EDT 506: Post Self-Assessment Reflection

         After completing the LDT 506 course I would rate myself a 4 out of 6 in terms of being an expert. I was around a 1 or a 2 when we started, so it is quite the jump. The reason it’s not higher is because I tend to start at the bottom of new skills, jump to a middle ground and stay there a very long time before progressing into mastery. In fact, the jump to 5 or 6 I expect won’t happen until years from now and that’s assuming I worked with this material. I don’t even think working with one company would be good enough to go above a 4, as based on some of our samples, I assume some companies do these types of projects completely different then another. It’ll take me some time to see what successful proposals look like and a quality research project. 

        One of the main disadvantages of learning about this field online or without a work study, is that I still don’t have the best idea of what companies truly do and what they produce for “Response to Proposal” and “Request for Proposal”. I know there were some difficulties getting companies to want to release internal information, such as the final reports or ways in which they deliver the data to stakeholders, so I think my rating above could lean more towards a 3.5 depending on how different my experience is once I work on a team myself. Teaching was quite a bit different, as by the end you’ve been fully teaching in a classroom setting and for the most part you leave knowing exactly what you’re getting into. Especially a fully residency program, as you pretty much see the semester from start to finish. That would be essentially my main fear leaving this course, is not knowing if how I rate myself now will hold true my first year on the job. 

I think my biggest challenge still remains to be the same, working with a group is very difficult. I try to rationalize that in a real group, this would most likely be everyone’s primary job. In the course, school is everyone's “second” job and that’s on top of their home life responsibilities. But I do think even as we remove the school aspect and get paid to do this, I will be running into people who have lost their passion for this field and will struggle to meet deadlines. I am sure based on the instructional designs I’ve seen over the years, that someone’s “best” work is going to be sub par to me. I’ll need to start reflecting on how to work in that sort of environment, as it’s similar to teaching in which we’ve seen kids struggle for so long, we just assume that is the baseline for “success”. 

I think my strengths remain the same, I dig deep into the information and I’m great at task management. I would be a valuable asset to any team if I was given a role in which I organize meetings, coordinate deadlines, nudge people who aren’t working and check in with stakeholders. I love to communicate and give people a play by play, so it would benefit me to be a part of a project where I could handle updating and coordinating how the team tackles each portion of the project. Beyond this class I am hoping to figure out just how I can take my strengths and make them fit into this job. My hope is to go into an interview process and know enough about this field to know if the position they’re offering is going to fit my strengths. 

For my final thoughts, I’d turn to the many mistakes I made during this course and how they shaped my understanding of this field. For example, I didn’t realize what is considered a large sample size and what isn’t, my brain had to start to process hundreds in the scheme of things is a very small sample pool. Additionally, I learned that it’s difficult to have a truly random sample, as you rely heavily on people wanting to even participate in the first place. Plus, I realize now you can’t easily involve minors in surveys without needing parental consent. I also realize now that you can’t have someone be an advocate for feedback or speak for a collective, something we often do in teaching without even knowing it. You have to make sure you’re deriving the information from people directly.