Exploring the Future of Listening
8.0 Introduction to Future Research on Listening to the SONG of Life
Research, Experience, and Creativity
In this section, I briefly introduce exploring the future of listening to the SONG of life as scholarly research, experiential learning activities, and stimulating creativity. Note that the book’s print edition does not include most of these ideas for exploring future research, especially the experiential learning activities, due to the page constraints of on-demand printing.[1]Interested readers can view an online version of the complete book on the Pressbook’s website at, http://pressbooks.pub/songoflife, or download the complete version of the digital book (PDF or EPUB) from Old Dominion University’s Digital Commons, http://digitalcommons.odu.edu/communication_books/31/.
First, I describe different types of academic research and scholarship that can be utilized to explore listening to the SONG of life. I conceptualize social scientific research as deriving and testing hypotheses from theory. Social science uses standardized methods.[2] to collect and statistically analyze empirical data to create generalized knowledge. Research also includes other ways of knowing. Some of these other ways of knowing use interpretive-critical methods like case studies, rhetorical analysis of texts, and autoethnography. In addition, other kinds of scholarship may not be classified as “scientific research” but have their own scholarly standards and academic rigor. Among these forms of scholarship are traditional and modern forms of art.[3]
Second, the future of exploring listening to the SONG of life embraces experiential learning activities. These experiential activities are not generally appropriate for the research purposes of experimental manipulation, control, and generalizability of knowledge.[4] Students tend to behave differently when they know they are being evaluated in a research context. This sense of being evaluated focuses student attention on earning a good grade by “correctly” completing the research activity for some reward like extra credit rather than focusing on the quality of their subjective learning experience.[5]
The critical point of an experiential learning activity is the “research” conducted on oneself, not on how closely the personal experience conforms to published research knowledge.[6] Teaching students to conduct an experimental case study on themselves as a sample size of “1” is a vital skill that can be utilized throughout the lifespan. I believe part of our evolving purpose in life is to create and conduct as many of these learning experiments as possible.
Experiential learning activities are more important to me than generating knowledge of social scientific research. In my experience of teaching at the collegiate level for over thirty years, experiential learning activities engage, motivate, and connect the student with ideas that are often more transferable and memorable than memorizing the results of a research study for a test. In short, my preferred way to internally motivate students to listen to the SONG of life is to invite them into experiential learning activities.[7]
Third, I explore some ideas about the future of listening to the SONG of life without knowing how the ideas connect with a research method or an experiential activity. World-renowned consultant and President of Creative Think, Roger Von Oech considers idea generation part of the creative process.[8] Exploring ideas about listening to the SONG of Life is creative and heuristic. I hope to stimulate new thinking about listening to the SONG of life in ways that generate ideas leading to creative research and meaningful experiential learning activities.
For each of the three areas, research, experiential activities, and creative idea generation, I explore several possibilities for teachers, students, and others interested in listening. I hope the reader will discover something to explore that speaks to their unique life circumstances. Not all of the ideas will appeal to everyone. Still, hopefully, everyone will find something to resonate with, something intriguing to explore, test, sample, engage with, improve on, and ultimately make their life more wonderful. May these ideas for future explorations in listening to the SONG of life bring you into a place of enrichment, satisfaction, happiness, and fulfillment.
- The specific sections missing in the on-demand print version of the book are 8.1 Academic Research and Scholarship, 8.2 Autoethnographic Research, 8.3 Experiential Activities, 8.4 Experiential Learning Activities for Listening to Self, 8.5 Experiential Learning Activities for Listening to Others, 8.6 Experiential Learning Activities for Listening to Nature, and 8.7 Experiential Learning Activities for Listening to the Divine. ↵
- Standardized methods of social science include drawing samples from populations, experimental design, valid and reliable measurement, ecologically valid operationalization of variables, and so forth. For standard methods of quantitative social science research in the discipline of Communication, refer to Jason S. Wrench, Candice Thomas-Maddox, Virginia P. Richmond, and James C. McCroskey, J., Quantitative Research Methods for Communication (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008). ↵
- Traditional and modern art forms include (for example) drawing, painting, pottery, sculpture, photography, graphic design, script writing, comics, novels, poetry, music and video production, dance, and theatre. ↵
- There are exceptions to this guideline, such as testing the efficacy of different versions of an activity to determine which version is best suited to a given population of students. ↵
- Research conducted on students in the classroom creates an external motivation that is antithetical to the kind of internal motivation I'm attempting to facilitate in the listening course. For a discussion of the impact of internal and external motivation on student learning, see Alfie Kohn, Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes (Boston: Mariner Books, 1999). ↵
- Knowledge claims based on statistical analysis in research are probabilistic in nature. The probabilistic knowledge claims may or may not apply to a given individual in a particular life circumstance. ↵
- These experiential learning activities ideally should not be required or forced upon students. The teacher (workshop leader, manager, parent…) needs to invite, cajole, or persuade the individual to explore the learning activity. In the rare cases of students who would rather not participate in a given experiential activity, I propose (or let them create) an alternative activity. ↵
- Roger Von Oech, A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can be More Creative (New York: Warner Books, 1990). "Whacky ideas" can be stepping stones that can lead to other more practical ideas in the creative process. ↵