The Networked Professional
Professional Network as suggested in reader 3 ‘A work related community held together by either close affiliation or more distant but common work interests or need.’ (Reader 3 complied by Alan Durrant)
The above statement has inspired me to join or create national network of Teacher Assistants so I can find Teacher Assistants that have common work interests; because although Teacher Assistants do a similar job, they have different career prospects, interests and hobbies, because of culture, age and family commitments. They also provide a solid foundation to any school because they often stay at a school longer than a Teacher, furthermore in my experience of working at difference schools I have come across many talented and creative Teacher Assistants. A network of creativity, I would like to extend and build on.
As argued in reader 3 ‘Your Professional Network is a highly important part of your current and future professional life. Your effective engagement of your Professional Network may well impact on your success, promotion and development, your sense of worth and fulfilment, and enjoyment in your working life.’ (Reader 3 complied by Alan Durrant)
As I read the above statement, the term ‘your sense of worth’ jumped out at me, because this is something I have felt before, especially when I first did the voluntary work, from the teacher I was working with and the children. But then it was new and I didn’t have the financial pressure I had year or so ago. As my confidence grew so did my desire to peruse a career and return to work. The first few years of working as Teacher Assistant, the fulfilment was there because I was learning, I was running my clubs, I always got a sense of worth and fulfilment from making a difference when it came to the children, plus I was aiming and looking for different ways to top up my HND. But then my son became more independent and went off to University which was brilliant, but at the same time I lost all my Tax Credits, which was quite a large drop in money. Suddenly I needed to increase my hours because I didn’t really have enough money to live on. At times I felt worse off for working, so my ‘sense of worth’ started to drop, although my fulfilment for making a difference when it came to the children didn’t. However the ‘sense of worth’ and my own ‘wellbeing’ did start to impact on my professional practice and the old saying ‘pride goes before the fall’ also played its part; however increasing my professional Network by joining an agency, having an informal professional network outside work helped, along with friends and family. I also believe having an informal professional network inside a larger Professional Practice, when having problems outside or inside the Professional Practice could improve the ‘sense of worth’ and ‘wellbeing’ and stop it having an impact on the professional practice.
Concepts of the Professional Network
Cooperation
This part of reader 3 did intrigue me, being a bit of a game enthusiast and enjoy playing chess. I play in online tournaments, 1 min, 2 min, blitz, Rapidplays and long play tournaments. Although I am not too bad at games under 10 minutes I am better at 30 minutes and the long plays. I have also entered a Rapid play chess tournament, when my son was competing in different county and national tournaments. I have also run a chess club for 4 years, run a school tournament; children have also competed at county and national level. I was even more interested when cooperation was compared to a chess computer tournament. Because I very much wanted to add an applied element the next time I run a chess club, I already have consider combining the Thinking Hats we use at work but I could play with the theory of Cooperation too.
Furthermore I would have liked to have discussed Cooperation and the game theory with my son, but I cannot because he is at University in Blackpool. Because he has also played Empires of the Modern World since he was young and has many times been in the Number 1 place when globally playing, he often says selling off our industries years ago was not in the countries best interest in the long term, which makes me think of how Stainless Steel has developed over the years. We also have different chess theories, I like to think mid, long term and take advantage of short term gains. However he says a grand-master often only thinks of one move and that move is the right move, which made me think of the TIT for TAT strategy. I also value my son’s opinion a lot. You could also copy your opponent’s moves until you notice they make a mistake and then compete to take advantage.
I played the Prisoner Dilemma, and based on that TIT for TAT game, I would say it would depend on the amount you would like to win and how much ‘success, promotion and development, sense of worth and fulfilment, and enjoyment in your working life’ (Reader 3 complied by Alan Durrant) you would like. Because if you ‘compete’ first and your opponent ‘cooperate’, you are guaranteed to win if you continue to compete, however you wouldn’t win much and the fulfilment isn’t there. A bit like a war, one side might win but both lose a lot. If you ‘cooperate’ and your opponent just ‘compete’ your sense of worth drops first but so then does your opponents. If you both just compete you end in a draw with not much worth. However if you both ‘cooperate’ over a long period of time and then you compete at the last minute, you would win. (Provided your opponent hasn’t compete)Your opponent would also be happy because there sense off worth would have grown too even though it would be lower than yours. However the theory at the end does not apply to a game of Poker. Because if I had a strong hand and I wanted to win more money and I applied the TIT for TAT theory, I would probably end up with more money than if I was to compete first, but my opponent would end up losing more money.
When it comes to the environment in which I work, the professional practice and professional network, winning is more than about money, although in the world we live in it can improve quality of life and wellbeing. For me it is about the whole package ‘the success, an element of promotion and development, sense of worth and fulfillment and enjoyment in my working life’ my son would probably want that too, but a faster career ladder because he is younger. I would opt for the TIC for TAC and wouldn’t mind even if I came second, if we were both cooperating for a long period of time because the ‘whole package would have grown’ and winning can also mean about learning when to allow someone to win in order to achieve, when to leave and somewhat be selfish, knowing not to be greedy and understanding the environment in which we live and work.
If I consider how people, markets, countries and even organisms respond to an event a ‘threat’ often things would aim to defend or take cover, but that would also depend on the emotion involved. TIT for TAT with cooperation would probably ease the treat because it has softer feel, although the outcome could be different depending on the type of ‘threat’ and game. A hijack browser can be more costly than virus that shuts down your computer. Yet a hijack browser is a softer threat, because it can be hidden. The poker game also takes into account luck, instinct, maths and the TIT for TAT can become like a hijack browser, so an element of caution may also be needed when it comes to the TIT for TAT cooperation game.
Affiliation
This has made me want to ask myself the following questions.
Has my need to affiliation changed throughout my life and why? What relation
does this have on my Professional Network? What is affiliation of others around
me? Does it change? What would make it change?
I think I would also like to question the theory of O’Connor
& Rosenblood, 1996 – the social affiliation model; we operate according to
the principles of homeostasis. Because I think the demonstration ‘students
carry pagers for four days, then write down their current and desired level of
contact’ as written in the extract from Crisp, J & Turner in the Reader 3 is
limited. The demonstration would need to more wide spread with different age
groups and environment to support their theory. Furthermore a lack of money or trauma
may also have an impact and have some control on the affiliation. Having said that I do think their demonstration
is a good idea and probably worth experimenting with, although I do not have a
pager I could just log every hour. Experimenting
with the demonstration would give me an idea of the affiliations surrounding
me, as well as understanding my own affiliation needs, which could strengthen my
professional network. It could also help when it comes to behaviour needs.
The insights of Affiliation will help improve my
Professional Network because it would help improve communication and working
relationships.
Social Constructionism
I do understand where the constructionist view point is coming
from in terms of an object has no meaning until it has been experience. This often
applies to a blind child or English as an Additional Language child.
What is the name and colour of this shape to a English as
an additional language child?
What does the colour black mean to a child who cannot
see?
Does it have meaning?
What does the word ‘see’ mean to a blind child?
This could also apply to a child with Autism who hears a
noise and the teacher couldn't hear it. There are probably
many reasons for this, but I am only going to talk about one. Sometimes an Autism
child has over-sensitive hearing. The
child hears a noise for the first time like a toddler, but unlike the toddler who
may get the noise explained to him, because the teacher has experienced the
noise before and can hear it. The Autism child may not get the noise explained because
the teacher cannot hear it and hasn’t experience it; the noise maybe put down
to imagination or being over-sensitive. The toddler learns to deal with the
noise because he has meaning whereas the child with Autism may become scared
and withdraw or is trying to find meaning.
Being over-sensitive has it strengths and downfalls, but may never be
taught how to manage it, because the teacher hasn’t experience it and only has
theory without the experience.
I also believe meaning is given to an object as it
is explored and discovered, furthermore an object could be created that does
not exist through creativity and experimenting. I can imagine, project myself forward and visualise,
like many other people. As a result I am seeing something that does not exist,
but could be created. Is the projection the experience or after the object has been created?
On reflection of the Autism child above, Teachers could find
ways to experience the meaning, so they are not relying on theory without the
experience. What is the
experience needed? How could it be communicated? Is this also a form of tacit knowledge? If yes, could the tacit knowledge be visually explained?
Collectivism
Behaviourist, cognitivist, and constructionist are learning theories
and processes. How does this relate to rapid changing knowledge that changes the
foundation of decisions? How can I simplify and link this to make it useful
with in my professional network and practice.
Mental arithmetic and
the Calculator
Mental arithmetic is a learning process and a calculator
allows us to solve complex mental arithmetic problems quicker and can be more
accurate. If the energy was low in
either the mathematician or calculator it could cause fatigue or malfunction. When
working, the calculator can save mental energy from the individual, allowing
for the individual to focus on the bigger picture, question or problem.
E.G What is 12 x 3?
Child A, knows his table so says 36 = 1 stage = uses less
brain energy
Child B Can only work it out by adding up in 3s, 3 +3 + 3+3+3+3+3
+3 + 3+3+3+3 = 36 = 12 stages = uses more brain energy.
Calculator – has to press buttons = 4 buttons pressed, so slightly slower doing
this sum than Child A, but would be quicker doing a complex sum. The Calculator would also
reserve brain energy, so would allow for more complex problems. The calculator
would act like RAM in a computer.
First Aider
What rapid information would change the decision I had made?
The Chess tournament,
both players have 20 minutes on the clock each.
(Developing verbal reasoning skills) (Reflect on the
grand master)
How does reserving and reversing the brain energy affect the
game?
How many stages does the chess player think? When does five
stages become one? Why does the chess player who excels at playing and is clearly
good at maths, underachieve at school?
My recent trip Cadbury
World
What information did I symbolically remember and why? (reference
to reader 3)
The pattern of growth
and development
Adding soon
Mind map/network
linking the three learning theories with Collectivism making it useful for my
professional practice
Adding soon
Communities of Practice
Adding soon
I will be coming back to the above, after or during my
critical reflection essay.
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