Doctoral Residency Experience

As I entered my first year residency as a doctoral student, I was apprehensive about what knowledge could be gained within the five-day period because of what appeared to be a very busy learning schedule. However, I realize I was wrong and how fortunate I am to be part of various scenarios, different lessons, and the opportunity to hear fellow doctoral students and the professor describe their situatedness. Listening to my cohorts describe his or her situatedness I now understand that I was experiencing situational learning firsthand, and I am very appreciative of the learning experience. I am the type of person who does not learn by one specific learning style, rather I learn by a combination of the learning styles auditory, visual, kinesthetic, and tactile. Experiencing these learned lessons and hearing my cohorts voice their opinions, share their expertise, and describe their backgrounds, beliefs, and values is a moving experience and has convinced me to pursue more in-depth critical thinking, deconstruction theory, and situated learning theory.
Critical Thinking

How to think critically was an important lesson learned within my residency. As a doctoral student and future doctor, I have to expand my mind to react critically to life's situations. Naturally, people encompass selective attention that their mind hones in on one task at a time. By honing in on one task at a time, the brain sees objects of important current value and discounts things of not of important value. In residency, my cohorts and I performed a flow activity involving seven pieces of paper and six students. Two groups of three students were placed on the end three pieces of paper with the middle piece of paper remaining unoccupied. Each group was facing the other group and told to move the groups to the other end by following the rules. The first attempt was a failure because the learners did not attempt to or apply critical thinking to the situation however, once my partners and I used critical thinking we could triumph over the challenge. This activity opened my eyes regarding how much I was not using critical thinking in my day-to-day activities. Generally, in my day-to-day activities I just react to the situation the best way I know how to, but now I realize my experiences are influencing my decisions more than they should be. Progression through the doctoral program will allow me the opportunity to hone and use my critical thinking skills to interact with my instincts, and therefore allow me to have better judgment in situations. Personally I plan to use critical thinking to help me understand scenarios better by recognizing different details, and by using it to manipulate or persuade others into thinking a certain way. By using manipulation and persuasion, I can manage other’s thoughts in hopes of guiding him or her into seeing the point I am trying to make. As a critical thinker, I will be mindful and teach myself not to focus on one specific thing but to take notice of numerous things.

Deconstruction Theory

Deconstruction theory by Jacques Derrida is one the main theories that intrigued my curiosity during residency because of the belief that all writings have more than just an explicit meaning. Deconstruction theory reasons that the mind can see only one thing by ignoring another thing and that it is relatively easy for a person to focus back and forth between two things, but the mind is not able to focus on both at the same time. My first thoughts are to disagree that all texts are ambiguous because as a writer, I want to believe other writers and myself express our feelings in-depth through our writings. However, once I performed the activity of deconstructing a text my understanding and opinion regarding the theory quickly changed. I am now able to read writings and pick out not only the explicit meaning but also the inexplicit meaning as well and I am inclined to agree with Derrida’s deconstruction theory. Understanding deconstruction theory will be a valuable tool as I work to obtain my doctorate because acceptance that texts have an underlying message will force me to use critical thinking skills as I form my opinions.

Situated Learning

Situated learning is one of many concepts that I learned and can relate to in residency. I can relate because I agree with the concept of learning by actions of people and things within your communities. When situated learning is compared to traditional learning situated learning is participate, situation sensitive, and involves collaboration with peers. Personally, I enjoy participating, learning from situations, and collaborating with my peers frequently because in the past I could experience situated learning and acquire in-depth knowledge about certain topics. A recent example of experiencing situated learning came from an activity in residency where my cohorts and I formed small groups and discussed our perceptual disposition, predilection, and distortions. By listening to their personal situatedness I gained knowledge of their backgrounds and experiences, and applied what I had learned from these individuals toward class discussions and theories.

Conclusion

Upon completion of my residency, my perspective entirely changed from the first day. On the first day I believed only a little knowledge was to be gained and the entire process was going to be tedious. However, I quickly realized I was learning many theories from a phenomenal instructor, participating in learning-based activities, and experiencing other people’s points of views. With all of the knowledge gained three learning concepts resonated with me. These concepts are critical thinking, deconstructive theory, and situated learning. Critical thinking is a phenomenal tool to develop because it allows me to understand situations better and make better judgments. Understanding deconstructive theory is crucial for formulating my opinions and judgments because the more understanding of texts I can have the better. Experiencing and accepting situated learning is beneficial because there are more ways to learning than just from school, work, or reading and knowledge gained from my own situations and other’s perspectives is just as good. As I progress through the doctoral program, I plan to use all lessons learned from residency in hopes of gaining as much knowledge and experience as I can.


What else is there to say but goodnight and goodnight to you Mrs. Amore, wherever you may be.