It's time I participate in my own research study.

At this point, I cannot be sure of what my research project is. The reason for this uncertainty is that I do not yet have an approved research proposal on file with the Office of Graduate Studies. Of course, the only way to have a research proposal is to devote a large chunk of life to creating one, which means making some plans about the topic, creating a research design, and then trying to make a convincing argument that the project is both worthwhile and feasible. Thus I operate under the assumption that my research plan, or something very close to it, will eventually be approved. I try not to dwell on the possibility that either my committee or the OGS will laugh me out of the room for considering this topic, and that they will relegate my many pages of academic writing into their electronic round file, and tell me to either start over or give it up altogether.  

That said, I am reasonably certain that my project will involve encouraging students to set weekly goals, plan their study time, and then monitor themselves, recording whether the goals were met and the planned study sessions actually occurred, reflecting each week upon what went well, what didn’t go well, and how to improve their studying process.

Since both my own intuition and the scholarly research support the notion that goal-setting, planning, self-monitoring and reflection have the potential to improve achievement, wouldn’t it also make sense for me to do these things? How can I, in good conscience, conduct a research study asking students to set weekly goals and schedule their time without being willing to do so myself? The remarkable (and sad!) thing is that this thought did not occur to me before. I have, of course, known that I should set goals and subgoals and schedule my time, and I have occasionally made half-hearted attempts to do so. At some level, I have engaged in self-monitoring and reflection—I know myself well enough to know when I am not doing things well (as demonstrated by my tendency to duck around corners when I see a certain beloved colleague coming down the hall—I just know JoeMc will ask about my dissertation!)

But today was the first time I was struck by my parallel position to the students who will participate in my study, and by the utter hypocrisy of asking them to set goals and plan when I myself have so much room for improvement in that area.  

I now embark on a mission to create weekly action plans to accompany my good intentions, and then to write down how well I carry out those plans. So, well-wishing friends, I give you permission to quiz me about my planning and my follow-through. If I disappear from this blog for a while, you’ll probably know the answer!!