The author, Brenda Dervin, is smart. She uses lots of word to say what could be said in fewer. I was and still am reminded of the famous quote from William Strunk in Elements of Style to "omit needless words." How, then, can I make sense of this article on sense-making? Chew, chew, and chew some more. Don't give up. How do you eat and elephant? One bite at a time! Something clicked when I saw something that I see, in my own sense-making, as obvious enough to not be stated: humans define and describe our own reality and order (63). This led me to question why we do any social studies at all. It seemed that the author was pointing out that our observations and data are worthless or have very limited results. These ideas clarified when I read, "sense-making assumes that there is something systematic about individual behavior when the individual is... behaving at a moment in time-space" Actually... no my ideas did not clarify. I just thought they did. Still I questioned, if our observations are bunk, then an individual's observations about their own reactions and behaviors in a moment of time-space are also bunk. Now, I felt as though I was in a philosophy argument rather than a social studies/ information gathering analysis of quantitative and qualitative methods. I still needed to dig deeper. Then the gap came! I asked after reading, "It is assumed that the "gap" idea gets to the essence of the communicating moment" (66), why does studying gap-defining and gap-bridging allow systematic analysis? I questioned... WHY SO MANY ASSUMPTIONS?0!
I put the reading down and went to bed. I was intrigued enough to pick it up the next day. Another assumption of sense-making (67) sees individuals are part of a cultural/historical whole but that the individual responses are part of it too. interesting, but now I see that the author was saying a lot of what I assume most people should know but obviously do not (which is why the author spends so much time going over all of her assumptions to begin with!... Strunk help me!) So, I understood sense making as focusing on how the individual defines and deals with the gap (70). I saw it's possible use: apply sense-making to research to frame questions from the mind of the interviewee, collect data, and analyse data. Easier said than done. Now I see where this course may go. I am most intrigued by the "micro-moment-in-time-line interview" (70). I can use this to inform my own craft and meet my students' needs. I agree that to meet the needs of my students, I need to not see a strict student /teacher relationship, but instead need to see that student as a colleague (73). We are all learning together. My final thought for today, revolves around the idea that sense-making predicts how a person sees the gap will be related to how they try to bridge the gap (75). "Situation was far more powerful predictor than demography" and "situational measures predicted information-seeking and use" (79). This screams at me that we should put a stop to applying labels to every group and subgroup in our society! Our infatuation with analyzing racial, gender, sexual preferences, socioeconomic status, et al. does not meet the sense-making mindset. But... My lack-luster, Hispanic, middle-school boys are, in general, doing poorly. These four labels help me to identify as subset of students in my classroom. Could I use the sense-making methodology to get to some root gaps, identify how the students respond to the gaps, and, ultimately, better meet their needs because of this knowledge? Hmm.
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About MeAfter teaching for 20 years, I've decided to pursue a master's degree! Archives
July 2017
CategoriesThis is me working on my classwork... usually at night after the heater is off.... sitting long times makes me cold!
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