Buried under research articles, it can sometimes feel like it is pointless to try and sort everything out. One researcher says one thing, and another says the complete opposite. It can positively leave the researcher light-headed trying to evaluate, judge, and analyze everything. If nobody agrees, can anything truly be right? Or is everyone wrong?
In truth, nobody has it completely right, but there’s an element of truth to much research.
Life isn’t black and white. The right answer for one group of people won’t necessarily work for another. People are ever-changing, constantly-evolving creatures. We change when the world around us changes, which it does daily. Every time we take in new information, we evaluate it, sort it, and store or apply it. It changes us, and the system around us. In Human Systems Dynamics, this idea of the constantly changing system is complex adaptive systems (Eoyang 1999). Human beings are complex adaptive systems on many levels.
And because we are complex, ever-changing, continually adapting, there cannot be a single solution. Yet, every time we research a strand, we come closer to understanding the whole. We start to recognize patterns. We begin to put the system together as a whole.
In a recent lecture at University of North Texas, Dr. Kathleen Mohr pointed out that reading research is like a football game. We can all go to the same football game and see different things. For example, some people go to see the quarterback, and they focus on how well he throws. That is the most important thing in the game to them. Perhaps a scout may be there to watch the defense, because he needs to fill a few positions on his college team. A mother might go to the game to see her son play the trumpet in the band. Another parent may attend to support their cheerleader daughter. Others may say they don’t pay much attention to the game itself, they are there for the social aspect. All these people are at the same football game, but they come up with different experiences. Although the spectator’s focus varies, they don’t discount the importance of all the other things happening. It just wouldn’t be a game without all those elements working together. But, someone needs to focus on the individual part to make the experience as a whole enjoyable. So it is with reading research.
My interest is primarily in adolescent motivation. I suspect, based on experience and reading, that motivation is greatly impacted by student choice. I believe in the necessity of giving students pieces of reading that apply toward real-life. My research will center on some combination of current events, gaming, technology, popular culture, and reading motivation. But, I don’t discount the work of others who are looking into code-based systems. Nor do I ignore the work of those people investigating ethnicity and its impact on reading instruction. Reading comprehension work is not my primary interest, but it is just as important. All these pieces work together to create an individual’s reading experience.
Eoyang, G., & Berkus, T. (1999). Evaluating performance in a CAS. Evaluating performance in a complex adaptive system in managing complexity in organizations. Westport, CT: Quorum Books. Obtained online 24 Oct 2011 at http://www.hsdinstitute.org/learn-more/library/articles/Evaluating-Performance-in-a-CAS.pdf.
