Hello Jean (and Everyone),

I really like the way you weigh up the value of the day in terms of independent thinking and 'good'. 
The standards that I aspire to seem fairly close in nature.  I must admit I don't wake thinking Good 
I am still alive but I wake thinking Good, I can still hear. I can still move around and communicate! 
What can I do with this day to nurture courage to Be? How can I help others' and my own learning? 

Perhaps it's because I have been disabled since my 30s and now Meniere's may annihilate hearing 
in both ears before too long but there is a sense of urgency and pressing need not to waste time.  
Yours are clearly different criteria from those Brian has invited us to consider in terms of the RAE. 
Mine are too.  Do you use the kind of criteria the RAE 2008 is constructed around in your practice?

Tomorrow, I am going to spend the day with some student researchers and their teacher.  Great! 
Will I judge the standard of our work against its 'international significance'? I very much doubt it.  
although in time I want to consider how I can assist in bringing it to a world audience and we will 
be using KEEP Toolkit templates to explore our individual ideas about what is this, this 'creativity' 
we recognise in 'good' teaching? By using web-based technology (we'll take videos and stills) we 
are preparing for sharing and inviting engagement. My criterion would be What good is this here?

In December, I am hoping to return to Japan to work with nurse educators and teacher educators. 
When I think back to the presentation that Je Kan and I made in Kobe University's Medical School 
the Standard of Judgement I remember vividly was How can we enable these nurses, doctors and 
nurse educators to create knowledge together that may bring about healing?  Each of the groups 
of nurses, doctors and nurse educators discussed what their priorities were and it seemed to me 
they were astonished how similar their priorities were yet they were not accustomed to engaging 
in dialogue with one another.  I guess that priorities could equate to Standards of Judgement too?
I think this on-line discussion is crucial to growing joint understandings about Standards we use.

While I was off-line I was undergoing several days of tests to determine the damage caused by the 
Meniere's.  One particularly difficult test for me was when electrodes were glued to my eardrums. 
Left ear testing was excruciating as we hit a pain receptor and by the time we got to my right ear 
shall we say I felt a certain reticence?! How did I judge the practice of the nurse and the specialist? 
Technically the specialist was world class.  His clinic in Harley Street is a centre of world excellence   
and I greatly appreciated his expertise.  But was it the nurse who had researched how to heal me?  

While the specialist decided I was one of 20% of patients whose pain receptors get hit by electrode 
in this test the nurse put her hand on mine and my distress level melted away at her caring touch. 
Both had researched what to do with the 20% group but the fact remained that without her touch 
the test would not have taken place. My initial distress reaction when the probe was attached was 
so great that the machine didn't function. The electrical charge from my brain simply 'jammed' it. 
However as soon as I felt the nurse's hand on mine I relaxed and the specialist commented that he 
did not understand how the electrical impulse suddenly fell so dramatically and he could continue.

Ontologically I think I can sense when I encounter standards of excellence in a medical encounter 
but epistemologically can I (can we?) draw out standards of judgement from the experience I had? 
In a debrief after tests the specialist's knowledge was epistemologically stronger than the nurse's. 
He could explain what the brain is doing when it generates such loud tinnitus it drowns hearing. 
She couldn't. He could explain the various options open to patients when Meniere's destroys the 
inner ear function.  She couldn't. His knowledge was certainly original, world class and excellent.  
But in terms of practical assistance her knowledge was the 'enabler' for his knowledge wasn't it?

How far are the Standards of Judgement for the RAE in 2008 appropriate for practitioner research?

Kind regards,

Sarah

RAE 2008:

4* Quality that is world-leading in terms of originality, significance and rigour.

3* Quality that is internationally excellent in terms of originality, significance and rigour but which 
nontheless falls short of the highest standards of excellence.

2* Quality that is recognised internationally in terms of originality, significance and rigour.

1*  Quality that is recognised nationally in terms of originality, significance and rigour.