How might statistics be manipulated to support a certain point of view?

I think the entire question of global warming is fascinating as an example of a quest for scientific truth. The subject under study is one that spans millennia yet the data that is studied for signs of change are generally of a century or far less. There are enormous interests advocating and funding the research on both sides. The operating principals of large complex systems such as climate are quite obscure. The ultimate implications of this research is literally world changing. So these are a few factors that manipulate available results:

1) The need to conclude certain things to obtain or retain funding.
2) The political/social pressure to believe certain ‘true’ things.
3) The critical nature of constructing experiments that reveal data meaningful to the question asked. For example, if oceans are or aren’t rising, does that tell anything beyond that fact?
4) The complexity of identifying causation. If the globe is warming, is that due to green house gasses or is it merely a normal fluctuation in the complex system.

Taking these questions as a subset of all the questions, it can be seen that they map exactly to questions in educational research.

1) There are vast and powerful interests in education (publishers, suppliers, politicians, unions, etc). Few of the established powers have interest in meaningful change.
2) Education is a VERY sensitive subject and it touches on societal issues that dwarf the question of education itself.
3) As NCLB demonstrated (at least to me), the exact definition of ‘the problem’ changes solutions and outcomes. The need to ‘verify’ acted at odds with the inherent need for flexibility and breadth in the classroom.
4) Our educational system is both an independent entity and a subset of our societal structure. Isolating ‘school’ performance from ‘societal’ performance in embracing children is nearly impossible.

Given this macro-environment of pressure, how might statistical manipulation take place in the microcosm?

1) Some studies will simply not be funded, depending on the prevailing power matrix.
2) Studies that don’t agree with the vested interest will be maligned, attacked, and/or ignored.
3) Studies will be structured to mine the data for favorable conclusions (or in the case of survey type studies, bias the answers by asking biased questions).
4) Mis-concluding causality.
5) Only the most favorable subset of the subject is chosen for study.
6) Studies which fail to prove the assertion are discarded as ‘flawed’ or ‘failed’.
7) And, not to be ruled out, data is falsified.

Finally, to be meaningful, research must have a context. Few single experiments or studies can meaningfully change behaviors by themselves. But both the promulgation and acceptance of research and the human process by which it is created and aggregated is subject to all the flaws of unscientific bias and blindness that we humans are heir to.

Give examples, if possible, from your own experience.

There is a well known experiment where young children are shown pictures of babies (a pleasant stimulus for them) and given a cord to pull to change those pictures. After that behavior is learned, the cord is unplugged to test the babies’ reaction to that frustration. The study demonstrated that girl babies are quicker to stop pulling the cord than boys. However, in a TV show on this subject, the announcer states something to the effect that ‘the girls are more likely to give up and cry, the boys just keep pulling harder and harder’. This is exactly the kind of thing that makes talking about gender differences SO hard. Obviously, the announcer’s conclusion is unscientific. Truth be told, the experiment only reports the data. The underlying cause of the different behavior is still unknown. Alternative conclusions might be that girls on average are quicker to pick up the pointlessness of pulling on the cord. There are other possible explanations, but the experiment only truly proves that on average boys and girls respond statistically differently under those circumstances. That is all that should be concluded.

This example is further afield, but in my time as a trading manager I watched as massive dollar amounts were shifted from future years into the current year, creating current profits upon which bonuses were paid. Of course, this resulted in impending losses in the future but that was a problem for a different year. But the companies reported these ‘profits’ as if they reflected a result consistent with the long term value of the company rather than a kind of borrowing from the future. Likewise, the very existence of ‘derivatives’ is a kind of statistics manipulation. A derivative is simply a contract that takes the place of a different, physical transaction. For example, could buy stock in GM (a physical transaction) or I could agree in a contract to exchange the value of the change in GM’s price over a specified period. Over that period, both have identical financial risk but they have totally different implications for a company’s balance sheet reporting, cash flow, and possibly risk reporting. Many derivative transactions are done purely for this reason, the impact reported financial statistics. In some cases, derivatives are used to shift profits from the future, as discussed above.

It is also interesting to me that when data is falsified, in finance, science or whatever, there is a strong tendency for the data that was true to be essential knowledge lost. When conclusions are mis-reported, it is often exactly the true conclusion that could change society for the better but that information is not revealed. This is a good lesson in why integrity in research is a paramount value.

  How can your effectiveness as a communicator reflect on your profession? 

A teacher is a pillar of the community. Parents and students look to them to be role models and examples of caring, competence and professionalism. We have already discussed that communication is essential to competence for teachers. Caring is not an innate distinction, it too needs to be expressed, communicated effectively. Finally, there is a credibility component of being a role model or leader. Effective communication is essential in this regard. It does little good to have internal competencies if they cannot be effectively reflected in the world. Communication is the portal from the internal to the external.

Why is it important to work with a variety of different personalities—and learning styles? How can we help others feel like they’re part of a team?

Like DQ1, this subject is a core element of being human. None of us live in isolation or work in isolation, nor would we want to. Working in teams, classrooms, families and communities inevitably means working with people of different personalities and learning styles. Given this, it is fortunate that we are all so very, wonderfully different.

Each person contributes a unique point of view. The solution each would choose will most likely be importantly or even entirely different from all the others. Even the avenues chosen to structure the solution might well be entirely different. And once the group collects the varied perspectives, approaches and solutions, that same diverse team provides the best combination of perspectives to structure an ideal solution.

Once a solution is reached, typically there is a further requirement of implementation. A diverse team is ideal for implementation as well. Each member of the team has a unique perspective on how the group’s plan will be received and might be best presented. In the receiving constituency, there will be similarly diverse humans, each receiving the solution in their own way, with their own perspective. Having a diverse group allows communication and implementation to be tailored individually, or at least tailored to narrower groups of individuals sharing a learning style, cultural perspective or other differentiating factor. Inevitably in any endeavor, there will be feedback, good and bad, and bumps in the road. Having a variety of personalities increases the group’s ability to fully assimilate the feedback or new information and respond in better harmony with the external situation.

Most importantly, being involved with a variety of personalities is FUN, energizing and creatively stimulating. it is the proverbial spice of life to encounter new and different histories, ideas, cultures, philosophies, brains and hearts.

When dealing with any team, especially a diverse one, it is critical to honor the humanity of each individual. We all want respect. We want our ideas to be honored, valued and, at least, in part included. Finally (and subtly for me), teams are not just goal driven. They are a community requiring an open heart and the inclusion of our essential humanity. The best teams are built from relationship to function. Building a team from relationship is the best way to make an integrated team. Integrated teams are the best; robust and highly functional.

  Why is it imporatnt for someone in your profession to have effective communication skills?

I believe strong communication skills are the central hub around which an effective, charismatic teacher is organized.

Teaching is impossible without communication. The simple view of teaching is that teaching is the conveying of information to students. More robustly, learning is a two way, interactive communication between students, individually and collectively, and their teacher. Perhaps most importantly and subtly, my experience and reading suggests that connection is the fuel that makes learning happen. Poor communication skills can hamstring or even destroy each of these elements in the delicate process of helping students to build learning.

But there is more to communication than effective use of the means of communication. One of the key reasons I am pursuing a M. Ed. is to better understand the mental process of learning. I expect that a central foundational element of this course of study is stages of child development. Likewise, I hope to better understand the concept of emotional intelligences and learning styles (e.g. auditory, visual, etc). I imagine there are other critical subjects I will study at UoPx to know how to structure the message I intend to communicate. Structuring the message and the interaction is also communication and it too is essential.

Finally, there is more to being a teacher than teaching. Teachers live in a community. They need to interact with administrators, who presumable have a major impact on the choices teachers are allowed to make. Building a solid community is essential to any fulfilled life. I envision that this is far more important in teaching. My goal would to be fully integrated into the teaching community at my hypothetical school. Strong relationships and open communications with my fellow teachers are what community is all about. Finally, it seems to me that every teacher should have an integrated strategy for each child fully articulated to and supported by the student’s parents. This is an ideal, but communication skills and abilities would none the less be a significant part of building a teacher/parent/student learning alliance. Communication is the fuel of community and learning is most effective in community.

Learning how to make effective communications is the core of teaching. Learning what content, tools, techniques, modalities, examples, etc to use is the art and science of teaching. Learning to interact effectively with the school community (fellow teachers, administrators and parents) is how to create an optimal environment around the classroom so that best learning can take place. Communication is underpinning of all education.

How will you use the Masters in Education program standards to guide the development of your professional portfolio?

The program standards define the core learning goals of my master’s degree. As such, it will be essential to represent exercises, achievements and milestones from each of the four domains and most if not all of the sub-domains. As I mentioned in my answer to Wk3:DQ1, I have clear personal goals as regards my professional portfolio. I want it to reflect my life experience and my journey. While I am only beginning to learn about professional portfolios and TaskStream, it seems to me that the program standards could (and perhaps should) be the skeleton upon which the M.Ed. portion of the portfolio is hung. This is true for two reasons. One, in the reading I have done so far it seems as if the portfolio may be an essential element of the hiring process to become a teacher. To the extent that this is true, I would want to fully reflect my experience and achievement in this program. The program standards are the standards against which my achievement is gauged, the benchmark. They must be included. Second, since these standards are the skeleton of the program, it is artistically necessary to incorporate their shape and shadow in the portfolio to fully reflect my experience in the program.

Teachers today are held accountable for a wide variety of standards.  What other industries/professions adhere to standards?  Why?  Share your own experiences if you can.

When I worked as a trader and trading manager there was a complex web of rules and regulations that governed behavior. There was core licensing. For me, passing a Series 7 and Series 63 (for supervisors) was required by the SEC. The companies I worked for reported a variety of things regularly, some daily. All of these needed to be monitored and kept in compliance. There were clear rules about interactions with customers and other counterparties; what was allowed, what was not. There were also rating agency standards of things like transactions volume and balance sheet usage.

Looking back on it, I have many thoughts, particularly as I contrast that experience to that of a teacher. One is that it is frequently somebody else’s job to monitor, track and document adherence to standards. It is not the day to day experience of a trader to be working to standards in the foreground. However, standards are a major presence in the background, informing everything that is done. For teachers, it would seem that there are specific curriculum standards which frame in a very powerful way certain foreground and background aspects of each day.

Both kinds of standards (background/foreground) pose challenges for me. I have a strong tendency to be goal directed to an extreme and to be inpatient of obstacles to that goal. This is particularly true if I have been given a task and a method to accomplish that task but I feel the method is sub-optimal.

I already see myself in conflict with the first grade math curriculum. The folks who wrote Amelia’s math curriculum have a curious inclination towards breaking the children’s confidence with what they have learned while not giving them intellectual, emotional support for the higher level of learning that is intended. As an example, almost all of the children are comfortably doing addition facts with numbers 1 to 10. So the curriculum now introduces ‘doubles + 1’ and it’s no longer good enough to do 3+2=5. Now the kids need to know 3+2 = 2+2+1 = 5. I applaud the idea that they are being exposed to multiple strategies and multiple ways to look at number sets. But many kids find this mostly confusing and slightly disheartening in the absence of a larger context of why doing 2+3 is fine AND there are other ways to get to the same place. I find myself in conflict with this aspect of the curriculum and wrestle with how far to deviate from ‘the standard’ in the day to day teaching (of course with the same end goal of accomplishing a certain set of learning over the year).
Fortunately, as of today I have limited or no responsibility for complying with standards. I have much to learn in how to balance the obvious wisdom and safety of strict adherence to the letter of the standards with a more flexible approach based on the welfare of the children and the ultimate goals of the standards. I tend to live at both extremes (not enough respect for the collective wisdom of apparently arbitrary rules versus overly strict compliance to obviously flawed minutia). This is particularly tricky for me because my mind tends to think in ‘systems’ and standards are simply a ‘system’ designed to accomplish certain narrow outcomes. The standards for Wall Street (regulatory and rating agency driven) were all designed to protect the clients and ensure financial stability of the regulated companies. We have all seen how well those particular standards worked in accomplishing those goals. None the less, my intention is to develop more capacity to find creativity and wisdom but to work closely in the context of external standards.

In what ways do you think a portfolio will assist you in your personal and professional life?

I had never heard of a portfolio (other than in the context of art) before taking this course. Now, having done the assigned reading and a bit of independent research, I think I understand this new, interesting aspect of life.

One of the things I am committed to is seeing my life as past, present and future in harmony. Most of us live in the past and/or the future but rarely in the now. My tendency is to live in the future, hoping to make something there that is better than what I think I have or have had. One of the things I have learned about this strategy is that the past tends to keep repeating itself because it is never fully integrated. I have spent much time lately considering my past; the things that were too painful to consider and the things I’d taken for granted. I find that this has been extremely healing for me. As I integrate my past, it becomes fuel for my present and allows the future to be whatever it will be.  

It is funny how tools come around when they’re needed. Building a portfolio is exactly a tool I need now. Just three days ago I bought a bunch of photo frames. I intended to frame and display photos from my life; people I love, people who love me, times of joy, times of achievement and times of sadness. By seeing these reminders of things in my life, I believe I will come to live more comfortably in that life, comfortably at peace with my humanity and all that implies. 

As I start my second career in education, I am trekking through a lot of history: wounds from being a mostly underachieving, troubled student, the inadequacies and acute insecurity of youth, the joy I have in learning and the gifts I have in this area as well. Starting a portfolio now will cement me in the truth of what I am doing. Already i can see adding my Graduate Degree paper (the “Why?” of this career choice) and my Individual Learning Styles paper (the “who am I as a student?” declaration). As I fill in knowledge and skills, I will add these to my portfolio, documenting my evolution. I am very curious what my field experience will teach me about my place in this world of education. I really don’t know where this path will lead me but I think this will become clearer as i observe 5th grade, middle school and even high school classes. I hope to be moved deeply somewhere and that journey to certainty will be in my portfolio. Graduation and receiving my teaching certification will be a milestone of importance beyond the obvious. For me, this is a kind of rebirth. Not only will I have completed the foundation of my academic credentials but I will have returned to the world where life for me was most wounding, traveled that world as an adult and navigated it differently and more gently. Documenting that will be meaningful far beyond the mundane. Even now, I’m pondering what that might look like and feeling the need for some artistic expression of past and present dancing.