As someone who has been involved in museum education, I firmly believe that there is great benefit to learning-by-doing, that some of your greatest insights will come when you are elbow-deep in a concept or project. And that is precisely what I learned from my peer-reviewing of David’s paper–through evaluating his project, I was better able to understand how to improve my own project.
I frequently find it difficult to impose distance between myself and my project, which can be problematic. As I went through David’s proposal and critically asked it the questions we developed in class, I found myself thinking back to my own project and how I could objectively ask those same questions of it. By reading his paper in a detached yet interested way, I found that I could offer better commentary on its successes and weaknesses which I hope will be of value as he moves forward with his project. Taken in conjunction with the feedback provided by Drs. Jones and Kiechle, I feel that this exercise helped to teach me how to evaluate my own work more critically. I know what I hoped to see in reading a proposal, especially within the framework of the questions we developed, and think I can now go back to my own proposal and do the same with a clearer mind and stronger idea of what to loko for.
Sara,
I agree that learning-by-doing is a fantastic concept. It is also always really helpful to be able to look at your own work more critically. I, too, struggle with detaching myself from my writing, however, the research project writing and editing process has finally allowed me to do just that. I think it is important to remember the mantra that Monique taught us, no matter how silly we may think it sounds at times: “I am not the writing.” When you really think about it, these are pretty powerful words and can do wonders for your mental health!