Wishing & Personal Connection

Wishing

To get my reflecting juices flowing, I consulted some of the questions from our class texts. I liked some of the questions from Sandy Guild’s Research Process Questionnaire (Curriculum Connections 154):

“What would you have done differently if you could do it over?”

If I could do the project over again, I think I might have focused more on the socio-cultural aspects of being a redhead, such as famous redheads of the past or views of redheads through the ages. I found this information more personally interesting, although I am glad that I learned about the genetics of being a redhead. Many of the genetic sources I read were “over my head” and I had to do a little studying to remember all the terms I learned in 9^th grade biology. This made my project a little more challenging and it reacquainted me with my scientist side. I used to be really interested in science and even wanted to be a geneticist when I was in high school.

Also, if I could do it differently, I would have cut myself off from looking at new sources after a certain point. I think I spent too much time looking and waited too long to read, analyze, and synthesize. There weren’t a lot of initial hits when I search for “redheads and extinction,” so I search redheads by itself, which meant sifting through many resources that distracted me from my questions.

“What question would you still like to chase down if we gave you more time just to do it and you knew there wasn’t a paper or grade at the end?”

There is a question that I still haven’t answered, is Redheads International (the organization that published the Redhead Encyclopedia) still in existence. Their web address is no longer valid and I have been unable to find any information distributed by them since the publishing of the book in 1996. I do, however, have an address in Newport Beach, CA, so I may just write a letter (snail-mail style) and see if the organization exists. If anyone would be interested in my Save The Redheads project, it would be Redheads International.

I feel like I am not an expert in my inquiry skills. Lamb identifies some characteristics of an expert information scientist, and these are areas where I could definitely use improvement:

“Identify relevant information and ignore irrelevant information.”

When reading about origin of red hair or red hair genetics, I often found myself reading beyond the information I actually needed because it was interesting to me. I often examined articles that did not exactly pertain to my question – are redheads going extinct? (i.e. there were many journal articles on health risks of being a redhead)

“Self-regulate their time and efforts including goal setting, time management, self-evaluation, self-motivation”

Although I started my project very early, I think I spent too much time trying to get too much information. Many of the articles, books, and web sites repeated information. While the repetition of information made me feel more confident about the accuracy of the information, I think I could have done just as well with fewer quality sources.

“Remain flexible in thinking adapting to changing needs”

When I found new information in my search that contradicted my questions or did not strengthen my approach, I wanted to resist incorporating that information into my inquiry. For example, I found one scientist who does not believe that redheads will go extinct at all. I found this late in my search and did not know what to do with it. I didn't know how I would research that view and I didn't want to because I had so much evidence supporting extinction. In the end, I'm glad to have found that opinion because I truly don't want redheads to go extinct. It leaves me a little hope.

Now, I have been a little hard on myself. There are many things that I think went very well in my inquiry. I am amazed at how much I learned – especially about genetics. I honed my search skills by trying different combinations in Boolean searching. I used new databases and science sources. I learned several new methods of organizing my thoughts, and now I have a whole new way of going about connecting the information I find. Recursion is now a little less scary and something I will implement in my inquiry as I go forward. And last but not least, my technological literacy has improved, as I have noted in a previous post.

Personal Connection
Before starting this inquiry, my inquiry approach was somewhat disorganized and hurried. I usually picked the first topic that came to my mind, didn't spend too much time tweaking it, set out to find as many resources I could, read those resources, tried to organize my thoughts, then report the information I found. I really cannot recall ever being trained in an inquiry processes or information search process before this class. If I was, then they have been long forgotten. This kind of makes me sad for all the years I was missing out on the big picture of research. I graduated high school in 1995. I don't know if the standards were a lot different at that time, or if inquiry/information search was not a priority for teachers at my school.

The librarian in my loves learning and searching for information. I have always been great at that. This inquiry process has taught me what to do with that information, and completely changed my outlook on research projects. Before, I was all about the product and I hardly paid any attention to the process of connecting the information. I was always afraid of what Virginia Ranking calls "Risk Taking - do not be afraid to seek answers that may be difficult or impossible, the process often uncovers new areas of inquiry that will be even more rewarding"(Callison & Preddy 513). Now I know how important each step of the process is, especially reflecting. That is how you learn what you have done well and not so well, and make it better next time.

Thanks to all of you who shared feedback and thoughts in the comments area!!!