Lessons Learned Paper
Francisco E Guzman
University of Phoenix
Dr. Nancy Arduengo

Lessons Learned Paper * Connecting with a group of doctoral students for the first residency is very challenging. Most of the students admitted to having feelings of misperception, worry, or uncertainty. Meeting someone new is certainly not comfortable, however the anticipations and nervousness of a doctoral program is adequate for someone to ask why one would choose to embark on a titanic venture. This residency has encouraged me to withstand in my program. There were more than a few eye-openers that revealed progress and improvement as a doctoral student. In the last five days, various lessons and experiences were imparted and learned but the most important lessons for me include the learning team experiences, scholarly writing, and reflective journaling on the lessons learned.
Learning Teams During this residency experience, I acquired a lot about learning teams. In my academic and professional experience, I have been a part of numerous teams. I have had some bad encounters with teams during my period with the University of Phoenix and acknowledged that the team experiences at residency would be similar. I definitely applied my situatedness but I understand now a cohort of different personalities can form a successful team where all opinions are heard, all ideas count, all contribute and all appear to demonstrate an authentic interest for one another. We had various chances to work in learning teams. We reviewed course articles, course competencies, and were given several activities to develop team organization.Team learning arose from collaborative learning, finding its way in educational and organizational science (Dechant, 1993; Edmonson, 2007; Illeris, 2009). In educational science, studies focussed on the effects of team learning as a didactical tool from a cognitive perspective, whereas in organizational science, team learning was studied from a social perspective for the effects on team performance, with focus on why some teams are more effective (Sessa and Lonon, 2008; Van den Bosshe, 2006; Van Offenbeek, 2001). However, regardless of the industry, discipline, and or educational institution is really a good opportunity to observe the different teams approach and styles prompting a new perspective and point of view as it relates to team presentation and the intervention process and goal. The situadeness is experienced as a satisfaction feeling due to the success in the way we presented our theme regarding Team Charter issues. As the days goes by I feel more comfortable with the residency process while at the same time Dr. Nancy advice the doctoral learners the importance of the dissertation process and the different phases we need to go through (Mount Everest). * Scholarly Writing * Regarding scholarly writing is a very responsible theme. When it comes to the purpose, and responsibility is attached to this type of writing is a colossal task. Writers need to support their positions, statements, and arguments with appropriate citations. According to Glatthorn and Joyner (2005), one mark of scholarly writing is that assertions are documented and supported; that is, the writer provides evidence for his or her statements or claims that may be "reasonably challenged" (p. 145). In most cases, it is best to use only the most current references (less than 10 years old) and landmark "older" articles and writings (e.g., a theorist's seminal publication). McGowan and Scholl (2004) suggested that most cited references be published within the prior 5 years. Additionally, writers should reference rigorous academic journals (peer-reviewed) and avoid heavy reliance on the popular press and textbooks. Furthermore, writers should avoid secondary sources of information and use the original work whenever possible. Writers should use direct quotations sparingly.
Many new writers incorrectly cite their references. When citing another author's(s') work, use only his or her (their) last name(s). It is not necessary to refer to the title of the publication, except in the reference section of the paper. Also, writers need to cite only sources they have personally reviewed If the writer refers to information cited in a secondary source, he or she should note the original work and identify that he or she reviewed the information in a secondary source (Szuchman, 2008). An example of this citation would be "Rogers, as cited in Corey (2004)." However, as noted earlier, citing secondary sources should be limited. Additionally, all cited works need to be appropriately referenced A common problem found in manuscripts and student papers is inconsistencies between the works cited in the text of the paper and those listed in the reference section. Therefore, it is important for writers to review and confirm the congruence between their citations and references. Traditional scholarly writing usually adheres to a standard organizational configuration, although the components of a research report may vary depending on the journal. The typical model found in counseling journals includes (a) a title page, (b) an abstract page, (c) an introduction (rationale and a review of the literature), (d) a Method (research) section (Participants [Sample], Measures [Instrumentation or Variables], Procedure, and Design [Research Design and Data Analysis]), (e) a Results (Findings) section, (f) a Discussion (Conclusion, Limitations, and Implications) section, and (g) References.
Reflective Journaling Constructing journal provide students with indications or steered questions to help them focus their journal reactions. Open-ended journaling can be useful to encourage creativity and brainstorming, but if you are looking for evidence of particular outcomes, be specific about what and how much you want students to share. Journaling provides evidence of specific perceptual changes, help students focus on those aspects of their activity. For example, to capture changes in students' perceptions about the value of working collaboratively with others, Often you ask yourself, describe your contributions to a collaborative effort this week. What did you achieve? What did others achieve? What would you have done differently if you had been working alone? What do you think you would have achieved working alone?" In response to this set of questions, one student wrote: The development team has been an incredibly useful resource this week. One member had a good solution for the initialization part of the program. One member found the H-P list class library. One member found information on protecting the data in the classes. Journaling is "a method of promoting exploration and facilitating reflection on learning and new experiences within the context in which the learning unfolds" (Gillis, 2001, p. 49). Because journal writing focuses students' attention on personal development of cognitive and metacognitive skills, students' ability to analyze their own learning and put learning into practice is facilitated (Schon, 1983, 1987). Journal writing is both a product and a process that helps us "capture an experience, record an event, explore our feelings, or make sense of what we know" (Boud, 2001, p. 9). Using guided reflective journal writing to capture students' experiences, perspectives and stories - their perceptions and perceptual changes - as they participate in various learning experiences provides educators with a unique technology for assessing cognitive and perceptual changes that are hard to measure with conventional evaluation methods (e.g., exams, essays, PowerPoint presentations). Additionally, journal-writing activities recognize that "humans are storytelling organisms who, individually and collectively, lead storied lives" (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990, p. 2). The use of journaling as an instructional technology gives students a voice by allowing them to describe - in their own words - the cognitive and perceptual changes they experience and the accomplishments they achieve during their learning experiences.
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