Student Services
Studying at
postgraduate
level
Get Ahead 2012
Angela Dierks
www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck
Student Services
What do you
think are the
differences
between UG
and PG study?
Check with
your neighbour.
www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck
Student Services
What will be different about
postgraduate study?
•
•
•
•
Develop your skills to a higher level
Acquire new skills
Work more independently
Work with a supervisor
www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck
Student Services
Develop your skills
to a higher level
•gather appropriate
material
•critically evaluate your
material (eg assess
relevance of theories)
•use it as the basis for
logical argument and
discussion (developing
a rationale)
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Student Services
Anderson’s and Krathwohl’s
Taxonomy of Cognitive Domain
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Remembering: Retrieving, recalling, or recognizing knowledge from memory.
Understanding: Constructing meaning from different types of functions be they
written or graphic messages activities like interpreting, exemplifying, classifying,
summarizing, inferring, comparing, and explaining.
Applying: Carrying out or using a procedure through executing, or
implementing.
Analyzing: Breaking material or concepts into parts, determining how the parts
relate or interrelate to one another or to an overall structure or purpose.
Evaluating: Making judgments based on criteria and standards through checking
and critiquing.
Creating: Putting elements together to form a coherent or functional whole;
reorganizing elements into a new pattern or structure through generating,
planning or producing.
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Student Services
Acquire new skills
• Read more widely and beyond core material
• Demonstrate academic judgement by
gathering appropriate published material and
evaluating it
• Gather and process evidence
• Apply appropriate research methodologies
• Present your findings in an appropriate
manner
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Student Services
Read more widely and critically
• Know your way around a range of
resources including electronic databases
and ejournals
• Need to evaluate material in terms of
relevance, provenance and research
methods
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Student Services
Demonstrate academic
judgement
• Question what you read
• Draw your own conclusions about the
value of the work
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Student Services
Gather and process evidence
• Undertake literature review
• Gather data, eg through
questionnaires, interviews or surveys
• Be aware of ethics
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Student Services
Apply appropriate research
methodology
Three types of research:
• Quantitative (eg based on surveys and
numerical data)
• Qualitative (eg interviews, groundedtheory, case study)
• Mixed: quantitative and qualitative
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Student Services
Present your findings
• Giving a presentation
• Dissertation writing
• Appropriate referencing
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Student Services
Work more independently
Need to be good at project
management including
– Time management
– Organisational skills
– Knowledge management
– Scoping
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Student Services
Work with a supervisor
• Clarifying the scope of your work
• Finding the right supervisor
• Establishing a positive working
relationship
www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck