Over the average line

I’m supervising a student on her master’s thesis. She is without doubt over the average level when it comes to psychological theories and quantitative method. All of the psych students seem to be very good at quantitative methodology. In Sweden I think we are more of qualitative methodologists. Math and logical thinking is in a way up to technicians seems to be the situation back home. I had an explanation about “letting the helpseeker se more than usual” by using the nautical princip for when you can see a lighthouse at sea. The formula is 2,2 x the squareroot of the height (in meters). You get the answer in nautic miles. If your eyes or the lighthouse becomes higher you can see longer. This metaphor is my way of explaining the horizon of possibilities. They all understood the metaphor and that was, I think, due to their knowledge of natural science. A great lot of my Swedish students wouldn’t understand this. I don't mean that this is good or bad but different and it says something about the schoolsystem in our countries. As a good teacher I tried to explain a theoretical concept in a way corresponding to the students mindset; I had done it in another way in Sweden…

Some of my students when presenting their reflections over a group career counseling session showed that they are far beyond the average level. One of them had done four sessions just to practice and to see a change among the group members. Another student had done two sessions and a third student had had three different groups just to be able to compare. A presentation like this makes it joyable to work as a lecturer. You feel proud over your students and you can see that your efforts pay off. That’s good!

If this can be explained by the fact that the course is at the master’s level or that the majority of the students are working full time and are very interesting in career guidance it hard to tell. But, despite the explanation it’s very nice and encouraging to work with them.

Today I was recruiting students at the Foundation Studies (like the Swedish “naturvetenskapligt or samhällsvetenskapligt basår”) as help seekers to my own students when they are to have a series of counseling dialogues with a person they never met before, all except one of the 18 students volunteered. I don’t think this would happen in Sweden; interesting…the explanation can be that they live up to the expectations of others and that this behavior is common here. Or can it be that they have heard about Planned Happenstance?

The pacific islanders (compared to swedes) are more adaptable and curious meeting something new that seems to be interesting. Are swedes more like newborn birds with big gaps, thinking they know nearly everything?