Replying to LO27593 --
Dear Organlearners,
Janis Dutton <jldutton@iac.net> writes
>I am talking with some folks at a university who
>have been asked to design a "peer review" system
>for faculty. The good news is each school or
>college is asked to create their own, so there is no
>"one size fits all" approach. The bad news is that the
>idea alone is already creating a lot of resistance and
>resentment.
(snip)
>This particular group has an opportunity to create
>something interesting. They are in the School of Fine
>Arts, which has a strong set of guiding principles ........
(snip)
Greeting Janis,
It is difficult for me, from my experiences, not to be negative about such
a "peer review" system (PRS).
My first reaction was to ask: Why do they want a PRS? What do they want to
do with it?
I believe firmly that all learning should be creative. This even includes
that "advance learning" which is better known as research. However, many
people (al least in that part of the world which I have experienced)
prefer to follow a recipe (business as usual) which is acceptable to
others. Sometimes the recipes are quite complicated like in the physical
sciences such as physics, chemistry and biology. Nevertheless, these
recipes are usually disastrous to creativity.
The promotion, tenure and peer review systems which I know of are rigid
recipes which suppress rather than support creative (innovative) thinking.
These systems are used to assess/audit the future in terms of past
successes. But creative work often has the element of surprise in it.
Rigid recipes cannot anticipate such surprising emergences.
I think that the group which you have in mind has indeed an opportunity to
create something interesting, especially since they are from the fine
arts. I would suggest that they focus in their PRS on creativity and
especially the complexity involved with creativity.
With care and best wishes
--At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
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