"The most important personal characteristic interviewers must have is a genuine interest in other people. They must be deeply aware that other peoples' stories are of worth in and of themselves as well and for the usefulness of what they offer to interviewer's research. With a temperament that finds interest in others, a persona has the foundation upon which to learn the techniques of interviewing and to practice its skills."

- Irving Seidman

Resistance to change and new ideas

I think it's only natural to resist, unless one has been trained to embrace. Resistance is a form of self-protection, a protection of beliefs, of values, of comfort. Only someone exposed to new ideas, open to change, humble to know what one thinks and is convicted of may not be the best, and has the practice of acceptance, can be excited about change.

What is our first response when we hear about new. ideas very different from what we are used to?

When the calculator was introduced into the syllabus, many responded with, "How can? Then, the kids will not be able to do mental sums! What if there isn't any calculator??"

When the electronic dictionary was introduced into the Chinese syllabus, many responded with, "What lucky kids, we never had this in our time, but... Shouldn't they learn how to write words by hard, instead of enlisting the help of an electronic device?"

When one is first exposed to open book exams... "What? Open book?"

Hmmmm... now that I read a paper....

"Assessment tasks should be conducted under normal working conditions, and presume student access to resources such as calculators, computers, texts and consultants."
(Ruthven, Kenneth. 1994. Better Judgment: Rethinking Assessment in Mathematics Education. Educational Studies in Mathematics 27:433-450. page 441)

It makes very much sense. :)

I still recall my University Profs trying to convince me of this. It's okay, you're graded, and it's okay to discuss, surf the net, check your textbook for the answers.

How can one know if a student is truly learning?

If I give out exercises for a child to do and she gets them all right, does that mean she has the depth of knowledge I planned to develop in her? Or could she have copied? How do I know?

If a child gets some wrong, do I know what he doesn't know? How can I help him develop the conceptual knowledge required to solve the question? Is a cross on his worksheet enough? Is teaching how to do the question one more time enough? Is asking his peer to teach him how to do enough? Is some written comments sufficient? What can I do to help him learn?

What kind of information or evidence do I need to collect to tell me whether a child is truly learning or not? How do I gather it? Through assessment, through dialogue.

What is the heart of formative assessment?

Maybe that's why there's this dissatisfaction.

I'm searching for meaning.

But... Even if there's no meaning I can see as yet, I don't want work to be a joyless affair.

I think, I do not consider research, because I have not find a worthier enough (to me) topic to pursue.

I think academia becomes very meaningless when one pursues it not so because of the burning passion to find the answer to a question, but as a job to produce papers.

Every time I find it's a paper-producing job and there's no real world good in a paper, I am turned off.

There's just this void without the meaning part.

InterViews (An Introduction to Qualitative Research Interviewing) by Steinar Kvale (1996).

Page 145, Box 8.1
Quality Criteria for an Interview
- The extent of spontaneous, rich, specific, and relevant answers from the interviewee.
- The shorter the interviewer's questions and the longer the subjects' answers, the better.
- The degree to which the interviewer follows up and clarifies the meanings of the relevant aspects of the answers.
- The ideal interview is to a large extent interpreted throughout the interview.
- The interviewer attempts to verify his or her interpretations of the subject's answers in the course of the interview.
- The interview is "self-communicating" - it is a story contained in itself that hardly requires much extra descriptions and explanations.

Just some thoughts

"Successive Singaporean governments have made strong commitments to and investments in education. Playing several key roles in Singapore's rapid growth over the past 50 years, education spearheaded its economic development... A good example has been Singapore's promotion of the scientific, technical and business disciplines over the arts and humanities." - James Albright and Anneliese Kramer-Dahl

I remember having varied interests and wishing to pursue them, things like archaeology, and other interesting topics, and searching local University pamphlets for courses that I might take to purse them, and finding myself empty-handed.

Then slowly realising that living on a small island, we only train people to do things that our island needs. This utilitarianism. Very logical to me then. Even if I went overseas to study something I'm passionate in, when I come back, I may not have a job.

I think that was one of those times I turned a bit less idealistic and a bit more realistic.

Now, 5 years on, looking back... I wonder what it would have been like to pursue my dreams, take the paths less traveled, and not follow what the government wants for the city blindly.

I don't know if this would be selfishness (the country needs more engineers, more molecular biologists, more IT people!), it might be punished (not being able to find a job, for example), but looking back, I wish I had the ability to think outside the box and not follow blindly.

Education was meant to be fun and lifelong, enabling one to discover her passions and abilities, not a pursuit of qualifications to feed materialism.

I think many will disagree with me on this.

I think many will want to find a job with a high pay.