HIED 596: Discussion Posts

Introductions

Introductions Discussion

#596-Discussion-1

In the discussion board, please provide your name and how you would complete ONE of the following sentences:

I feel prepared to launch my career in higher education because….

I am renewed as I continue in higher education seeking to reach new levels on my current career path by…

I am ready to start on an alternative higher education career path because….

I am confident I have the skills to take a position on a topic and defend it because….

My M.Ed. studies provided me with opportunities to apply theory to practice in the following ways….

The study of higher education has given me insights into…

Please read others’ posts and respond to two of your classmates. (Note that the discussion board has been set up so that you must first post before you can see any replies.)

Hi, I’m Emily!
I feel prepared to launch my career in higher education because I am interested in the issues higher education administrators face, and I am now capable of analyzing and hopefully helping to solve them. I am specifically hoping to work under the umbrella of institutional research and international student services. I look forward to experiencing 596 as a “bookend” to this HIED program with the rest of you! 

Discussion of Insights from Previous Writings

Thinking about all of the papers that you wrote during the program, what did your review of your previous papers reveal to you? Did you focus on one topic? What sort of feedback was given to you? What did you expect? What were you surprised about? Write a post describing your insights and then read and respond thoughtfully to two classmates’ posts.

When evaluating the papers I have written in the M.Ed. program, I mostly chose to wrote about topics focusing on international students. I also did many papers that were focused on institutional planning, assessment, and program prioritization. This revealed that the more I learn about these topics, the more my interest in them grows. I feel hopeful that my interest in these topics will persist throughout my career. Most of the feedback given to me was positive. As my classmates have mentioned above, I also had issues with APA citations at times. I think that I have gotten much more confident and skilled in following APA formatting and citations throughout this program. 

I was surprised about some of the feedback that requested that I define certain words like “engagement” when writing a paper presumably to my peers and instructor. I hope to fine-tune the skill of writing for my audience during this class so I do not over or under define terms or concepts in academic writing. 

 

Preparing for Professional Interviews

Read the article, 19 interview questions that are designed to trick you (Links to an external site.), and think back over interviews that you have participated in. What tricky questions have you asked as an interviewer? What key questions have you been asked in interviews? How will you answer those questions at this point in your career? 

What key questions have you been asked in interviews? 

1.     Why are you leaving your current job?

2.     Describe an incidence in which you’ve mismanaged a situation. 

How will you answer those questions at this point in your career?

1.     My current job is teaching, however, I would like to transition into a more administrative role within an institution. I have learned a lot about education and communication through being an educator, but I am looking for a new challenge that is more directly related to my long-term goals of stability at an institution. I also hope to work with international students and students who want to study abroad. So, I think my 6+ years of working and traveling abroad have given me ample experience to both help a study abroad student find the right country to explore as well as the ability to help an international student navigate cultural difficulties. I’m particularly excited about getting to grow with my next company.

2.     A previous employer would often ask me to complete extra duties without ample notice or compensation, especially during already busy exam weeks. These surprise extra duties would often interfere with my ability to leave work on time or my ability to fulfill my normal duties well. Rather than refusing these duties outright, I would complete them but tensions would build between my boss and me because I found the duties to be unjust. In the future, I would learn from this mistake by communicating with my bosses to find a suitable way to support the company in busy times without sacrificing quality in my daily duties. This way, tensions would not build and our working relationship would remain healthy. 

What tricky questions have you asked as an interviewer?

I’ve never given a job interview, but I have interviewed students who are applying to British universities. Generally, I ask in-depth questions about their chosen Chemical or Biological interest as well as questions surrounding why they want to study abroad rather than at a local institution. However, I don’t think this type of interview is relevant to this discussion thread.

 

Plagiarism Discussion

The culture of higher education champions the creation of knowledge and innovative intellectual thought; therefore, plagiarism or the appropriating of another’s ideas as your own is strongly discouraged. Dictionary.com provides the following definition for plagiarism:

“an act or instance of using or closely imitating the language and thoughts of another author without authorization and the representation of that author’s work as one’s own, as by not crediting the original author”

The same pressure for novel thinking may simultaneously create undue pressure to appropriate another’s ideas as one’s own.

Think about your career as a student and professional, has someone ever taken your idea and presented it as their own? What about during a meeting? Is that okay? What did you do about it? How do you keep yourself from plagiarizing others?

Post your thoughts on plagiarism and either how to discourage it or how to address the issue with someone you believe has plagiarized. Respond thoughtfully to two classmate’s posts (that means more than “I agree.”).

I cannot think of a time where someone has taken my ideas and presented it as their own either as a student or professionally. If this did happen, I would likely confront the person about the situation so they knew that stealing my ideas without crediting me is wrong. Generally, my coworkers are very good at crediting each other’s ideas in meetings through simply saying “Emily suggested…” or “Emily has brought up…”. It seems like a simple way to credit coworkers, but it goes a long way in promoting teamwork and collaboration within a department. 

Regarding avoiding plagiarism in my studies, I agree with my classmates that accurately and carefully citing works that are referenced in my papers is the best way to prevent plagiarism. Often when planning a paper, I create a single column table in Word where I write an APA style citation and an in-text citation for relevant readings I hope to include. I then write various quotes or even copy full articles into this document so I have a several page document with relevant information to include with the ability to quickly and accurately cite the information if I use it in my paper. This has saved me a lot of time when trying to accurately imbed citations in my papers. 

 

Research Ethics Discussion

Having read through the content and associated websites about Research Ethics, now we engage in a discussion.  While it is easy to say we would never knowingly engage in unethical behavior, in reality we may sometimes do so.  How can we avoid getting into such situations?  Or, if we have already been in such a situation how do we take corrective action?  What examples do you have to share with your classmates?  After you post your entry, respond to two classmate’s posts.

When working in various labs in undergraduate research, I learned a lot about research ethics and how to avoid unethical behavior. One of the labs in particular highly valued collaboration within the lab. To foster this environment the lab did explicitly teach each incoming member about the ethics and standards at that lab, a practice that aligns with Jane Steinberg’s advice on how to avoid misconduct. The advice Steinberg offers also includes avoiding joking about getting data at any cost, documenting authorship and being explicit about who can access data (Steinberg, 2002). I also think PSU does a good job of providing rationale to the importance of research ethics, links to teaching and learning resources, and emphasizing reporting misconduct (PSU, n.d.). This proves that university’s official commitment to avoiding academic misconduct. 

I have not been in a situation like this, but I believe taking corrective action would be difficult. Steinberg states, “by the time someone has made a copy of your dataset, you are already in the thick of it” (Steinberg, 2002, para. 10). Furthermore, Harvey explains that “identifying and establishing fraudulent activity is complex” (Harvey, 2020, p. 250). So, taking corrective action most likely would involve privately building a case to prove misconduct occurred with the knowledge that your accusations could be viewed as false or seriously damage someone’s career (Harvey, 2020). This way, the attitude which reporting fraudulent activity can be professional and backed by facts rather than fueled by emotions. 

In an effort to share experiences, while writing my capstone paper my biggest concern is inaccurately citing myself. Of course, my homework assignments haven’t been peer-reviewed for publication, so I am worried about misidentifying knowledge that I have learned throughout the program that is now my knowledge and knowledge that I need to cite from a previous synthesis paper. In HIED 808, I interviewed the director of International Programs at Meredith College, and she advised me to strive to focus each post, project, and paper on my interests so I have a working knowledge of past and present issues within the field. I have done this, so I feel like I have learned a lot about international students but now worry I will inaccurately cite the knowledge. 

References

Harvey, L. (2020). Research Fraud: a long-term problem exacerbated by the clamour for research grants. Quality in Higher education, 26:3. 243-261. 10.1080/13538322.2020.1820126.

Steinberg, J. (2002). Misconduct of others. Association for Physical Science, 15:1. https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/misconduct-of-others-prevention-techniques-for-researchers.

 

Dealing with Professional Rejection

Use the internet to find popular magazine or trade articles about how to handle professional rejection. Read through them and select one to share with the other members of the class. Post the URL for your chosen article in the all-class discussion, summarize what the article says, and then explain why you think the information is useful (or not). If you feel comfortable sharing, let others know how you have dealt with professional rejection.

I chose this article Dealing with rejection after a great interview 

In this article, the authors suggest five steps to overcome the disappointment and “immediate feeling of inadequacy” that is so often the result of hearing that you were not chosen for a position when you were sure that the interview was a success (Simmonds, n.d., para. 3). 

1.     Be Gracious

2.     Acknowledge

3.     Reframe

4.     Take Stock

5.     Keep Looking

I think these steps are simple enough to remember and follow during the immediate disappointment that follows a professional rejection. I have dealt with rejections in the past and being gracious about the disappointment of not being hired is one of the things that makes me feel proud of myself and prepared to keep trying. Even if my feelings are hurt, I know that I’m still working towards a positive relationship with that company, so with any luck they will think of me in the future or even refer me to a similar company. Acknowledging, reframing, and taking stock in the rejection are important steps in validating that the rejection is difficult to emotionally handle but maybe it will help me succeed in an interview in the future. Simmons (n.d.) states, “If you want to move forward in a position of strength, reflect on the experience and extract the lessons” (para. 7). This simple advice will help me remember that failing can be an opportunity to learn, and the more I practice interviewing, the better I will get at it. Of course, keep looking is the last step. Rejections are difficult but so is being out of work. 

Overall, I think I have an almost healthy relationship with professional rejection. I have a tendency to get overly excited about a position that I am applying for, so if I do not get the position, I feel really disappointed. I’ve been working on being more objective while applying to jobs, so I think I am closer every year (and every interview) to having a healthy relationship with rejection. 

Reference: 

Simmons, K. (n.d.). Dealing with rejection after a great interview. University of Florida. https://career.ufl.edu/dealing-with-rejection-after-a-great-interview/

 

Creating Lasting Networks

In our final class discussion, the topic is how to create lasting professional networks. Think about how you have kept in touch with people in the past. How do you plan to keep in touch with people you have met in class? How do you follow up with like-minded individuals you meet at conferences?  Even if you aren’t able to attend conferences, do you look over the paper sessions and email authors asking copies of their papers?

It’s definitely difficult to keep in touch with people you haven’t truly met, but having these shared experiences will allow myself and many of us to maintain, and grow connections within the higher education community for years to come.  One of the most valuable aspects to the program is the general community and common bond that PSU students seem to have across the globe.  For example, I’ve never actually visited the campus, yet I’ve met many people and alumni of PSU that instantly felt a connection, simply because of my PSU t-shirt or learning the knowledge that I’m a Nittany Lion.   These types of relationships are valuable and important, and shouldn’t be underestimated.  Often these relationships lead to conversations like “I know someone who knows someone who’s hiring someone just like you”. 

Also, within higher education, I already follow the facebook group for PSU and I will hope to add many people to linkedin or other professional networking sites.  Furthermore, when I get an opportunity, I hope to visit campus and meet some of the instructors that helped me along the way.  I’m currently transitioning my career away from teaching  into higher education, so I understand the value each connection could have, so, I’m hoping to find a way to get my “foot in the door”, and hopefully the right doors will open up!   Â