Graduate Reading, Students, Teachers, Researchers, Research Subjects

My mind is bursting with ideas today after attending a conference with Harvard Professor, Dr. Richard Light. Dr. Light is a statistician and an empirical researcher, and the studies he has done with his students at Harvard are incredibly revealing.

I'm not going to address a great deal of the substance of the conference, since I'm still processing the information, but one very memorable statement (among many) that Dr. Light made was this: when he advises students, he asks them:

"What is your job here?"

As they fumble to answer the question, or give vague and unsatisfactory answers, Dr. Light eventually gives him what he says is his best piece of advice, advice based upon rigorous empirical research about student success:

"Your job is to make an effort to get to know one faculty memebr reasonably well, and for that faculty member to get to know you reasonably well."

Obviously, if faculty members care about student success, the advice could be phrased this way:

"Your job is to make an effort to get to know your students reasonably well, and for those students to get to know you reasonably well."

I think these statements are indicative of what is wrong with the student/teacher relationship in most universities today, and probably says something about research and research subject relationships (think Nate) also.

Graduate students: please read the first chapter "Journalism and the Scientific Tradition" from Phillip Meyer's book The New Precision Journalism:

http://www.unc.edu/~pmeyer/book/Chapter1.htm

We will discuss the book on Tuesday in our grad student session.