In the clear: Fuzzy concepts

more precise than they appear

Katherine Watson, Coastline Distance Learning, CA, Usa 1

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Clear measuring…how it’s done/what it means

…in the hard &/or soft sciences …via fuzzy thought and action …using alternative perspectives

from diverse disciplinesfrom diverse places

Katherine Watson, Coastline Distance Learning, CA, Usa

Katherine Watson, Coastline Distance Learning, CA, Usa 3

Inexactitude (fuzz) & the exact (clarity) Hard & soft sciences’ worldviews

Hard Acontextual, deductive, empirical, objective, quantitative, and values-free

Soft Contextual, inductive, subjective, qualitative, and values-influenced

Katherine Watson, Coastline Distance Learning, CA, Usa 4

“Fuzz”Fuzziness

Fuzzy science chez Zadeh and “classically” in common parlance

Fuzzy concepts chez journalists, nurses, & others in common parlance

Katherine Watson, Coastline Distance Learning, CA, Usa 5

Coming clear: From fuzz to precision

Four fuzzy terms Commitment EngagementMotivationSuccess

Katherine Watson, Coastline Distance Learning, CA, Usa 6

Fuzz: Background

Perspectives on the four fuzzy terms Discipline-based or –biasedGeographically-based or –biased

Katherine Watson, Coastline Distance Learning, CA, Usa 7

Measuring for clarity… Commitment

What? Responsibility, persistence, diligence, or…

How instilled or attained? By professors, coursework, or…

How to evaluate, assess, measure? By drop-out rates, or…

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Measuring…Engagement

What? Involvement, interest, participation…

How instilled or attained? Externally, or…

How to evaluate, assess, measure? Questionnaires…

Katherine Watson, Coastline Distance Learning, CA, Usa

Katherine Watson, Coastline Distance Learning, CA, Usa 9

Measuring… Motivation

What? Intrinsically… extrinsically

How is it to be instilled or attained?

How to evaluate, assess, measure?

Katherine Watson, Coastline Distance Learning, CA, Usa 10

Measuring…Success

What is it?

How is it instilled or attained?

How is it evaluated, assessed, measured?

Katherine Watson, Coastline Distance Learning, CA, Usa 11

Clarifying 4 fuzzes: A precision decision….via paradigm shift from “instructional” to “learning”:

from the traditional “instructional” - discipline expert sages onstage, “vertical” knowledge to the non-traditional “learning” - transdisciplinary guides alongside, “horizontal” thought

….from fuzzy thought to analyzed action

Katherine Watson, Coastline Distance Learning, CA, Usa 12

Clarifying: Let’s do it

The Learning Paradigm as a fuzz-clipper applied to…

commitmentengagement motivationsuccess

Katherine Watson, Coastline Distance Learning, CA, Usa 13

Precision ad absurdum: Excessive exactitude? “Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. . . .

You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of service to them . . .

Stick to Facts, sir!”

THOMAS GRADGRIND, A SUCCESSFUL HARDWARE MERCHANT, LECTURING THE LOCAL SCHOOLMASTER,  in C. Dickens’s BLEAK HOUSE (1854)

Katherine Watson, Coastline Distance Learning, CA, Usa 14

Render it clear…how?

INVITE knowledge from society, communities, the worldSHARE findings across disciplines everywhere INTEGRATE results for objectivity