scholarly_interests

As I reflect on my experiences as a HALE MA student, I'm moved by how much I needed to pursue this program. When I began this program it was clear I needed to continue my education as my career had changed course into an exciting new direction. Sometimes it isn't clear how much you need to do something until you venture the courage to try. Now that I'm hitting my stride as an administrator, leader, and change agent for my institution I can fully recognize and appreciate the interplay between my work and my studies.

I've noticed that my earlier work was more difficult to research, despite the fact that I entered with strong index searching skills. I feel that I've developed a much better sense of the body of literature available to me. I also notice in writing my assignments that although I'm still unsure if my writing is linear and easy to follow, I'm certain that it is more concise. My writing assignments used to be two pages too long and needed significant editing down.

Completion of the HALE program required TE891 - an Educational Inquiry and Research Methods course. Because my work with online courses put me in proximity to primary investigators on a few research efforts related to the scholarship of teaching and learning I had some familiarity with human studies procedures and methods associated with collecting data or interviewing subjects. This course was my first pure introduction into research design.

Joining the new students at orientation reinvigorated my learning spirit. Since I've stayed in the MSU community for so long and had already completed three courses I volunteered to help answer questions for the other incoming students. I found out we had a great deal of diversity in our cohort. We had a few international students, a couple of people that already had more then one degree, and a couple that were switching careers. Many of us already had substantial experience working in higher education and were building on that with the degree program.

I formally entered the program in Fall of 2006 at the bottom of this page you'll find a link to my statement of interests I wrote shortly after entering the program. I started by maintaining focus on the three areas that had already attracted my attention: further practice writing, study of higher education organizations, and theories on teaching and learning.

Attached to this page is a statement of goals I wrote prior to entering the HALE MA Program at Michigan State University. I tried to set a path for my studies and declare some scholarly interests while setting them in the context of my professional life. As I record this in my portfolio now, with limited exposure to the program, I'm optimistic that joining will turn out to be a great decision. I'm looking forward to further interactions with colleagues in my cohort, the faculty, literature in the field, and most of all the living examples in my professional work.