Annabelle Nelson
Faculty Assessment Guidelines
Areas of
Assessment:
KA2-Human Development, KA5-Theories of Personality and KA-8 Human
Learning & Motivation. Please see my own bibliographies, charts and
comments for KA2 and KA8 on FELIX Knowledge Area Study Guides. For KA5,
I am primarily interested in a neo Jungian approach from people like
Edinger (Ego and Archetype), Woodman (Dancing in the Flames) and von
Franz (An Interpretation of Fairy Tales).
I am often overbooked with assessments, so it works best if you contact me 6 months before you would like to begin your assessment.
Areas of specialty: learning theory, anti racism, consciousness studies, multicultural education, health prevention, storytelling, relationship of emotional to spiritual development, spiritual development, imagery, non-profit organizational development, grant writing.
Contact
Information
Contact information for all faculty is on the
directory page for the School of Human
and Organization Development.
I am readily available on e-mail. I usually check daily. However, at
times, I travel, and there may be at most a week in responding to
student messages. I usually take three to four weeks to write
evaluations on work. Phone contact is fine, and I strongly prefer being
called during working hours, please see the FELIX directory for my
current home office phone number. Don't hesitate to call or e mail with
questions. I am glad for you to call me at anytime during work hours to
discuss your issues. I f I am not there please leave a time, day and
phone call when I can call you back. Late morning is usually a good time
to catch me.
How I Enjoy
Working with Fielding Colleagues:
I believe that learning is dynamic and self generating, so I am very
open to discussing your learning interests, looking at drafts of
contracts, and looking at drafts of papers. I prefer receiving all
pieces of assessment. Please do not send me attachments. Please cut n
paste your contract into a body of an email, do not send the contract by
mail. Also please send your written work by post or FedEx. Consult the
FELIX directory for my current address. Only send me e mail attachments
if we have agreed on before, i.e. a REC proposal, or a rewrite of a
dissertation chapter.
Please buy an APA manual early in your career at Fielding, and consult it for completing your references. You might as well begin using correct APA style with your early papers so that your dissertation will easily conform to that style.
Please when you write your papers, take notes on each reading, with the complete reference on the top of notes. Then go back and highlight important points, and create a mind map of connecting themes across your notes. (See Tony Buzan, Use Both Sides of Your Brain). Then create an outline for your paper and write from the outline. Please do not write a "book report" where you are telling me what the author said. Organize your paper by theme or topic with more than one reference per paragraph.
What I Like to
See in Assessment:
1. References: I am very big on reading original seminal/ovarian
works in the field, and also on doing data base searches so that the
references are a mix of original writings and current articles in the
field. Fielding Library Services has excellent search resources.
Therefore when colleagues create their assessment contracts, I recommend
including some original references, as well as a few current journal
articles. Then of course, as the assessment is completed, the references
will grow, so I am just looking for a few books and articles in each of
the overview and depth area to let me know what direction you are
taking. I am glad to give suggestions on reading, but expect library
research as well.
2. Deliverables: For your assessment contract I like it when you are explicit as to what you will be turning in to demonstrate your learning for each of the three areas. It is also helpful to me to have an approximate date of when you plan to turn in each item.
3. Specificity of Contract: I do not require a lot of writing on the contract. A few sentences about what you will be studying in each of the three area with specific questions your want to answer, a few specific references with journal articles, and the specific deliverable with an approximate date of submission is all I need. The only other information I need is whether or not you want a grade, and the name of your mentor.
4. Modes of Expressing Learning: Since my specialty is learning theory, I am very interested in encouraging you to document and express your learning in a variety of modes. I am particularly interested in having you express your learning in nonverbal and metaphoric modes, since 90% of your brain activity is nonverbal. Therefore I will accept mind maps, collages, timelines, drawings, poems and other representations. Of course in a doctoral program synthesis and analytical expression are extremely important, so one piece of documentation should be writing, but a free write can be used as well as a paper.
This is my usual recommendation for assessment deliverables:
Overview: Detailed mindmap, based on at least three foundational theorists. See my bibs on FELIX Study Guides for each KA for books by these theorists.
Depth: Scholarly paper on a specific topics with book and journal references, as well as showing synthesis and evaluation.
Applied: Non verbal of your own development, learning theory or personality.
5. Group Assessments: My mode for doing this is to set up a Fielding Discussion Forum for the assessment. We need to begin planning at least two months before the assessment. Students choose three theorists each and bring their mind maps to the session, as well as their collages of their applieds. They can also bring their papers if they want to complete the assessment before the weekend.
6. Dissertation Concept Papers: These are the sections I like to see in the dissertation concept. It can be 2-3 pages long:
Introduction: Why are you motivated to do this study?
Theorists or research that inform your work: Specific bullets of the theorists or research that inform your work.
Research Question: Please be as specific as possible
Name of Methodology
Number of participants, criteria for selecting participants, setting for research