Is confidence generally an attribute of a graduate? Pondering on this at present. Confidence in one's own subject knowledge surely would be present? Is this no longer having self-doubt and having an inner confidence and more faith in your abilities? Using the word present now has me thinking that being a gratuate can also be to do with the way you are able to present yourself to others. As a result going through the degree process you develop more self-esteem, believing in yourself and that your views are important and deserve to be heard. The following is a statement entered in my learning journal last Thursday. It is followed by a response from a peer:

"I appear to have made a far greater impact and impression than I thought myself !"

"That's good though Lu isn't it, has that raised your confidence?"

My subsequent response to this:

"I still find it hard to accept positive feedback."

I am beginning to feel more logical when faced with problems, whilst trying to be more analytical and less negative.

Time will tell !

Motivation returns !

I do feel I am working with a greater degree of autonomy this year but I am hoping this will not be to the detriment of my submissions.

Data collection has been a major headache and has not gone according to plan, but then that is the nature and the beauty of a flexible research design like Action Inquiry. It is a story that unfolds through events and often uncovers surprises at every turn. Repeating a process of reflection and evaluation on the pilot data process used has illustrated the importance of having a plan B, C and D to draw upon ! I need to cater for all kinds of eventualities during the major project in September.

The transcribing process has taken me a lot longer than envisaged and as a result feel I may have a lot of valuable data that hasn't been uncovered due to time constraints.

The pilot data collection has been an extremely worthwhile exercise, if only serving to indicate the impact and impression I make in the classroom according to those observing me.

Motivation has dwindled of late since husband's hopsitalisation but I'm pleased to say it is gradually returning now...

High hopes !

Just hoping I will collect enough data this week for analysis. This should have taken place earlier but with husband's illness my degree progress has been severely hampered. I will have the end of this week and the next to analyse and collate my findings ready for presenting in a pilot exhibition. My intention is to present this to colleagues involved in the pilot data collection when I return to school after Whitsun.

Testing times for me, considering, in terms of possession of the graduate qualities of commitment, time management and autonomy!

Hold ups, trials and tribulations...

I have experienced problems gathering data as I had originally planned to collect this from secondary school age students in my classes. It now transpires that the use of any primary data collected from school age children is considered unethical by the University and is not allowed under any circumstances. It can still be used as secondary data however, but I have had to spend a great deal of time reconsidering my data collection methods.

For me this typified the kind of unexpected problems that can arise when carrying out a research project. It served to illustrate the importance of considering all eventualities in the planning process and how the flexible, cyclical nature of Action Inquiry (AI) lends itself to the modification of initial plans through its subsequent cycles. AI also requires the researcher to be prepared for situations changing and ensuring other alternatives are in place and ready to be implemented.

The other major problem was not being in cover lessons and instead invigilating in exams, which prevented me from collecting any relevant data.

Also:

• Husband was hospitalised nine days ago which made it extremely difficult to focus on degree work.
  

• My computer is working at snail's pace... making two of us working at the same pace now.
  

Tired... visiting hospital in neighbouring city can be very tiring so I will resume this post at a later date.

Definitely, maybe...

Beginning to identify hard evidence of how I could be developing 'graduateness'. This has been demonstrated in my new post by not 'sitting back'. Particularly in recent correspondence regarding problems, suggesting ways of resolving them and highlighting other possible areas for change. Acknowledging others' contributions, their skills, talents and abilities and recognising the importance of working with them and learning from them.

Hmmm... some little acorns in there... maybe...

Hmmmm... Thoughts on first module of Year 3...

At the end of the last module I was reminded yet again of the need to work on my time management skills ! This was reflected in the standard of the work produced. I was unable to complete the final stitching section satisfactorily and I'm sure my referencing suffered from not having time to carry out thorough proof reading. My IT skills still need some serious updating to enable me to produce a better quality of presentation in my work. I intend to be more adventurous in that area and increasingly brave in future modules. I need to make time in future to include more evidence of online community discussion. Due to time constraints the Review and Planning module did not reflect the amount of online discussion I had participated in. There is always a plethora for me to draw upon and I consider myself to be a reasonably active member of the online community. This will help me to write more about my reflexive thought processes and highlight my developing problem solving skills, together with other developing areas of graduateness.

So major areas to work upon for next module:

• Time Management
• Referencing
• IT and presentation
• Evidence of OLC participation
  

Just waiting for those marks now...