Category: Research

Personal attachment to research

Mar 11, 2010

in Research

assignment, attachment, personal, phd, positive tool, reflection, research, researcher, safri, social network, supervisor

Yesterday I had a meeting with my supervisor to discuss the assignments I’m going to run as part of the first objective of my PhD. Together with a systematic review and a survey, I was interested in using student and staff participation in a social network to derive additional data that would help me form…
SAFRI: managing change and research methods

Mar 5, 2010

in Education, Research

change analysis, change management, faimer, methodology, research, safri

The third day of SAFRI 2010 has come and gone and I’m exhausted. The sessions are intense and for the first time in years, I found myself counting the minute ’til the coffee break. But even that doesn’t offer any respite because it’s regarded as an opportunity for informal discussion about your project. We switched…
SAFRI: drafting the proposal

Mar 4, 2010

in Education, Research

africa, faimer, project, research, safri, supervisor

Day 2 of the first residential session felt really productive, although I’m not sure if that was because I worked hard or because I spent most of the day staring at my tiny netbook screen (I love my NC10 but it’s definitely not for 8+ hour shifts). Before beginning this session, each of use had…
SAFRI: Introduction, teams and leadership

Mar 3, 2010

in Education, Research

banning laptops, cape town, facebook, faimer, Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research, groupwork, leadership, safri, Southern Africa FAIMER Regional Institute, teams

Today was the first day of the first SAFRI residential session in Cape Town, where SAFRI is the Southern Africa FAIMER Regional Institute, and FAIMER is the Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research. We spent today working through a few activities that served as an introduction, both to the programme and to each…
Research development workshop: research methods

Mar 1, 2010

in Research

methodology, qualitative, quantitative, research, research methods, researcher, uwc, workshop

This section included a general discussion on methods, then provided a brief overview of the 2 main types. Make sure to choose a design that’s appropriate for your project Research tends to fall broadly into one approach or the other, and is often not entirely quantitative or qualitative Make sure to avoid using the language…
Research development workshop: writing a proposal

Mar 1, 2010

in Research

editor and supervisor, methodology, proposal, research, research process, researcher, supervisor

These are some of the notes I made during the presentation on preparing a proposal, but include some points that relate to the general process of conducting research There are 3 things a proposal should try to address: What? – What contribution will this research make? What is it about? What do you want to…
Research development workshop: research ethics

Mar 1, 2010

in Ethics, Research

dignity, ethics, morality, research

This presentation mainly used the ethics policy of this institution, so I didn’t take many notes considering that I have the policy. The intention of ethics in research is to safeguard human dignity and to promote justice, equality, truth and trust → crtical reflection on morality Ethics are norms for conduct that distinguish between acceptable…
Research development workshop: why do research?

Mar 1, 2010

in Research

finance, higher education, msc, phd, postgraduate, research, supervision, supervisor, There

I’m attending a research development workshop on campus for all staff members who are just beginning their PhD’s. I’ll post my notes here as we progress. Why engage in research? It’s expensive (manpower, finance, cost, equipement) Dependent on motivation, commitment, hard work, ability, enthusiasm BUT… It enhances learning and intellectual development of staff Keeps staff…
UWC writing for publication retreat – day 3

Feb 26, 2010

in Research

academic writing, article components, Google, researcher, uwc, writing retreat

Today is the last day of our writing retreat. We had a short session this morning briefly going over the Method, Results, Discussion and Conclusion, before going back to our rooms to spend the last few hours writing. Coming from a more quantitative background, I’m having some difficulty writing up my qualitative responses, so looking…
UWC writing for publication retreat: day 2

Feb 25, 2010

in Research

academic publication, Attract, Australia, Chronological Geographical Definitions Genre Concepts Methods General, literature review, model, open a research option, patterns, pdf, process, research, structure, Thomson, United Kingdom, United States, uwc, writing retreat

Today has focused on the practical aspect of publication i.e. actually writing, so we didn’t have as many presentations. We began by reviewing some of what was discussed yesterday and adding a few reflections and comments from participants. Yesterday, one of the presenters suggested the CARS (link downloads PDF) model for structuring an Introduction. Today,…
UWC writing for publication retreat

Feb 24, 2010

in Research

academic writing, author, Docs, editor, feedback, genre, Google, Google Docs, Here’s mine, mont fleur, research, researcher, writing

I’m just finishing up the first day of a 3 day “writing for publication” retreat, hosted at the Mont Fleur conference centre just outside of Stellenbosch. We spent the first half of today covering some of the underlying ideas and concepts around the first sections of an article, which was useful for me because I…
Predictably irrational: decision-making in teaching

Feb 21, 2010

in Education, Ethics, Research, Students

assessment, cognitive domain, community of inquiry, dan ariely, drafting, emotion, irrational decisions, moral decision, predictably irrational, procrastination, social domain, social norms, teaching and learning practice, TED, writing

I’m busy reading Dan Ariely’s Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions, and wanted to share some of the takeaway points that made me think about how I could change my own teaching practice. I haven’t finished the book yet, so I may update this post when I do. The premise of the…
Reflections on improving teaching practice

Feb 8, 2010

in Education, Research, Technology

Ann F. Lucas, blog, lecturer, open textbook, phd, Professor, reflection, research, scholarship of teaching and learning, students, teaching, teaching practice, wiki

Up until today, I was kind of maintaining 2 blogs…this one, and a reflective commentary that I included in my teaching portfolio wiki. The portfolio is something that our faculty suggests we keep for when we apply for promotion, etc. but I thought it could be something more. So when I started teaching in 2007, I…
An open letter to the SASP: Opening up access to the journal

Nov 16, 2009

in Education, Physiotherapy, Research

author, british medical journal, copyright law, creative commons, free services, higher education, internet connection, Michael Rowe, open access, open archives initiative, open repositories, peer review, PLoS Medicine, publication, relatively inexperienced author, research, researcher and author, sajp, sasp, similar services, south africa, south african journal of physiotherapy, south african society of physiotherapy, the South African Journal, university of the western cape, Western Cape

Dear SASP I’m a young(-ish) and relatively inexperienced author who lately has had a few concerns about the direction of the South African Journal of Physiotherapy (SAJP). I’m proud of the high quality research that is being conducted in the field of rehabilitation and health sciences in South Africa, and like every other academic, researcher…
Can established research methodologies cope with social media?

Oct 29, 2009

in Research, Social media

danah boyd, Dean of Research, facebook, Google Group, methodology, microblogging, protocol, research, review protocol, slideshare, social media, supervisor, systematic review, twitter

Yesterday I was talking to my supervisor about how I’m having difficulty designing a protocol for my systematic review. The guidelines I’m looking at are very good for designing a structured process for searching through the literature, but they’re not very good at helping me to define a search that includes social media. The JBI…
Social networks as platforms to establish communities of practice

Oct 25, 2009

in Education, Research, Social media

faimer, safri, safri-faimer, social networks, southern african regional institute, teacher

I finally managed to submit my application to participate in the FAIMER programme for 2010. I’m not sure when the applications will be processed, but I’ll be sure to announce it here. See below for the Introduction to my project proposal: “A traditional curriculum is based on an accumulated body of knowledge that has been…
4th year research presentations

Oct 12, 2009

in Research, Students

confidence, presentations, research, students

Just got back from watching 6 groups of 4th year physiology students present the results or their research projects at a competition. There were a few things that struck me: The “examiners” were all clinicians with few research credentials Many of the the students who presented had little understanding of the results they presented, especially…
Public libraries on Mendeley

Sep 16, 2009

in Research, Social media, Technology

mendeley, mrowephd, phd, public library, research, research assistant

Mendeley just included a feature I’ve been waiting for for a while now…public collections of articles that you can manage from within the desktop client. You can subscribe to the feed or embed code into your site to keep up to date with relevant articles of whatever public libraries you’re interested in. This is potentially…
Proposal presentation

Aug 8, 2009

in Education, Physiotherapy, Research

curriculum development, higher education, mrowephd, phd, physical therapy, physical therapy education, physiotherapy, physiotherapy education, presentation, proposal, research, slideshare

In our department, we’re required to present our research proposals for comment before submission to Higher Degrees. This allows the group to give feedback before final corrections in the hope that the proposal is accepted without having to make major revisions. I’ve just shared my proposal presentation that I gave a few days ago on…
Proposal coming along slowly

Jul 29, 2009

in Research

Google, Google Docs, Higher Degrees Committee, phd, proposal

I’ve just shared a third draft of my PhD proposal with my supervisors, using Google Docs. Within a few hours, they’d both submitted feedback, and even though neither is finished reviewing the document, I can already start addressing their comments. Why would you not want to use this tool? I’ll be presenting the proposal to…