Dissertation Studies
What is a dissertation?
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Dissertation Aims
• Make your own contribution to educational understanding by
presenting a coherent, detailed and sustained argument at
length on an educational topic
• Develop advanced practical and analytical skills in a range of
quantitative and/or qualitative research methods as an
academic researcher and writer on educational and social
matters
• Develop your own ideas and organise a project independently
but with supportive guidance
• Refine and practice a range of skills which would be useful to
you in further study or a professional/work based context.
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Education School
Main - Textbooks
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Education School
Recommended Book
Pears, R. & Shields, G.
(2005) Cite them right:
the essential guide to
referencing and
plagiarism Newcastle
upon Tyne: Pear Tree
Books.
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Education School
Other - Textbooks
Literature Reviews
Fink, A. (1998). Conducting Research Literature Reviews. Thousand
Oaks: Sage.
Paradigms
Guba, E., & Lincoln, Y. (1998) Competing paradigms in Qualitative
research. In Denzin, N. & Lincoln, Y. (eds). The Landscape of
Qualitative Research: Theories and Issues. Thousand oaks: Sage.
Oppenheim, A. (2000). Questionnaire Design. London, UK: Continuum.
Patton, M. (2002). Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods.
California, Sage.
Willig, C. (2008) Introducing Qualitative Research in Psychology.
Maidenhead, Berkshire : McGraw-Hill
Content Analysis
Krippendorff, K. (2004). Content Analysis: An Introduction to its
Methodology. London : Sage.
Neuendorf, K. (2002). The Content Analysis Guidebook. Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage.
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Education School
Other - Textbooks
Interviews
Kvale, S. (2008). Interviews: Learning the Craft of Qualitative Research
Interviewing. London : Sage.
Rubin, I., & Rubin, H. (2005). Qualitative Interviewing: The Art of
Hearing Data. London: Sage.
Wengraf, T. (2002). Qualitative Research Interviewing. London : Sage
Observation
Wragg, E. (1999). An Introduction to Classroom Observation. London:
Routledge.
Action Research
McNiff, J., & Whitehead, J. (2002). Action Research: Principles and
Practice. London: Routledge.
Qualitative Analysis
Strauss, A. and J. Corbin (1990). Basics of Qualitative Research. London,
Sage Publications.
Survey
Oppenheim, A. (2000). Questionnaire Design. London, UK: Continuum.
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Education School
The Expectations
• Primary Research
• 16,000 words in length
• It will meet the masters level assessment
criteria:
•
•
•
•
•
Analysis of Literature and Research
Synthesis and Utilisation of Evidence
Integration of Theory and Practice
Structure
Presentation
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Structure of the dissertation
Title (page)
Table of contents
Abstract
Ch 1 Introduction
Ch 2 Literature Review
Ch 3 Methodology
Quantitative
Qualitative
Ch 4 Results
Ch 5 Discussion
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Ch 4 Findings
Ch 5 Conclusion
Reference List
Appendices
Chapter 1: Introduction
•
•
•
•
Introduction to your topic
Research problem(s) to be addressed
Background to the problem’s context
Why is your problem important?
•
who will benefit?
• Who will use your conclusions?
•
policy/ practice/ research
• (also why they will use it)
• Structure of dissertation
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Education School
Chapter 2: Literature Review
• General definitions of concepts
• General discussion of your concepts and
related topics
• Specific research that is related to your topic
•
who, why, where, when, findings, shortcomings
• Existing work on your topic
•
who, why, where, when, findings, shortcomings
• General conclusions about work done to date
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Chapter 3: Methodology
• The rationale of process and the actual
process of the investigation that you are
undertook
• Theoretical
• research philosophy / approach
• research purpose
• research design
• Methods
•
•
•
•
•
what
what
what
what
what
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is
is
is
is
is
your
your
your
your
your
data
sample
collection method
collection instrument
analysis
Chapter 4: Results/Findings
•
What were the findings of the study?
•
Sufficient evidence must be presented to enable
the reader to comprehend and critically assess
the approach adopted.
•
The findings should not simply be listed, but
some indication of the nature and relative
importance should be given.
•
Are any limitations of the findings
acknowledged? Do they consistently address the
topic of the dissertation?
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Chapter 5: Discussion
•
Summarise your results and conclusions in a
more readable fashion. Give the interpretation
and evaluation of your results/findings
•
Relate your results to the literature you
discovered for the literature review
•
Suggest recommendations and implications that
relate to the problem you are studying
•
Discuss limitations of your research
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MSc EPI Dissertation Studies
Understanding Research
- Assumptions
- Limitations
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pf70HglUMYA&feature=
related
Depth and Understanding
Representive and Predictive
What does it aim to do?
• exploratory
•
generate new ideas, concepts, or hypotheses
• descriptive
•
provides a detailed, highly accurate picture
• explanatory
•
•
explains why something happens
look for casual relationships between concepts
• predictive
•
forecasts future phenomena
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Are the researchers
‘politically’ neutral?
• most researchers aim to be politically neutral
or impartial by presenting all sides of an
argument
• sometimes the researcher is overtly partisan
or adversarial
•
examples
• feminist research
• critical theorists
• action researchers
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Education School
What use is it?
•
•
in pure, basic, theoretical or academic projects,
the aim is to understand the cause or
mechanism of a phenomenon.
applied or practical projects impact directly on
health, wealth, education, or culture
Pure
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Practical
How original is it?
• most research projects are so-called original
investigations.
• you obtain new data or information about a
phenomenon.
• some research projects are reviews of the
literature.
• you use other researchers' published data or
info about a phenomenon.
primary
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replication
secondary
review
Who is it studying?
• Are you studying a single situation or person,
or is it a sample that will allow you to
generalize to a population?
populations
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samples
case studies
individuals
From what ‘discipline’ does it
approach research?
Psychology
History
Management
Sociology
Political Science
Economics
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What do they study?
Objective
• objects that we can
identify with our
senses
therefore…
• only research things
that are objective
• activities
• behaviours
Subjective
•
all objects undergo a
process of
interpretation by the
individual
therefore…
•
research the
interpretation and
not the object
• understandings
• preferences
Is it theory-building or theoryconfirming?
Theory building- Inductive
theory
Theory confirming - Deductive
theory
generalisations
hypothesis
identify patterns
test hypothesis
observations
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accept/reject theory
What type of information is
collected?
• with quantitative collection methods…
•
you gather data that is a numerical
representation of the phenomena of interest
• surveys, experimental methods, observations
• with qualitative collection methods…
•
you gather in-depth / rich information from
individuals or documents
• interviews, observations, texts, videos …
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How is the information
analyzed?
• with quantitative analysis methods…
•
you use established statistical processes to look
for patterns and relationships amongst the data
• with qualitative analysis methods…
•
you looks for themes and patterns of interest
within the information
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