All 2 entries tagged Reflections

Reflection of the first year of the Ph.D!

The first year of the Ph.D. has been fun! The year has been dominated by the Advanced Research Methods course that contained a couple of assignments and plenty of course materials that introduced many research methods and research Philosophies, and encouraged thinking about these in the context of own research. Obviously the course was not an extensive introduction, but rather brief introduction given the complexities of research methods and the extensive argumentation and potential uses of each method. It was a brief introduction because it would be impossible to cover every aspect of each research method (textbooks have been written for specific research methods) and also impossible to cover every possible argumentation for and against each method (for which there are countless, and more arguments can be development: it’s really a limitless area). The course assignments were enjoyable and I feel that the development of particular research methods progressed well, and the assignments laid the foundations of some of the argumentation and reasoning that I shall be exploring further in the thesis. The course therefore has had an important part to play in forming the structure of the thesis, particularly the earlier chapters, early in the process of the Ph.D.

The research conference attended earlier this year was also part of the course and I enjoyed the experience of developing and presenting a conference poster. It built my confidence in the general methodology that I am developing and where I am going with the research itself. I even had nice complements from those who were in their second years and beyond on their own Ph.Ds. I was going to write a conference paper for this conference, but didn’t feel confident enough to have produced a substantial, well informed paper, so decided to go with the conference poster. At next year’s annual post graduate conference at Warwick University I certainly plan to write a conference paper as my confidence in my own research methods and the development of these methods have increased and shall increase further in the future. Currently, the conference paper shall focus on the survey method that has been written about in the second Advanced Research Methods assignment. I could write about my entire methodology and methods but I don’t believe that given the time between now and next year’s conference I’ll be able to get everything completed to that point. Perhaps something to think about for the 2017 research conference? If the conference paper and presentation are well received and if the supervisor recommends it, I would like to convert the conference paper into a publishable research paper and submit it to a respectable research journal.

A key awareness that has been developed during the past year is the fact that in Social Sciences the aim is not to find the “wrong” or “right” answer, but to develop a strong argument. If an argument is effective enough, then an idea or use of a research method can be considered acceptable; not the right or wrong answer, but an acceptable argumentation based on its strength through the use of appropriate evidence and reasoning. Not a lot of people really like the idea of something being acceptable based on the strength of argumentation and reasoning rather than it being a straight black or white yes or no answer, but I like this kind of investigation!

That’s about the main points of the year: lots of other little successes have happened but to detail them all here would be like writing a thesis! I am excited about the second year, it’s going to be an extremely interesting year of wonder, of argumentation development, lots and lots of reading, and lots of lots of thinking and writing! It will be a challenge, but I’m ready for it. The annual conference next year at Warwick University is going to be a challenge as it will really be the first time that I expose the intricacies and specifics of a research method (not the findings from that method yet: the research is still in developmental stage) to the public. Not only this, but I shall be entering what is known as the Upgrade process: this is a process where I prove the worth and value of my research through writing and sending in a four thousand word report, and present my proposed methods and methodology to an expert panel before actually doing the research. When this Update report is handed in and when the presentation is needs to be agreed with my supervisor but I’m suspecting towards the end of next year or early the year after.

Been an excellent first year and if I do have any regular readers out there (hello!) hoping you have enjoyed my academic ramblings. I shall try to keep the blog more updated during the next year as ideas come to me, but obviously I need to focus on the Ph.D. documentation which during the next year shall include: the Upgrade report, a conference paper, a possible research paper, and the early Literature Review and Methodological chapters of the thesis, as well as beginning to develop the methods themselves!

Thank you all for reading during the first year!

Alex Darracott : 07 Sep 2015 17:52 |  Tags: Reflections |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

New Year: brief reflection of the past few months!

It’s a New Year, and it’s a special year for movie buffs as they shall be no doubt scrutinising everything to do with Back to the Future two and working out if anything predicted in that movie has actually come true. As much as I enjoy the Back to the Future movie, I shall let the experts care about that whilst I get back to what I care about! Writing about Education, Research, Technology, and writing in general! I realise that I’ve neglected this blog a little but I’m sure many of you will understand that you get moments where you become so focussed on a task that you don’t really want to put it aside until you are at a position where you are happy with directions enough to get on with other things that are pulling at your attention. I’ve been able to reflect back on the first few months of the Ph.D and I’m pretty pleased with what has happened so far.

The key task of the past few months has been the literature review. It is too early for the formal writing process, but this shall take place later this year. This period of the literature review between the first day of the Ph.D, in fact even before that, and till later this year is composed of extensive reading around and within the now identified research areas and write fairly comprehensive notes on relevant research papers and other academic work. It is difficult early on to predict what exactly will be read or the extent of the material that there is to read, but there are strategies that can assist and I'll be discussing these at a later time. Start planning and coming up with ideas of the literature review from the very beginning. This is what I've focussed on the most during the past few months and I do believe it has been a success. Obviously the structure and the finer details shall be further explained, but the main elements and the order of these elements are beginning to be decided upon.

Thankfully also I've built an awareness of the importance of the literature review. The literature review is extremely important because this sets the context of your research, and this context involves using existing and previous research in a way that it provides a basis to argue for the need of the research. It gets more complicated than this because the context includes not only the argumentative but also the theoretical, epistemological, methodological and ontological. The importance and the challenge of producing this chapter cannot be underestimated and it cannot be taken lightly and I advise all Ph.D researchers who have not yet started on their literature review to start reading and writing extensive notes straight away.

Also the past few months have been taken up reading a fair bit on Educational research itself and again this is an important activity to do, and just like the literature review this shall be continuous during the year. I’m becoming more fascinated with Educational research and the political structures that influence research, the need for Educational research and the way it has been developed over the decades.

I could write a thesis about writing a thesis! Basically, the literature review is extremely important, as is doing as much background reading to Educational research as you can. Do this early, and make it continuous and often. Plan well, be continuous and consistent at what you do, work hard, and have an excellent year!

Alex Darracott : 12 Jan 2015 23:16 |  Tags: Reflections |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem