Writing a PhD Thesis
The purpose of this talk is to explain to PhD candidates on what to be
aware when writing their thesis. The materials of this talk are sourced
from my PhD supervision at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia since 2007.
Ismail Said (PhD)
Associate Professor
Academic Manager of Generic Program
The School of Graduate Studies
UTM 16 Oct 2014
PhD research is my baby
REMINDER: In your lifetime, you only write ONE thesis.
What is a Thesis?
• A scientific document that has to be clear, well
explained, well presented and easy to read. “The
thesis is the culmination of your project and the
quantifiable evidence of your learning and what you
have accomplished for your higher degree” (Monash
University).
• It is a testament of your analytical and critical
thinking on your research subject.
• It defines your transition from student to scholar. It is
a document with substantial and original
contribution to knowledge of a particular field.
What is a Thesis?
• A document that is cogently written into a story; new
knowledge discovered from your investigation.
• This means that each chapter is linked to the preceding ones.
Each section of a chapter is integrated to explain the purpose
of the chapter. Each chapter ends with a conclusion or a
summary.
• A story worth a thousand pictures.
Content of Thesis
Abstract
• A brief representation of your thesis
• An overall picture of your thesis that should
trigger the examiners to go to your Chapter 1:
Research Problem and Background
• Its content include RESEARCH PROBLEM and
GAP, AIM AND OBJECTIVES, METHODS,
RESULTS AND FINDINGS, CONCLUSION and
IMPLICATIONS, FURTHER RESEARCH
Examiner Comment
on Abstract
• By Tracey Skelton on Nor Fadzila’s thesis,
AFFORDANCE OF SCHOOL GROUNDS FOR
CHILDREN’S OUTDOOR PLAY AND ENVIORNMENTAL
LEARNING (2014)
The abstract accurately reflects the thesis and captures the content to very good
effect. The abstract provides a good insight in to what the thesis focuses on and
outlines the methods used to gather the data. The innovative question about the
role that school grounds play in children’s learning and play activities is clearly laid
out. The abstract is followed by an excellent contents page, which is very detailed
and well structured.
Content of Thesis
Chapter 1: Research Problem and Background
• It is the main door of your thesis to enthuse the
examiner that it is a worthwhile research to be read.
In other words, it is the first impression for the
examiners.
• Its structure comprises of defining the research
problem and specifying the gap of study, background
and scope of study, research aim and objectives or
hypothesis, significance of study, anticipated
findings.
Content of Thesis
Chapter 1: Research Problem and Background
• Your problem could be derived from literature as well
as your direct experience with the research problem.
• The background is the situatedness of your study. It
means that the context of your research as a small
part of a large research discipline.
• It should be written in simple present tense.
Affordances of School Grounds
for Children’s Outdoor Play and
Environmental Learning
Nor Fadzila Aziz (PB103013)
PhD Candidate
Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr Ismail Said
Faculty of Built Environment
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
1 October 2014
School Grounds
Schools grounds as potential sites for children’s outdoor play
and environmental learning
•
School grounds provides the opportunities for children to interact
with the school environment through movement, investigation,
concentration and social interaction.
 Promotes children’s physical, social and cognitive development and
children’s health (Ozdemir and Yilmaz, 2008; Willenberg et al., 2010)
 Potential sites for place-based or environmental learning and instruction
(Malone and Tranter, 2003a, 2003b; Dyment, 2005; Dyment et al., 2009;
Powell, 2007; Stanley 2010)
•
Children’s outdoor play in the school grounds is a fundamental
component of informal learning, which has been referred to as
environmental learning by Tranter and Malone (2004).
Research Gap
There has been a variety of research about school grounds, but most
studies have focused either on the impacts of the physical
environment on children’s behaviour and levels of physical activity
or on children’s perception of their school grounds environment.
•
•
The studies overlooked the connection between the physical environment
and the social context of school grounds regarding the actualisation of
affordances and the formation of children’s preferences.
Research focusing on children’s values of outdoor play for environmental
learning in relation to the physical and social contexts of school grounds is
less studied.
Therefore, more comprehensive research is required to explore the
connection between children’s experiences within the designed
school grounds environment with their perceptions of the ideal
school grounds for environmental learning.
Content of Thesis
Chapter 2: Literature Review
• This chapter presents the critical appraisal or synthesize of
past studies related to your research subject. It shall
demonstrate a discursive prose.
• It is synthesizing a subject from a set of previous studies in
your own stance. Therefore, it explains how you evaluate the
works of other, show the relationships between different
works, and show how it relates to your work. Hence, it is your
debate on what has been studied, what is the status quo of
the research subject, and lastly, what you want to extend.
• Organize the literature review into sections that present
themes or identify trends, including relevant theory.
Content of Thesis
Chapter 2: Literature Review
• Here is where you discuss the meaning of research concept or
underpinning(s). The discussion ends with a clear research
framework of your study referring to past studies and your
research objectives.
• It shall be written in simple present tense even though you
are referring to past studies.
Rebuilding identity of historical area
through the use of urban morphology
1875
1920
PhD Thesis Defense, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
Widya Fransiska Febriati Anwar (PB093004)
December 2009 – January 2013
Supervisor(s):
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ismail Said
Dr. Dilshan Remaz Ossen
Dr. Moh. Hisyam bin Rasidi
1945
2004
Situating a research with current status quo of a subject
Urban
Morphology
Schuller, 1898; Geisler, 1918; Whitby, 1951; Conzen,
1960; Muratori, 1960; Hillier aand Hanson, 1984;
Forties; 1989; Kropt, 1996; Hall, 1997; Levy, 1999;
Canigia, 2001; Jiang and Claramunt, 2002; Chapman,
2006; james and Bound, 2009; Tian et.al, 2010; Topcu
and Kubat, 2012
Conzen, 1960; Lynch, 1960; Kostof, 1991;
Wikantyoso,1997; Hillier, 2001; Ikaputra,
et. Al, 2000; Fattahi and Kobayashi,
2009a, 2009b
Boblic, 1990; Hall, 1997;
Purwanto, 2005; Hanh, 2006;
Hara, et.al (2008)
Tuan, 1974; Steele, 1981; Altman and
Low, 1992; Hummon, 1992; Jackson,
1994; Cross, 2001; Guillani, 2003;
Willian and Vaske, 2003; Smaldone,
2006; Handal. 2006; Beidler, 2007;
Hernandez, 2007; Brown and
raymond, 2007; Watson and Bentley,
2007; White et.al, 2008; Liu, 2009;
Raymod et.al, 2010; Najafi and
Kamal, 2011
Identity
Environmental
Psychology
Place
Familiarity
Sense of
Place
Urban
Element
Urban
Structure
Change
Urban
Setting
Inn, 2004;Gospodini, 2004, 2011; Doralti,
2004;Watson, 2006; Plaza, 2006, 2008; Butina,
2006; Niebrzydowski, 2007; Novickas, 2007;
Lewicka, 2008; Handal, 2009;Chen, 2011;
Sainz, 2012
Urban
Reminder
Rebuilding Place Character
City IdentityAuthenticity City
Marketing
Culture
City's
Identity
Place Identity
Place
Image of
Identity of Place
Attachment
the city
Rodwel, 2007; Kolzlowski and
Bowen, 1997; Sevinc, 2009;
Wei and Kiang, 2009;
Whitehand and Gu, 2010; Albert
and Hanzen, 2010; Hillier, 2001
Whitehand and Morton,
2004; Rapoport, 2004;
Samant, 2004; Tweed
and Sutherland, 2007;
Smith, 2008; Rabady,
2010; Ragab, 2011, Kim,
2011
Conservation
Preservation
Rebuilding city identity through the use of urban morphology
(Widya,2013)
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
RO#1.
The physical and
spatial pattern
RO#2
Place character that can establish the identity
RO#3
The interdependency
between the urban
morphology and identity
Identity with the Place
Place Identity
Urban Morphology
The persistent and new
urban element
The physical-spatial
pattern changes,
streetline and riverline
Superimposed the maps
Stage 4
The new/ remaining/
disappeared urban
elements or setting
People's appreciation
in the past (1890-1930)
People appreciation in
the present (19902000s)
Old
paintings
/ photos
Interview
Archival
studies
Questionnaire
The current bonding
between people and
riverside area
Interview
Questionnaire
The forgotten and memorized elements
Social Character
Physical Character
IDENTITY OF RIVER CITY
High vs. low appreciation
towards place
Examiner Comment
on Literature Review
• By Tracey Skelton on Nor Fadzila’s thesis,
AFFORDANCE OF SCHOOL GROUNDS FOR
CHILDREN’S OUTDOOR PLAY AND ENVIORNMENTAL
LEARNING (2014)
The literature review, which is largely located in Chapter 2, is extremely
comprehensive and clearly written. An extremely good range of literature is
examined and the candidate displays clear knowledge of, and the competence
toengage with, the scholarly debates that are relevant to her field of study. She
draws upon well-established and influential literature and also recent work to very
good effect. The literature review is structured clearly and logically.
I was also hoping to read more critical discussion about the conceptual and
material problems around the ideas of affordances is all the existing literature
accurate and useful? What are the candidate’s own critical perspectives on the
literature?
Content of Thesis
Chapter 3: Research Methodology
• It explains the research approach or design on how to elicit
data as well as what tools are used to analyze the data leading
to results.
• It also explain what type is your research either exploratory,
explanatory, experimental, descriptive or narrative.
• In addition, it describes the general approach of your
investigation either positivism, pragmatism or constructivism.
• It elaborates the meaning of parameters as well as
interrelationship of parameters.
• It describes the background of your study site or setting or
context.
• Lastly, the justify the validity and reliability of your methods.
• It should be written in simple past tense.
Affordances of School Grounds
for Children’s Outdoor Play and
Environmental Learning
Nor Fadzila Aziz (PB103013)
PhD Candidate
Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr Ismail Said
Faculty of Built Environment
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
1 October 2014
Research Methodology
Research Design
Measurement Strategies
Exploratory
research
Transactional approach in a
phenomenology study
Mixed methods design
(Concurrent nested strategy)
Qualitative
(Predominant method)
Quantitative
(Embedded method)
Children
(Stratified purposeful
sampling)
Teachers
(Simple random
sampling)
Data analysis and triangulation
Findings
STRATEGY
RESPONDENT
OBJECTIVE
a) Walkabout
interview and
mapping
RO#1
b) Photography
and discussion
RO#2
c)
Children
(n=80)
Drawing
RO#4
d) Preference
survey
e)
Survey
questionnaire
RO#3
Teachers
(n=71)
RO#3
RO#4
Interrelationship between Variables
PLANNING AND DESIGN OF SCHOOL GROUNDS
UP
potential site for
Conception of ideal
school grounds
School Grounds
Environment
perceived
affordances
offered
affordances
D2
Children’s
Outdoor Play
Environmental
Learning
Perception and
attitude towards
offered
affordances
D1
Actualisation of
Affordances
D3
Preferences
Children’s
interactions
Children’s
emotions
Children’s
needs
BOTTOM
CHILDREN’S BEHAVIOURAL AND PERCEPTUAL RESPONSES
Research Objectives
RO #3
RO #2
RO #1
RO #4
Affordances of
school grounds
Factors that influence
level of affordances
Environmental learning
in school grounds
Ideal school grounds for
environmental learning
Outdoor play
activities
Place preferences
Perceptions &
attitudes
Needs &
preferences
The use of school
grounds environment
Play behaviour
patterns & children’s
performances
Children’s
walkabout interview &
mapping
(n=80)
Children’s affection &
evaluation towards
the environment
Properties & attributes
of school grounds
Children’s
photography &
discussion
(n=80)
Descriptive statistics (Univariate)
Spatial analysis (Hotspots)
Content analysis (Interpretative)
The potentials &
barriers of school
grounds for
environmental
learning
Meaning and
understanding on the
potential affordances
of school grounds
Beliefs, preferences &
needs
Features, design
patterns & aspects
considered
Children’s
preference
survey
(n=80)
Teacher’s
survey
questionnaire
(n=71)
Children’s
drawing
Descriptive
statistics
Descriptive
statistics
RASCH Model
Descriptive
statistics
Content
analysis
TRIANGULATION
Person-environment relationship
(“ACTUAL” environment)
Physical &
social
factors
Perceptual & conception
(“IDEAL” environment)
Theoretical & design implication in enhancing school grounds’ potentials
(n=80)
Examiner Comment
on Research Methodology
• By Tracey Skelton on Nor Fadzila’s thesis, AFFORDANCE OF SCHOOL
GROUNDS FOR CHILDREN’S OUTDOOR PLAY AND ENVIORNMENTAL
LEARNING (2014)
This is a really strong chapter in the thesis and the range of methods utilised for
the research is explained very well and in good depth. There is also valuable use of
methodological scholarships and discussion and strong argument put forward for
the mixed-method approach. There are a few things that I think will strengthen the
chapter and form part of the minor amendments.
The methodology chapter provides a very clear descriptive introduction but how
does this chapter link with the aims of the thesis and the research questions of the
thesis? There needs to be more critical discussion of the purpose of thischapter to
answer the complexities of the research project. This material is there a little later
on but the early part of the chapter needs to be restructured. I would move
paragraph 2 on page 86 up into the introduction as it provides a good description
of the methods and so would better better in the introduction as part of showing
why and how the research was done in the way it was.
Content of Thesis
Chapter 4: Results and Discussion
• Here lies the novelty of your research. Your data has been
churned into tables and figures, your results. Figures could be
maps, illustrations, charts and graphs.
• Being critical means your interpret the results rigorously
relative to your research objectives, research hypothesis or
research questions. Answering all of them means your thesis
is complete.
• If you found that one of your objectives was not clearly
answered, you can revise it in Chapter 1 or you can even drop
the objective when you clearly understood that you have
reached your research aim.
Content of Thesis
Chapter 4: Results and Discussion
• Situate your findings with those from your literature review
either affirm, modify or reject. Hence, there should be many
citations chapter. Avoid playing safe in your discussion that is
discussing your findings all in consistent with those in the
review. You can argue why your finding is in contrast with the
findings of previous studies. It means that you either modify
the current status of research subject or you create a new
theory. This is the novelty of your research, new knowledge.
• It should be written in simple past tense.
Examiner Comment
on Results and Discussion
• By Tracey Skelton on Nor Fadzila’s thesis, AFFORDANCE OF SCHOOL
GROUNDS FOR CHILDREN’S OUTDOOR PLAY AND ENVIORNMENTAL
LEARNING (2014)
The chapter is extremely thorough and takes the reader through all the methods
and findings step by step. In some places I think sections could be combined and
more connected discussion be provided that provides a more analytical rather than
a largely descriptive narrative.
I found the most interesting part of this chapter related to the ideal school grounds
that the children invented. Their diagrams were intriguing and the presence of
water bodies in all of them particularly notable. I enjoyed the discussion on this
too.
Content of Thesis
Chapter 5: Conclusions and Implications
• Here lies the contribution of your research, the milestones
that you have generated and has clearly extend the boundary
of the current status quo of your research subject. This
demonstrates that you are a scholar in the field of study.
• Conclusion is constructed from the triangulation of findings
answering your research objectives. It is a generalization of
findings that benefits humanity.
• Implication is your idea consists of constructive steps that
your findings benefiting stakeholders, organization,
government or people’s community.
• It should be written in simple present tense.
Conclusion & Theoretical Implications
1. P-E fit
3. Environmental
preferences
2. Affordances
The Model of Child-Environment Transactional Process
PLACE MAKING AND MEANING OF
PADANG AS A PUBLIC PLACE IN
HISTORIC CITIES OF MALAYSIA
Nor Zalina Harun (PB073042)
PhD Candidate, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
Theoretical Implication
Denotative meaning
Connotative meaning
Abstract meaning
Distinctiveness
+
Valuation
Symbolical /
analogical
+
Place belongingness
Place identity
Place rootedness
Place identity
Diversity
Place familiarity
Place dependence
Cognitive attachment
Affective attachment
Symbolic attachment
Examiner Comment
on Conclusion and Implication
• By Tracey Skelton on Nor Fadzila’s thesis, AFFORDANCE OF SCHOOL
GROUNDS FOR CHILDREN’S OUTDOOR PLAY AND ENVIORNMENTAL
LEARNING (2014)
A key strength of this thesis is the amount of data and the systematic analysis of
that data. There is a wealth of materialprovided and discussed. This is particularly
impressive given that the research could only be carried out in a two-day period in
both schools. This is a testament to the mixed-methods approach that garnered a
lot of information in a short space of time. The thesis is one of the best written and
error-free pieces of work I have examined in quite a while – given the candidate is
writing in her second language this makes it all the more impressive. The structure
and logic of the thesis is very strong and makes for an engaging read. I could
almost feel the energy of the children as they talked about and engaged in their
different types of play. There is a good engagement with the academic literature
throughout the thesis and the candidate demonstrates a good knowledge of the
debates – although I think a more critical take on the work would have really
strengthened the thesis. The thesis provides insights which will be valuable for
policy making and planning.
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