Thursday, August 03, 2006
Some Advice from Distinguished Educational Researchers
A message from Leslie Hazle Bussey (lhbussey@MINDSPRING.COM) to AERA-GSL Graduate Studies Discussion Forum (AERA-GSL@ASU.EDU).
Hi all,
The Summer 2006 newsletter of the Graduate Student Council was recently posted (https://www.aera.net/uploadedFiles/Graduate_Students/Newsletters/GSC_Summer_2006_Newsletter.pdf or https://www.aera.net/Default.aspx?id=1092 and then from this page click on" Summer 2006"). In it, Emily Shaw, the GSC representative from Division D summarized the Fireside Chat from April’s meeting in San Francisco. Given the current thread, I thought the advice was a useful reminder that graduate work – indeed all scholarly work – is (or should be) about learning and growth, which are not always synonymous with affirmation [which is not meant in any way to trivialize the awful experience that Sherry is having].
Best wishes as you make finishing touches to your 2007 meeting proposals!
Leslie
Leslie Hazle Bussey
Division A Graduate Student Representative
Graduate Assistant/Doctoral Student
Department of Educational Leadership & Higher Education
Saint Louis University
3750 Lindell Blvd
St. Louis, MO 63108
******
Division D Fireside Chat: The Tricks of the Trade: Decisions Made, Risks Taken, and Opportunities Seized by Accomplished Researchers Throughout Their Careers
By Emily Shaw, Fordham University
In an effort to forge connections to students’ own lives and highlight potential avenues for career growth, Division D’s fireside chat was designed to help graduate students understand the opportunities, experiences, decisions, and people that have significantly shaped the careers of six distinguished educational researchers; including David Berliner (Arizona State University), Lloyd Bond (The Carnegie Foundation), Gregory Cizek (University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill), Ida Lawrence (ETS), Barbara Plake (Buros Center for Testing and University of Nebraska – Lincoln), and Stephen Raudenbush (University of Chicago). Some of the panelists were psychometricians while others were educational psychologists; some were in the midst of their careers and others at the end of their careers; some in academia and others at educational organizations. And, though they were a diverse group, there were many common threads in the stories they offered and in the “tricks of the trade” they shared.
Many of the panelists credited their career choices to chance events. None of the panelists said that they had envisioned doing what they wound up doing – even as undergraduates! Given the incredible success the panelists have found in their professions, they offered several accessible and humble pearls of wisdom to help those of us embarking on what we hope will be similar paths to theirs. Here are a few of these pearls:
• Surround yourself with people who know more than you and those who expect more of you than you feel you’re capable of at that time. This will force you to get yourself up to speed by reading, learning, asking questions, and ultimately, growing.
• Do not give up or give in to feelings of failure or rejection along the way. There will be depressing reviews of your work and attacks on your ideas or your credibility. Just keep in mind that even the best of the best have faced and continue to face similar struggles. And, as Dr. Cizek pointed out, it often helps to have a good sense of humor.
• Submit your work to the best journals because this is often where you will get the best feedback. The importance of strong, sound feedback cannot be underestimated.
• Seek out positions on boards and important committees so that you can learn from the exchange of ideas and the most effective ways to state opinions, thoughts, and suggestions.
• While it’s interesting to know a little about a lot of different things in the field of education, many panelists have found it to be more useful to know a lot about one particular area.
• Don’t forget to make your ideas accessible to the general public and not exclusively available to journal readers.
AERA-GSL AERA Graduate Studies Forum
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Hi all,
The Summer 2006 newsletter of the Graduate Student Council was recently posted (https://www.aera.net/uploadedFiles/Graduate_Students/Newsletters/GSC_Summer_2006_Newsletter.pdf or https://www.aera.net/Default.aspx?id=1092 and then from this page click on" Summer 2006"). In it, Emily Shaw, the GSC representative from Division D summarized the Fireside Chat from April’s meeting in San Francisco. Given the current thread, I thought the advice was a useful reminder that graduate work – indeed all scholarly work – is (or should be) about learning and growth, which are not always synonymous with affirmation [which is not meant in any way to trivialize the awful experience that Sherry is having].
Best wishes as you make finishing touches to your 2007 meeting proposals!
Leslie
Leslie Hazle Bussey
Division A Graduate Student Representative
Graduate Assistant/Doctoral Student
Department of Educational Leadership & Higher Education
Saint Louis University
3750 Lindell Blvd
St. Louis, MO 63108
******
Division D Fireside Chat: The Tricks of the Trade: Decisions Made, Risks Taken, and Opportunities Seized by Accomplished Researchers Throughout Their Careers
By Emily Shaw, Fordham University
In an effort to forge connections to students’ own lives and highlight potential avenues for career growth, Division D’s fireside chat was designed to help graduate students understand the opportunities, experiences, decisions, and people that have significantly shaped the careers of six distinguished educational researchers; including David Berliner (Arizona State University), Lloyd Bond (The Carnegie Foundation), Gregory Cizek (University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill), Ida Lawrence (ETS), Barbara Plake (Buros Center for Testing and University of Nebraska – Lincoln), and Stephen Raudenbush (University of Chicago). Some of the panelists were psychometricians while others were educational psychologists; some were in the midst of their careers and others at the end of their careers; some in academia and others at educational organizations. And, though they were a diverse group, there were many common threads in the stories they offered and in the “tricks of the trade” they shared.
Many of the panelists credited their career choices to chance events. None of the panelists said that they had envisioned doing what they wound up doing – even as undergraduates! Given the incredible success the panelists have found in their professions, they offered several accessible and humble pearls of wisdom to help those of us embarking on what we hope will be similar paths to theirs. Here are a few of these pearls:
• Surround yourself with people who know more than you and those who expect more of you than you feel you’re capable of at that time. This will force you to get yourself up to speed by reading, learning, asking questions, and ultimately, growing.
• Do not give up or give in to feelings of failure or rejection along the way. There will be depressing reviews of your work and attacks on your ideas or your credibility. Just keep in mind that even the best of the best have faced and continue to face similar struggles. And, as Dr. Cizek pointed out, it often helps to have a good sense of humor.
• Submit your work to the best journals because this is often where you will get the best feedback. The importance of strong, sound feedback cannot be underestimated.
• Seek out positions on boards and important committees so that you can learn from the exchange of ideas and the most effective ways to state opinions, thoughts, and suggestions.
• While it’s interesting to know a little about a lot of different things in the field of education, many panelists have found it to be more useful to know a lot about one particular area.
• Don’t forget to make your ideas accessible to the general public and not exclusively available to journal readers.
AERA-GSL AERA Graduate Studies Forum
-----------------------------------------------------------------
AERA Home Page on the World Wide Web: http://www.aera.net
AERA-GSL Home http://kerlins.net/aera-gsl/
List Service Info http://lists.asu.edu/cgi-bin/wa
To cancel your subscription address an email message to
LISTSERV@ASU.EDU containing only the message UNSUB AERA-GSL
For problems with your subscription: scott@kerlins.net
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Tags: AERA, small schools, rural, education
