Seeing Through New Eyes

My advisor thinks I'll be ready to do my comprehensive exams sometime next semester. Sounds absolutely terrifying to me. But I am starting to think about narrowing down my topic for my dissertation, which will inform me better for my comps articles. Big sigh. This is going to be hard. Anyway, there are just too many things to do, and I am having a hard time choosing. But a quite prominent professor here on USU's campus told me that the best dissertation is a finished one. And he is right. I am not going to change the world with my dissertation. So I'm thinking there are several problem-based learning areas I could focus on, online educational resources quality, or institutional repositories. Ah! Way too broad.

For the last while I've been focusing on problem-based learning and the role the tutor plays in student learning. As I finish up with an article examining the research in this area, I have to wonder what other scholars who have worked so many years in this discipline will think. The philosophy in problem-based learning makes sense to me. A teacher should be there to guide and assist a student. That tutor can have content expertise but should be considered as a facilitator of learning and not just giver knowledge. I am especially excited about doing more research in this area and getting the word out on what I find so that I can somehow make a difference for learning.