Similar to Point A, I had about 11 students respond to this point of the data collection. As length of conversation was slightly different in each collection point, when it came to comparative analysis later on, I converted the text analysis data to percentages. So if 174 relevant words were used in the conversation, and… Continue reading Data Collection Point B

The last element of my intervention was to send the students off on their own research trip. To aid them with this, I produced this worksheet, which I put on Moodle and which my colleague, Kane, also went over with the students in class. The worksheet is to act as a prompt to get the… Continue reading An Intervention : Student-led Research Trips – Methods and Locations

I scheduled my interventions to take place in unit 2, a unit that involves the whole Stage 1 group. I’m unit co-ordinator along with my colleague Kane Husbands, so I was able to integrate my interventions into the curriculum for the students. This meant that students who contributed to the data didn’t have to attend… Continue reading Scheduling my interventions

Following my initial gathering of data on what my particular group of students thought of as ‘research’, my interventions were to take the students on two of trips to sites outside the university, framing these as ‘research trips’ – places that could provide students with legitimate knowledge in a similar but different way to more… Continue reading Interventions

I did the first data collection point at the National Gallery, at the start of a research trip I was taking Stage 1 on. We sat down on benches in the gallery and had the discussion on research. This took about 20 mins of the 2 hour session. I then started to take the students… Continue reading Anecdotes: Some unexpected data collection

Reading through the responses and my notes, I reflected that a lot of the definitions of research that came up surrounded ideas of objectivity vs subjectivity. Research for a lot of the students had some kind of relationship to ‘facts’ and the exact nature of what constituted facts varied. In terms of specific sites of… Continue reading Data Collection Point A – analysis

I was really pleased that all the students who were in attendance consented to be part of the research: about 15 students. These were the responses. What is research? Oral responses when analysing their peers first responses. ‘It expands our minds’ ‘I think it can be broad – doesn’t have to be capped to a… Continue reading Data Collection Point A

I’ve decided to evaluate my research through conversation with the students. I don’t want to do it as a survey because, as was discussed in the last cross-programme lecture, a survey can feel quite onerous (students are often asked to complete surveys), so negatively skew results. I want the students to feel connected to the… Continue reading Making the research relevant to students

I decided to initially collect data by asking two questions to the Stage 1 group: What is research? How can research take place? Participants in the study wrote or drew down their responses on a piece of paper, which they put in a hat. I then went round and got students to take a response… Continue reading How it went – reflecting on data collection methods

The Ethical Enquiry Form for my research In advance of the data collection point, I emailed the students explaining that I was doing research for my own PGCert studies and seeking their consent for data to be included. I said that I would collect signatures for those that consented in person at the beginning of… Continue reading Ethical Enquiry Form, Consent & Information Sheets