Logistics – In Class Tasks for NEW people Sign up at front of room Get with your team Fill in your part of the Team Contact information Tasks for EVERYONE Sign your TEAM attendance sheet (1 st half, 2 nd half)

COMM 250 Agenda - Week 2 Housekeeping / Logistics Form the Remaining Teams ?? Syllabus Questions ?? Folders: Attendance Sheets Team Pictures – We Start Tonight In-Class “Practice RAT” Implicit and Explicit Course Agreements Setting Grade Weights I – Team Negotiations Lecture Concepts, Theories, & Paradigms Team Exercise 2

Logistics – In Class Assignments Due Next Week: RAT1 Next Week (begins at 4:30) TP1 Practice RAT test on Web CT (Required) I Will WebCT Details to the Listservs Thursday by 12 midnight Tasks for each TEAM: Team’s First Cut at 2 Grade Weights Decisions Set Meeting for TP1, TP2

Housekeeping – After Class Tasks for EVERYONE: Sign up for your TA’s LISTSERV “comm250a” = # 1-12 = Green = Judy Knight “comm250b” = # = Red = David Mercer “comm250c” = # = Yellow = Joseph Wen Tasks for each TEAM: Only if you did NOT get and fill out the TA’s MS Word document last week: your TA and request the MS Word document Return that doc with “Team Contact Information” to your TA by Saturday

How Do We “KNOW” Things? Experiential Reality  Firsts Hand Experience  Done There; Been That !  Agreement Reality  Second Hand Knowledge  Tradition and/or Authority  Both Can Assist or Hinder Inquiry  Science: A Special Standard for “Agreement Reality”

The Research Process Conceptualization Planning & Designing Research Methods for Conducting Research Analyzing & Interpreting Data Re-Conceptualization

Types of Research Research based in Positivism Objective World Quantitative Methods Researcher is a Dispassionate Observer Research based in Naturalism Subjective World Qualitative Methods Researcher is Part of the Research

The World of Concepts Concepts are: “Mental images;” Ideas Can represent things in the physical world Concepts are not real – that is, They don’t exist as physical objects IQ, love, anger, conservative, liberal, life, death, terrorism Some physical objects are also concepts Table, chair, tree, building, sky, computer

The World of Theories Theories are: Structures of knowledge Representations of the physical world that live in the world of ideas (Rough) approximations of events Theories are “Useful Fictions” Scientists don’t think of theories as “true” or “false” - because they are simply tools When a better approximation is available, scientists switch theories Lessons: The Theory of Evolution

Theories Outside of Science We all have many “informal” theories Beliefs about how the world works Predictions about what will happen Judgments about how people are Sometimes these are based on data Sometimes even on good data! Scientific theories are different – they are “informed” theories

The World of Paradigms Paradigms are: Over-arching structures of knowledge Representations of the physical world that live in the world of ideas Approximations of events Paradigms are “Useful Fictions” Paradigms are not “true” or “false” - they are simply tools When a better approximation is available, scientists switch paradigms Lessons: Newtonian Mechanics  Relativity

Paradigms Outside of Science The term is used freely today - Stuffed crust pizza is a “new paradigm” Paradigm is used to denote smaller changes In accepted processes In common practices In common beliefs That’s ok; just keep in mind that in science, “paradigm shifts are very rare

In-Class Team Exercise # 2 1) Two rounds of “Name Calling!” Deliverable : no written deliverable 2) Paradigms & Paradigm Shifts Deliverable: list 6 major paradigm shifts in society Additional Team Work Discuss Grade Weights Choose a team name Plan TP1: Meet before next Wed. Plan TP2: Peer Evaluation P&C