A500.3.4.RB_BorutyAlan

Explore the Hunt Library

Looking at my schedule, the time, and assignments that still need my attention, exploration of any place for any amount of time simply did not seem to be time responsibly spent.  For any reason was the qualifier that brought me back to reality.  It is part of an assignment.  Okay, I'll run in, click on a couple things and run out - in and out before the cookie registers.

I spent almost two hours looking at the layout, navigating around the site, and keeping myself amused over the fact that "scholarly" is actually a word and smart people use it.  I digress.  What I found is a beautifully arranged, fully populated, ready to answer any question I might have, library.  It was even silent!  In my fascination I realized I had never seen or visited an online library before.  If I have and somehow forgot about it, it could not have been this library.  A true account.

Over the years I have worked my way up to "search apprentice" using online search engines. Given enough time, I can usually find what I want.  Searching for fun and entertainment, no problem - word in word out.  Magic.  Need to find anything?  Not going to happen. And what do I have right before my eyes?  A very serious looking search engine in a setting that I, most likely, will not be searching for anything fun. 

I should say I was genuinely impressed.  During my adventure, I did get to do a few searches and found a few topics of interest.  They will either be the subject of some project I will, no doubt, be assigned sometime over the next three years.  If not, I will include them in my professional development reading.   I intend use Hunt Library as my first line resource for discipline related research.   The information is there, most of it can be cited, and I think the search engine likes me. I ran five or six different searches that produced almost a million returns (on topic) sorted by discipline and document type.  If I run short on information, there is always Wikipedia!

I did indeed find the journals and articles section. It is an impressive collection as well. Did you know if you select the business discipline searching for leadership articles with music as a subtopic, you will still get 94 returns!  Impressive!  I digress. 

To determine if a resource is scholarly, look at the review process.  "Scholarly sources are peer reviewed or published in a recognized scholarly source, like a journal or a university publisher."(Internet)  Some can be found using internet search engines as well.  I searched Hunt and Google with  identical inputs.  Both searches returned over 50,000 documents and the first five from Hunt were listed within the first twenty on Google.  The articles were the same.   However, the returns from the Hunt library are the ones to use. They are original documents and contain all of the pedigree information to include citing information.  The Google returns I looked at were scanned copies of the article.  While research is still not high on my "want to" list...okay, not ranked...at least I know the information is out there.

Reference:
"What is a Scholarly Source? http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~janzb/courses/scholarly1.htm

A500.2.3.RB_BorutyAlan

Tell Your Story

The instructions for this assignment ask me to explore and divulge information on the standards that are most important in my life. The instructions authorized me to focus on the critical standards or the non-critical standards discussed in the text. As I contemplated how best to complete the assignment, it occurred to me that I couldn't chose the standards by which I live because the standards chose me. Over the years I shifted slightly between the two sets of standards but my personality, character and motives required me to focus on and live up to the standards of critical thinking. Of course, I had no understanding of the standards or that I even needed them as a child. For years I never even questioned things like that. The closest I came to assigning a definition to the concept didn't come to me until many years later. I came to know it as my comfort zone. Understanding it happened even later.

I am the third of four children born to parents living the American dream. Young, in love, struggling financially with their growing family, but intensely happy. My older sister and my brother both are outgoing, fun-loving, thrill seeking, never sit still, energy filled monsters that seemingly dedicated their entire existence to making my younger sister and I absolutely miserable. They were good at their work. My little sister and I were polar opposites quiet, reserved, well behaved...you know...the good kids. How and why does any of this matter? None of us kids chose how we think, what keeps us entertained, or how we behaved. Looking back I can see the changes in each of us as we grew up, but what did not change significantly in either of us was the comfort zones we fell into early in life.

I've taken the long way to finally get to addressing the subject, but I believe that even as a child I was accountable to critical thinking standards. I toggled between critical and noncritical occasionally but never completely and never for long. When I did, it usually created internal conflicts. For example, I loved baseball and I was a good all around player. I played every year until high school. As much as I loved to play, things like competition (talking trash before the game, overly celebrating the win, or excusing away the loss) and the pure excitement and happiness that came with just being able to play the game,somehow eluded me. For me, enjoyment came from learning strategy, learning to play multiple positions, and trying to perfect my swing. At first, I felt different than the other kids almost to the point of feeling as though I did not fit in. Now I know that I adjusted my thinking about the game as well as how I interacted with the other kids to put me back in my comfort zone. I kept the scorebook, helped with the line up and even coached the bases which allowed me to apply rational, reasonable, logical and consistent standards to game. I had no concept of it then, but today I see what happened as self protection. I played until my first year of high school.

Just before my freshman year in high school, I met a girl. I was instantly smitten. She was outgoing, popular, was intent to get the most fun out of every moment and took nothing very seriously. She was different than me in almost every way. And, she was beautiful. I was hooked! But somehow things felt awkward. Unlike what happened to me as a kid playing baseball. This time it was my ultimate goal to change from my normal reserved, almost shy, self and fit into hers. I sent six years trying to get past that awkward feeling and while I learned to hide it a bit better, it never went away. What did happen during that six years is I did things differently and lived on her terms because she was so important to me, that I lost touch with myself. By the time I graduated high school, my grades had fallen some and I knew something was wrong. Still unable to figure it out, I pushed forward according to my rational, logical plan and started college. I endured two miserable years getting bad grades while learning almost nothing. It was then my parents got worried and started talking to me about my future, a subject we had discussed often but not recently. They were concerned about lot of things of course but focused on how my thinking had changed. They wanted to know why the things that were most important to me for so long could change so drastically. I wasn't working on my plan at all. I had to admit that I did not know. But they did. They encouraged me to do something positive for me. As screwed up as my head was by then I decided to talk to an Air Force recruiter. My conversation with the recruiter felt more right than anything had in a long time. Less than eight months later I was an Airman in the United States Air Force and I never looked back.

I became interested in human behavior and did enough self study and reading to believe that if what you are doing on the outside doesn't match with what you expect or feel on the inside, you can become conflicted. Conflict can become dysfunction. To correct it simply required that I find my comfort zone. The Air Force was exactly what I needed. Fast forward to today. I have been retired from the Air Force over ten years after a very successful and rewarding career. Recently, I left a job I did not enjoy and wondered what I should do next. The crazy idea that I go back to school resulted in my taking this course. I am beginning to understand that it is important in so many ways to learn what makes me tick, why I think the way I do, why I do the things I do. I didn't know of their existence before, but now I know that the standards of critical thinking apply naturally to me. I can experience things and apply non-critical thinking standards or even choose them to write about, but in my life I gravitate to the standards associated with critical thinking. I have learned that trying to force myself any other direction only takes me out of my comfort zone.


Reference:
Nosich, G. M. (2012). Learning to think things through: Critical thinking across the curriculum. Columbus, OH: Prentice Hall.

A500.1.5.RB_BorutyAlan

Intellectual Perseverance

I had not heard the term Intellectual Perseverance before I was preparing myself for this assignment. My initial reaction was to panic which I did momentarily. I soon discovered that Intellectual Perseverance is a new name for a concept or leadership trait that I have been exposed to a few times throughout my career using different names. Intellectual Perseverance is the more appropriate name.  The Foundation for Critical Thinking defines Intellectual Perseverance as "having a consciousness of the need to use intellectual insights and truths in spite of difficulties, obstacles, and frustrations; firm adherence to rational principles despite the irrational opposition of others; a sense of the need to struggle with confusion and unsettled questions over an extended period of time to achieve deeper understanding or insight." (Valuable Intellectual Virtues, 2014) While accurate, it is a bit verbose and can be confusing. I interpret the definition to mean the leader must always be aware that intellectual problems are often complex and rarely have a quick or easy solution. Therefor, the leader must be committed to resolving the issue through intellectual means using rational principles no matter how long it takes and must never give in to pressure to do it any other way. 

I can easily see the need for me to practice intellectual perseverance as a student pursuing a Master of Leadership Degree. In fact I have already needed intellectual perseverance when faced with starting this class almost a week behind the rest of my classmates. The easy solution would have been to drop the class and enroll in the next available class. Although remaining in the class promised difficulty, a sacrifice of time to get the work done and less overall time to gain an understanding of the material, I decided to persevere the obstacles and stick with the class. The rewards outweigh any difficulty or inconvenience by far. Of course I am in the class but more importantly after more than fifteen years I am back in school actively working on an educational goal that, until recently, was just a dream.

As I continue my studies, I fully expect to face challenges and problems that I have not encountered and will not fully understand. Solving them will be my responsibility. I will use the resources available to me to conquer those challenges while Intellectual Perseverance will be my guide and set my standard along the way.

In my definition of Intellectual Perseverance I used the words "the leader must". I strongly believe Intellectual Perseverance is a trait  a good leader must possess, adhere to, and teach. In my experience with the Air Force, the pressure to make problems disappear is intense. Notice that I did not use the word solve. When a leader succumbs to the pressure he solves nothing because he never got to understand the problem. The is a true reason that any problem occurs. It is called the root cause. In many problems the root cause hides well under the surface and requires many rounds of questioning by experts to expose it. Only then can an effective solution can be pursued. Finding the right, intelligent decision takes time as well. The leader that succumbed to pressure will get the opportunity to address the problem again when it comes back. It is difficult at best to stand your ground under pressure, but there are ways to do it and a good leader will find it. 

The saying leaders operate in a fish bowl means their every action is being watched. Their superiors look for effectiveness and efficiency while subordinates look for any instance where words and actions do not match. Leaders lead by example. If that example shows that Intellectual Perseverance is not important enough to consistently apply, no one will see it as important. The good news is that the opposite is also true. Leaders have many responsibilities some say too many. They have to ensure the people they lead understand what Intellectual Perseverance is, why it is important and how to incorporate it into the way they operate. It is not rocket science, but it does take commitment and determination to execute. The leader must be the first  and strongest example and advocate. 

Intellectual Perseverance is a must if one truly wishes to fully understand complex issues, problems and situations. It has many applications and although it is difficult to withstand pressures and irrational objections, I will strive to use it in my life.

 

References:

(Foundation for Critical Thinking, 2014)Valuable Intellectual Virtues (September 2014). Foundation For Critical Thinking, Online at website: www.criticalthinking.org)