Taking Yourself Seriously: A Fieldbook of Processes of Research and Engagement

A book of tools and processes to help readers in all fields develop as researchers, writers, workshop facilitators, and agents of change

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Online Synchronous Teaching

When students participate over the internet in regularly scheduled class meetings, discussion and small group interactions needs to be structured so that they feel as included and engaged as they would if they were students in a classroom. In other words, teachers should follow the Slow Ed Tech guideline of “modeling computer use on best practices to ensure learning without computers.” Appropriate practices include:

The form of Taking Yourself Seriously

The forms (Levine 2015) of Taking Yourself Seriously (TYS) are ones in which the students and participants bring themselves into to grow and develop so that they leave having more self, i.e., more tools in their toolbox, to bring into the forms of work and life outside TYS. The students/participants take up/in the tools by experiencing their use and practicing them in projects of research and engagement, including engagement with themselves, that is, taking themselves seriously.

“Look everywhere for stories of where ordinary people are making a positive difference in others’ lives”

A Canadian friend turning 70 later this month asked this gift of her friends: “look everywhere for stories of where ordinary people are making a positive difference in others’ lives, and capture them. Tell the stories in your own words, and write them down.” Here is what I sent her.

Manifesto

A synthesis of elements from a course or workshop, selected and organized so as to inspire as well as inform your efforts in extending the course/workshop topic further. An excerpt from an example, then some elaboration:

Plan for Practice

A plan with two dimensions:
How you will put into practice in your work, community and other settings the tools, processes, and knowledge being learned
How and with whom you will practice putting these into practice. Given that things are surely not going to work out perfectly the very first time, include how you will take stock of how well your Plan is working so as to adjust and improve.

Learning Road Trip

A series of visits to people whose work you want to learn more about or, by their responses to you presenting your own work, learn from. Although, in the academic world, budgets and schedules for hosting visitors are limited, people are often happy to carve out time and arrange an audience for a self-funding visitor, especially one who wants to learn more about their work. You do not have to be on their “A-list” to be welcome. Airbnb or economy motels and driving your own car can keep costs down. To reduce the strain of driving long distances, team up with someone with whom you can have a rolling in-car seminar on what you are learning and other shared interests.

Taking Yourself Seriously: New edition is taking shape

Taking Yourself Seriously: New edition is taking shape. New section and corresponding tools on:

Create Change Co-Coaching (draft publicity material for comments)

Create Change Co-Coaching
(a project of the The Pumping Station)
Participate with 6-8 others in a Studio for a year to become certified as a Co-Coach.

A possible course with more open inquiry even than project-based learning

I seek feedback on the idea of revising my project-based learning courses into something even more open to individualized inquiry. Following the lead of a friend, Mac Brown, I am thinking about a course in which students produce contributions to a book (or handbook) on the topic of the course in all its angles: what is known; how to gain knowledge – to move from a novice to someone with organized themes and examples; ways to pursue action, involving collaboration with various parties; lessons to teach or guide others; case studies or illustrations of themes; etc.