Planning the remaining time

On Monday this week, I met with some of the level 3 Education and Community Development students who are due to submit dissertations in December.

Each of the students who attended the session described their project, where they were up to with it, the challenges they were facing and what their next steps were going to be.

In addition these students were asked to explain the community development focus of their research project. This is because, if your degree is going to be BA Education and Community Development, you should aim to ensure that there is a community development focus to your independent research project. You might need to use your dissertation to secure employment in future.

To give your research project a 'community development' focus, you should be looking to core modules for topics and issues to address in your research. These core modules are: ED1004 Communities, Learning and Education; ED1015 Diaspora Communities in the UK; ED2046 Community Development; Theory and Practice; ED2500 Voluntary Work .

Because you must choose the topic you will cover in your independent research in the Research Methods module ED2000, the modules you do at level 3 can only inform the project as it develops.

There may be some of you who, at level 2, looked ahead and studied the module guides for level 3 modules in order to identify topics to cover in your dissertations. For those planning to do this ED3002 Contemporary Issues in Education and Training is the only core module at level 3 but there are other modules whose themes would make good topics for independent research e.g. ED3022 Gender Security and Education For All and ED3033 E-Learning: Communication, Cooperation and Collaboration Online.

Module guides for all modules can be downloaded from the School of Education Notice Board in UEL Plus and will have a list of topics covered as well as reading lists in the field.

The other thing we did on Monday, that is worth sharing, was to plot the time remaining until the dissertation is due. The deadline for those writing up ED3000 this semester is 3.00 pm. Tuesday 8th December, 2009. This means the work must be in before 3.00 pm on Tuesday 8th December 2009 and on the basis of where those who attended the session said they were up to, this is how, we thought, the remaining time until the submission date could be organised:

• 16th October - have completed the revision of the literature review
  
• 2nd November - have done the data collection.
• 16th November - have done the data analysis
• 23rd November - have your first draft ready for proof reading and putting through Turnitin.

The experience of students resitting the module (resulting in a cap of 40%) suggests that it is essential to keep back ups of your work at all stages. Have a copy on your UEL network Desk Top, the hard drive of your computer at home (if you have one), your lap top (if you have one) as well as a flash drive. Make sure that you label these copies correctly so that you know which copy you have at each location.

The Research Methods reading lists

Here is a list of the readings for ED2000. Please note the referencing style we use at UEL as you will be expected to cite the sources you use in this format.

Essential Reading for this Module:

Bell, J. (1999) Doing Your Research Project 3rd edn. Buckingham: Open University Press.

Crème, P. and Lea, M. (2003) Writing at University: a Guide for Students. 2nd edn. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Preston, J (2005) Research project on Education and Community Studies. [online] Available at: http://www.webspawner.com/users/researchmethods/index.html and
http://www.webspawner.com/users/researchmethods2/index.html (Accessed 31 July 2009)


Indicative Reading for this Module:

Adler, P. and Adler, P. (1998) ‘Observational Techniques’, in Denzin, N. and Lincoln, Y. (eds.) Collecting and Interpreting Qualitative Materials, London: Sage.

Avis, J. (1994) ‘The Ethnography of Further Education and the Policy-orientated Literature: contrasts’, The Vocational Aspects of Education, 46 (3), 241-256.

Clifford, J. and Marcus, G. (eds.) (1984) Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography. Berkley: University of California Press.

Bassey, M. (1999) Case Study Research in Educational Settings. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.

Cohen, L., Manion, L. and Morrison, K. (2000) Research Methods in Education. 5th edn. London: Falmer/ Routledge.

Epstein, D. (1998) ‘Are you a girl or are you a teacher?’ The ‘Least Adult’ role in Research about Gender and Sexuality in a Primary School’ in Walford, E. (ed.) Doing Research about Education, London: Falmer Press.

Erben, M. (1998) ‘Biography and Research Method’ in Erben, M. (ed.) Biography and Education: A Reader. London: Falmer Press.

Hammersley, M. (1998) Reading Ethnographic Research: A Critical Guide. 2nd edn. London: Longman.

Hammersley, M. and Atkinson, P. (1996) Ethnography: Principles in Practice. London: Routledge.

Hitchcock, G. and Hughes, D. (1989) Research and the Teacher: A Qualitative Introduction, London: Routledge.

Keeves, J. and Lakomski, G. (eds.) (1999) Issues in Educational Research. Oxford: Pergamon.

McDonough, J. and McDonough, S. (1997) Research Methods for English Language Teachers, London: Arnold.

Meagher, N. (1997) ‘Classroom Observation in Academic and Vocational Courses Post-16’, in Edwards, T.; Fitz-Gibbon, C.; Hardman, F.; Haywood, R. and Meagher, N. (eds.) Separate but Equal? A Levels and GNVQs, London: Routledge.

Plewis, I. and Preston, J. (2001) Evaluating the Benefits of Lifelong Learning: A Framework. London: Institute of Education.

Shipman, M (ed.) (1985) Educational Research: Principles, Policies and Practices, Lewes: Falmer.

Skeggs, B. (1988) ‘Gender Reproduction and Further Education: Domestic Apprenticeships’, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 9 (2), pp.131-149.

Willis, P. (2000) The Ethnographic Imagination. Oxford: Polity.

Wellington, J. (2000) Methods and Issues in Educational Research, London: Continuum.

Wray, A, Trott, K. and Bloomer, A. (1998) Projects in Linguistics. London: Arnold.

Referencing your sources is of critical importance.

Students who are new to higher education or who have been out of higher education for some time often overlook the importance of this and end up facing a charge of plagiarism for which the penalties can be failure of the module … in effect the failure of two modules in the case of the Independent Research Module ED3000!

The Project Proposal Form (PPF)

One of the first tasks you will need to do for your Independent Research Project is to complete The Project Proposal Form (PPF).

On this form, you will have to:

• Come up with a ‘Working title’ for the research project:
• You will need to Identify the area of your research in broad terms
• You will need to specify the ‘aims’ and ‘objectives’ of the research you will do.
• List three key questions that you intend to have answered by the end of your research project.
• Identify where the issues that your research addresses are located within your programme i.e. what are the relevant theories and academic debates that your research will contribute to
• State how your research project develops from the modules in your programme. On the PPF form you are asked to refer to specific modules but if you are entering at level three, you can refer to aspects of previous programmes of study or professional experience that may have inspired your research question.

Remember you can use the comment function to discuss these tasks or you can send me any or all of these details by email for feedback about their suitability for the module.

Preparing for the Indpendent Research module

As part of your programme at level three of a BA Honours undergraduate degree in the Cass School of Education, you are going to be doing a piece of independent research for the module ED3000. ED3000 is the only double module in your programme that is done over both of the two semesters you will spend with us at level 3 and it is the only module worth 40 of the 120 credits you must accumulate at level 3 to obtain your degree. Because this module is such a large part of your programme it is critical that you do well in it. Particularly if you are planning to do post graduate work such as a Masters programme or a Post Graduate Certificate in Education you will need at least a lower second class degree. Apart from these reasons for trying to do well in ED3000, the independent research module is an opportunity to study a subject that interests you or a subject that can help you get ready for the employment you want to do when you have got your degree.

The challenge for you as a direct entrant to level 3 is that you will not have done the level two module ED2000 Research Design and Method which helps students get ready for doing their independent research project. By giving you direct entry to level 3, we are assuming that you will already know about research design and methods and will be able to have a research questions ready to work on when you start. In case you have forgotten what you have learned about research design and method this blog aims to give you access to materials and resources as well as support that can help you remember or fill in any of the gaps in your knowledge about research design and methods.

A site which offers some useful advice about what an independent research project is and how to go about devising a research question for the focus of your research check out University of Kent at Canterbury's 'Planning a Dissertation: for undergraduate students'

Introduction - about these pages

These pages are for students who are direct entrants to level 3 of the BA Education and Community Development Programme in the Cass School of Education at the University of East London (UEL).

I know that there are at least two of you but there are likely to be others. Hopefully, the site will also be useful to students joining Education International which is a level 3 only programme.

Hopefully these pages will help you understand what will be expected of you and show you how to use the summer to properly prepare yourself to achieve the degree classification you will need in order to go on to do a Post Graduate Certificate in Education to teach at primary school level or to go on to other forms of post graduate studies.

You have been offered a direct entry to level 3 of the programme, because you have qualifications that mean you should already have sufficient knowledge and skills to work at level three of the programme. This could be because you have already have a degree from another discipline or country or, you may have been offered a place because it is clear from the work you have already done, that you are capable of the standard of work required at level three. If you have been out of education or are changing disciplines or institutions however, there may be some gaps in your existing knowledge and skills which these pages are intended to help you plug.

The pages are particularly concerned to prepare you for the Independent Research double module (ED3000) because what you score for this module will have a major impact on your degree's classification. It is for this reason that the pages are focused on doing independent research but they will also try to address other relevant issues and concerns.

The pages assume that you are able to learn independently using recommended readings and online resources but you can also use the comment function to discuss the resources, to ask questions and to check your interpretations of the resources you are being introduced to.

We use a lot of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in our teaching and learning at UEL and expect level three students to be fairly competent at using personal computers for communication and learning. A good place to start learning about how to use ICT and the Internet to support your learning, particularly for doing res search online and developing critical thinking is the Internet Detective. This site should also help you to develop understandings and skills that will help you avoid plagiarism which is a common and easy pitfall.