journal of public affairs education - NASPAA *The Global Standard ...

Operation PSA: The Action Learning of Curiosity and CreativityStep 7: Action-learning DocumentationAlthough team members had learned to operate the VideoThang and Winkmedia systems, and realized the potential of such educational endeavors, the realtest of action learning would entail the application of the group’s diverse talentsto produce a boundary-spanning PSA about a novel or unfamiliar situation.Therefore, instead of using the previously delineated questions for faculty PSAsregarding the discipline (Appendix A), it was imperative that the focus for thisPSA arise from the conference itself, as sessions were attended, new friendshipsformed, and remarks about the state of teaching public administration wereshared. True enough, one resounding question arose: Why weren’t there moreattendees for a conference devoted to the teaching of public administration?Using this troublesome condition as a stimulus for action, the team set outto gain participants’ motivations for coming to the conference and ideasregarding how they might go about marketing it to newcomers. By the end ofthe first day’s sessions, 15 video clips had been shot, with a total time of 15.33minutes. Still, it would take another 7-10 hours for them to be reviewed,edited, and aligned with music into a persuasive PSA. At this point, however,the PSA was only two-thirds complete. The team presented this preliminaryvideo to various conferees and asked for suggestions about developing greaterparticipation for the next conference. Through five additional clips and another2.33 minutes, the team had all materials necessary for generating a compositePSA that reflected TPAC and its future ambitions, as shown in its transcripts(Appendix D).Creativity has been defined as an interactive process composed of ability andstimulation (Gowan, 1975). In order to determine the degree to whichconferees experienced and developed these abilities, the notion of creativity wasbroached in the team’s first question, “What was your motivation for coming tothe Teaching Public Administration Conference?” While all respondentsidentified personal experiences, the team members captured the importance ofinteraction through one participant’s need to see “colleagues eyeball-to-eyeballand hear what they’re doing in their classes…because their ideas give me fresh,new ideas about what I can do” (Appendix D, Respondent #1, May 2008).Another case highlighted how participants were re-energized by colleagues who“are all very exciting people committed to the one thing of teaching publicadministration. They’re not out to impress anyone. They’re out to share theirexperiences” (Appendix D, Respondent #2, May 2008). The theme underlyingthese statements was the role of interpersonal sensitivity in advancing teaching.The second question, “How would you go about marketing this conference?,”although somewhat similar in nature to the last query, focused participants’thoughts on branding the uniqueness of the conference, its goals, and mission.To that end, the team chose the response of one individual who put it quitepointedly, by saying the “professional responsibility of most faculty goes into372 Journal of Public Affairs Education