to see what using an instrument to gather data is like? I'd like to know more about the assignment, what were the instructions. In my experience, assignments like this, where students do not see the utility of the assignment are deadly. This is an anti-engage-the-student type of assignment....but let's see the instructions for the assignment before I go over the top!
ReplyDeleteIt seems the post was deleted; maybe the professor saw it? ;)
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good bet. Oh boy!
ReplyDeleteI just found this and feel moved to explain.
ReplyDeleteI wrote a confusing blog and I tried to re-write and/or explain it and it just kept getting worse! So, I deleted it.
I apologize if you were frustrated and I totally understand!
T. J.
No problem. I just hope everything worked out in your research class!
ReplyDelete