Week 1 – 4th January 2011
Doing research is not an easy thing to do. When I did my degree all part 8 students were required to submit their Academic Exercise (AE) and by just doing that, I already felt the hardship in completing one research. However, as I went through the process and with proper guidance from my supervisor I managed to finish my AE. To be honest, one reason why I took master in coursework is because I try to avoid doing research but after ventured myself in master in coursework I realize that I can’t avoid myself from doing research. I can say that in every class there are assignments where we were required to do mini research. It is already late for me to regret itJ. In first semester of doing my master there is one class related closely to research which is Research Methodology (EDU 702). It was an interesting class because it helps to prepare us in doing our dissertation.
In my first class with Dr. Izaham, he introduced us with research in education. There are many fields that we can conduct a research but since we were in Faculty of Education or course our main focus is education. Dr. Izaham also explains about this course especially regarding the assessment. By the end of this class we were required to submit a research proposal. I am not so sure about what to do for my research but I what I know I am not really interested in doing something related to English. It is quite ironic because I am doing master in TESL. I am more interested in psychology in education. Many people say that when we are choosing for our topic for research it should be something that we are interested and have passion in it. Because if we don’t we will have problem in completing it. That is why certain researchers took more than it should be to complete their research. This is because along the way they don’t have interest in doing it. That is why I should really think about what kind of research that I want to do. Maybe as I go along this semester I will decide on what I am going to do for my research proposal. I need to do some reading first in order to figure out what I am going to do.
Dr. Izaham also talked about plagiarism in my first class and I know this is a serious issue. He mentioned about some certain students were caught of plagiarism. I think to avoid this; our university introduced the use of Turnitin.
This coming weeks I should start thinking of what research that I want to do ???
Week 2 – 11th January 2011
Today we don’t have class with Dr. Izaham because he had meeting. Well…supposedly I should start on my research my proposal but still I don’t know what to do for my research proposal. I should do some reading for my research proposal. Maybe I should do something regarding English because Dr. Izaham did mention we should do something related to our master. I also remember in my other class with Dr. Hanim, she did mention that when applying for job people will look at the topic we did for our dissertation. Hmmm…..but I don’t have interest in doing research related to English. So…what area should I choose? I am planning to continue my research proposal for my dissertation.
Possible areas for my research:
1. Peer editing in writing.
2. Parental involvement in children education.
3. Computer in education
4. Anxiety and performance in speaking English.
5. Problem of mastering English in rural area.
6. Teacher and students relationship.
7. The use of mother tongue in classroom.
8. Mind mapping in writing class.
Which one should I focus on???
Week 3 - 18th January 2011
This week we learned about quantitative methodology. Quantitative and qualitative have many differences but the one that most obvious is quantitative method involves numbers while qualitative involves verbal data and it is subjected to analytical analysis. I had experience using both methods when I was doing my AE. I think quantitative method is easier once you know how to manipulate the data using SPSS. It was fun to key in the data for SPSS but when you are not familiar with the formula you need someone to guide you. Whereas, data from interview it need us to analyze it using our own interpretation. Furthermore, we need to transcribe the data if the data in the form of interview.
I think for my research proposal I am planning to use both because quantitative data alone is not enough, it will be much stronger if we triangulate the quantitative data using the qualitative data. There are many researches under quantitative data: experimental, single subject, correlation, causal comparative and survey method. We use experimental method when we want to test hypotheses of cause and effect relationship. It usually involve independent and dependent variable. In any research validity and reliability are important aspects that need to be consider. In every method of research there are potential things that will affect the validity of the research. Therefore, it is very important for the researcher to make sure to maximize the validity and reliability of the research.
Correlation research aims to discover relationships between variables through correlational statistic. One way to see the relationship is by using Pearson correlation. The result will be negative, positive or no relationship at all. One thing that we should remember is although we can see the correlation between two variables however we can’t say that one variable is the cause for another variable. Meaning to say, we can’t assume the relationship as cause and effect relationship. In order to examine the cause and effect relationship we need to conduct an experiment and one of the ways is by doing causal comparative research.
Survey research is also known as descriptive research. The purpose of conducting this type of research is when we want to describe the natural or man-made phenomena. Normally we will use questionnaire to sough data for this type of research. It can be cross sectional or longitudinal study.
Next week we will start on the group presentation. My group will be presenting on phenomenology. We did not prepare anything yet for the presentation since our group is the sixth group to present.
Week 4 – 25th January 2011
Group presentation! This week, two groups presented on two research designs under quantitative data. Stephanie group was the first group. They presented on correlational research. It was an interesting presentation especially their example or research which was “Level of education, level of income, and level of fatness in adults.” However, the article was outdated. The article was from 1977. Since Dr Izaham already explained on this research design last week I don’t have problem in following their presentation. The second group was Anita’s group. Anita with her bubbly attitude really spiced up the presentation. Most of the presentation presented, more or less the same like Dr. Izaham present last. I was more interested in the article that they choose for example. This will help to understand more about the research design.
I am interested in doing experimental research; however not for my master dissertation because I think it require lots of passion and knowledge pertaining to the area that I want to do the research. Maybe after I completed my master and if I have time I am interested to conduct one experimental research.
This is a link about her study if you guys interested to read more about her Week 6 – 8th February 2011
Coming back after mid-sem break. I wish it holiday could be longer than that. I don't get enough rest =). However, study must go on. For this week class Dr. Izaham finished off his lecture on quantitative data and continued with qualitative data. For me qualitative data is much complicated compare to quantitative data in term of collecting the data and also on analyzing it but it is more interesting compared to quantitative. One of the qualitative types of research is ethnographic, where we study about a given culture and the patterns in those features. The data collected through, observation, interview and documents. In Malaysia we have different kind of race and ethnic especially in Sabah and Sarawak. There are lots of things that we can learn and study about their culture. Compare to western people, I think Malaysian people are not really into research. There are not many researches done in Malaysia but Malaysian. In fact we can see from the National Geographic Channel foreigners come to Malaysia to do research on us. I think the culture of research should be expended in Malaysia. One of the researchers that I admired is Dian Fossey where she dedicated almost all of her life to study about Gorillas. She spend most of her time in the forest mingling with this primates and it such a mazing watching documentary about her where the Gorillas seems like a friends to her. The Gorilla King. More on Dian Fossey and Her Research
This week Umaizah' group presented on causal-comparative. At first, I was quite confuse about the differences between causal-comparative and correlational research. However, after listening to Umaizah’ group I understand it better and can see the differences between this two.
Week 8 – 22nd February 2011
This week another three groups present their research design included my group. The first group that did their presentation was Aminah’s group and they presented on Ethnographic. The presentation became quite havoc when it comes to Q and A session. Maybe some of them did not understand what is ethnographic and what kind of study that suitable to use this method. Aminah’s group had tries their best to explain to us about ethnographic. The second group was Bahiyah’s group
And lastly was my group. Everybody already looked tired already after listening to the two earlier presentations. Luckily, ours was short and simple. We tried to focus more on the example of research that used this method so that my friends could understand it better. We presented on Phenomenology. Honestly, I don’t have any idea what is phenomenology before this and because of this assignment I finally understand what phenomenology research is. We use phenomenology research when we want to describe one or more individuals’ experience of a phenomenon and it normally involve in-depth interview with up to 10-15 subejcts. It was an interesting research design and we need to follow certain steps in order to obtain and analyze the data.
At the same time I already came up with the title of research proposal and what area that I want to focus on. I want to study on factor affecting students’ academic achievement and focusing on parental involvement in their children homework. Dr. Izaham asked us to come up with research proposal outline so that he can check it whether we on the right track or not. This week we supposed to hand in our article review but since everyone did not notice the deadline Dr. Izaham asked us to submit it next week. Need to remind myself to start find an article to review.
Week 9 – 1st March 2011
For this week class the last two groups presented on their research method. Hazura’s group presented about the Historical method. This type of research deals with the past rather than the future. Through detailed analysis of historical data, we can determine cause and effect relationship. Thus, it helps to give basis to understand the past. There are lots of things that we can learn from the past especially to help us to study back what went wrong and where we can improve ourselves. For example it will give benefits to the policy maker. The last group presented was Ateff’s group on case study. I think this is a popular type of research. I also am planning to do a case study for my research proposal. A case study is an in depth study of a particular situation rather than a sweeping statistical survey. It is a method used to narrow down a very board field of research into one easily researchable topic.After that Dr. Izaham continued with his lecture on sampling. Like I mentioned in my last week entry we need to submit our article review in this week class and for the article review Dr. Izaham did mentioned to us that we need to focus more on the research methodology applied in the research article that we reviewed. However, after listening to Dr. Izaham’s lecture on sampling I was not sure with my comment in the article review since there are many types of sampling it confused me. I hope what my interpretation of the article was correct. In general, there are two types of sampling; random sampling and non-random sampling. Just by reading the name we can expect what are the differences between this two. I think for my research proposal I am going to use purposive sampling since I am going to choose specific group that fulfill my criteria which remind me to work on my research proposal outline because next week Dr. Izaham wanted to see our research outline. Need to add that in my planner.
Week 10 – 8th March 2011
Instrumentation is one of the core aspects in a research. The instruments will affect the validity and reliability of the research. Dr. Izaham gave his lecture on this topic this week. I don’t realize before this there are many different kind of instrument that can be used to gain data. I am already familiar with questionnaire since I already used it for my AE and I think until now I answered many questionnaires regarding many topics. To be honest, I hate to answer set of questionnaire that needs me to fill up too many things sometimes up to 40 questions or there are too many open ended questions. That is ridiculous. That is why, normally for this kind of questionnaires I end up just tick the answer without really thinking about it. For me a good questionnaire doesn’t make the respondents feel burden to answer it. There are two types of instrument; one is completed by the researcher like rating scale, interview schedule, tally sheets, and performance checklist; and another one is completed by the subject such as questionnaire, self-checklist, personality inventories and performance test. I think for my research proposal the best instruments to use are questionnaires and also interview schedule.
After that we had our consultation for our research proposal with him. Dr. Izaham gave valuable input on how to improve my research proposal. Dr. Izaham asked me on how I am going to measure my intended research questions and I tried my best to explain to him. Maybe it was still quite confusing. I need to go back and work on it since in another two week I need to present my research proposal and then we need to submit our complete chapter 1 until 3 research proposal. I also need to do some reading to complete my literature review. In every research I think this is the hard part to read many articles and try to synthesize it. Dr. Izaham mentioned that at least 10 articles. Hmm…. I really should add more for my reading. I don’t think it will a waste because I am planning to continue this research for my dissertation.
Week 11 – 15th March 2011
In this week class Dr Izaham continued with consultation of outline proposal. He did not give any lecture today. So, we took this opportunity to discuss about our research proposal. I tried to ask my friends their opinion about my research proposal. Actually, now I have doubt whether I should continue my research proposal topic as my dissertation. I still remember what Dr. Hanim mentioned that people will look at our dissertation topic when we apply for job. It will and added advantage. Maybe I should do something related to teaching and learning of English. I can think about it during my long break. I should ask some opinions from lecturer here. I am still working on with my research proposal. There are some things that need to add up.
I also should also keep a progress on my e-portfolio. I am not a technology savvy. Maybe I need some guidance from my friends on how to organize my blog. I still remember I once have a blog and it was for Dr. Izaham class too but this time I am intended to keep it active to report on my progress of doing my research.
Week 12 – 22nd March 201
Data analysis is another aspect that important in a research. This is the part where we make use the data that we gain and analyze it to answer our research questions. In quantitative it mostly involves numerical data and there are two types of statistic; descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. One of the popular ways to analyze quantitative data is by using SPSS. There are many things that we can calculate using this SPSS such as mean, median, percentage, standard deviation, T-test, Pearson correlation and many more. Like I mentioned in my earlier entry I am quite familiar with how to use SPSS because I used when I was doing my AE. This semester I also used it for Dr. Faizah assignment. It is not that hard to use it after we know the formulas.
I think the qualitative data is quite hard to analyze. It is highly dependents on the researcher to interpret the data and how he or she is going to present it. The data like interview data we need to listen to it over and over it to identify the emerging theme. It is quite interesting when Dr. Izaham mentioned that people sometimes pay a lot of money to transcribe the interviews. It is not an easy job and required a lot amount of time to listen to the recorded interviews and transcribe it word by word.
Next week we need to present our research proposal. I am not really sure yet on my research but still try to improve it. Maybe after the presentation I can get valuable input form Dr. Izaham and my classmates on how to improve my research. This week I should prepared with my PowerPoint presentation on my research proposal. I still have problem with my research problem and research questions. Maybe I should meet Dr. Izaham before I present it so that he can comment on it.
Week 13 – 29 March 2011
This week we presented our research proposal. Most of us were not really sure with our own research proposal and so did I. I was hoping for Dr. Izaham and my friends to give some input on how to improve my research proposal. After each presentation we are allowed to give our comment or ask any question but throughout the presentation there were not many comments came from us. Most of the comments came from Dr. Izaham and mostly regarding our statement of problem and research questions. Probably because some of us do not have solid background on research so some of us have trouble in doing it. I noticed that most of the statement of problem did not have support from any source like what Dr. Izaham mentioned to us to include it in the statement of problem. As for research questions, some of the research questions were to general. There were also research questions that were not clear. Dr. Izaham did comment on my research proposal’s presentation and asked me to do some changes. Maybe my research questions are quite confusing. I need to make some amendment on my research proposal.
Listening to Dr. Izaham comments on others’ research proposal was beneficial because at the same time I can reflect on my own research proposal and exposed me on what we can and can’t do in our research. Some of the topic is interesting for me. I was interested with Syuhada’s topic about the readiness of undergraduate students to be a teacher. I can see the relevant of this study because most of my friends that took degree in TESL with me did not end up being a teacher. They prefer other job. Maybe because, being a teacher nowadays is very challenging. I always see some of friends who teach in school keep complaining about the work load that they get in the Facebook status. After this I need to work on my research proposal as the deadline is getting near. Wish I have enough time to come up with a good research proposalJ.
Week 14 – 5th April 2011
QUIZ!!
We had our quiz this week. I was quite worries because I don’t know what to expect since Dr, Izaham said the quiz will be “anything under the sun”. That could be anything!! I tried to read the ‘How to Design and Evaluate Research in Education’ book and also Dr. Izaham lecture notes. The quiz was quite tough and there are certain questions that I was not so sure how to answer it. I just tried my best and hoping for the best. After the quiz we continue with presentation on research proposal. Bahiyah present her search proposal and it was something related to instructional supervision. However, the research problem was not clear.
Without noticing it this semester is already near to the end and there are stills lots of assignment to do. I still need to complete my research proposal and did lots of reading to complete my literature review. I should learn from my mistake. Never procrastinate! Hoping next semester I will change myself and avoid this bad habit. I realize that doing master is quite tough especially when I am taking four subjects and tons of assignments to do. I really hope I can score well this semester. I learn lots of thing regarding research and will very useful in completing my dissertation. Thank you Dr. Izaham for sharing your knowledge!
After the hard work through out the semester.We need sometimes to just relax and enjoy our moment
