A Comprehensive Post

This morning I turned in my "Comprehensive Exam" for my PhD, 42 minutes before it was due.  For anyone who doesn't know but for some bizarre reason cares, the comprehensive exam is like the last "big hurdle" before embarking on one's dissertation proposal.  In fact, it kind of lays the groundwork for the proposal, although in my case it remains to be seen how well that will work... my comprehensive exam questions were so astoundingly broad that a person could write 20 different dissertations based on it.  But hey, that's better than ZERO.  Anyway, as far as I recall, I wrote about existing research, AND put forth my own ideas, on all of the following (showing just how broad the questions were):

• Quantity
• Quantification
• Variable
• Covariation
• Functions
• Function Composition
• Related Rates Problems
• Model-Eliciting Activities
• The "Models and Modeling Perspective"
• Reflection Tools
• Affect
• Motivation
• "Flow" (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990)
• Problem-Solving
• Reflection (in the cognitive sense, not the mirror sense)
• Teaching Experiments
• Data Collection
• Open Coding
• Conceptual Analysis

I wrote 62 single-spaced pages, and given the time, I could have written ten times that much and felt like I still only scratched the surface.  It was a good experience for me, although I look forward to getting my hands on those people who described their comprehensive exams as "fun", or "a transformative experience".  Those people need to be beaten severely.  I hated every minute of it, except the part at 7:18AM when I emailed my responses to my committee and knew it was done.  THAT moment was indeed both fun and transformative!

I did learn some important things.  Most important was the need for a reviewer, at the very least a trusted friend who can serve as a "sounding board".  Even with 20 days to do my comprehensive exam, I felt that what I wrote was disconnected, flowed badly, had gaps, and BADLY needed a reviewer's eye.  That was against the rules, though... but maybe that was good, since it taught me (or reinforced the idea) never to publish anything without running it by a few trustworthy radical constructivists first.  Sadly, from what I can tell, there are less than a dozen such people in existence.  People who really "get" what radical constructivism (in my opinion) is all about.  Maybe I can help keep the flame burning for another generation.  Me and K-Mo.

The other important thing I learned from my comp exam was how to pronounce "Csikszentmihalyi".