Reflection Points

Point 1:  Interviewing is hard! 

This fact I discovered when we conducted peer-to-peer interview in class during week 2.  Having a sound interview guide will prove extremely helpful when conducting interviews for our group project.  I think having some type of interviewee response organizer would prove helpful too.  Just from being involved in interviews, I find it is a much richer source of data collection than a survey because you add in the human element that surveys are missing, and as a performance consultant this technique allows you to gather best practices and quality criteria in one attempt.  The more I practice the easier it will become to conduct such interviews.

Point 2:  I'm a failure, or is my system?

Wendy shared a quote from Thomas Gilbert, the founder of behavioral engineering, in week 2 that claims all deficiences in a system point to the management system.  Gilbert states "...and whatever the most immediate cause of the performance, I, as the manager, have no one to blame but myself.  The cause of the incompetence is my management" (Gilbert, 1978, pg. 76).  This statement really hit home with me because of my background as a teacher.  As a teacher you are assigned a group of students to educate within the existing school system.  If they do not perform, then it is the teacher's fault?  Yes.....and no. 

As a reflective educator working in a school for at-risk students, I have to constantly modify and individualize the "education" I provide my students.  I manage the educationally gifted, educationally lacking, engaged, apathetic, ever-present, chronically absent, and of course I have to manage behavior and lack of home training.  In my 10 years working with youth in the local school system, I feel that I am an effective and caring teacher, but do all my students perform to their highest ability?  The answer unfortunately is no.  Is this due to my incompetence in managing my environment, or is the larger bureaucratic system of management at fault?  This is an extremely tough question because there are factors external and internal to the organization that are setting some students up for failure, but I still am responsible for my students within this system.  Sigh.  I will wrestle with this quote this upcoming school year because I am responsible for my students, and I need to keep wrestling with the system and management to help those in my environment find more success.