Start Your Dissertation

Dr. Xu Di

Educational Foundations

College of Education

University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, U.S.A.

September 30, 2013

Table of Content

• Introduction – Where you are and where your are going?

• Dissertation committee Formation• Start your dissertation – Research design• Q&A• Conclusion

Introduction

• Where you are – ABD, Congrats!

• Where you are going:– Qualifying (Comp or portfolio)– Committee formation– Dissertation– Graduation, hopefully

Introduction- Reality Check

• National statistics:

• Average length for dissertation completion:

8.2 yr. (for educ., 13+ yrs.)

• The percentage who complete: 50%

• Divorce rate: 7.4 for men; 12.1% for women

• Average age: 32.6 (42.3 for educ.)

• Loan (social sciences): 50% (35%>$35K)

Introduction – Reality check 2

• Traditional full graduate student formula:

• 9 credits + 27 study hours (3 for each course)

• 36 hours/week + 4 hour social life

• Your work hours:

• Sleep:

• Eat and family:

• Conclusion: Work smarter, not harder.

Dissertation Committee

• Who: chair, 2-3 members, 1 university rep

• How to find them:– Expertise– Each plays a special role: knowledge, method,

writing, perspectives, support– Team work– Work well with you– Quality & professional network

Chapter 3

– Introduction– Research question– methodology– Research subjects & sites– Instruments (validity and reliability)– Data collection procedures– Data analysis– IRB– Researcher’s role– Assumption & limitation

– Summary

How to Choose Your Focus

• Basic questions ponder:

• What is your passion? Why?

• How would you describe your strength & quality?

• What do you want your Ph.D. do for you

• What job would you like it to lead to? – Short term– Long term

What is Dissertation research?

• Research is an examination of a problem, issue, or item via systematic, historical, scientific, critical, and reflective method in search of better and creative solutions that benefit humanity, society, and universe.

Dissertation Structure

• Introduction• Literature review• Research design

– questions

– Site

– participants

– methodology

– Data collection

– Data analysis

– IRB considerations

• Findings• Discussion, Recommendations, & Conclusion

Find your topic

• Please brainstorm and find 3 themes that are of interest to you:

• What topics inspire and excite you?• What strength do you have that you can utilize with

these themes?• What do you want to contribute to the field?

Research Question

• Considerations for choosing your research Q:

• What is the new contribution?

• How can you make the question focused, clear, and feasible?

• Please specify the level and scope of your research in your question.

Research Design & Methods

• Quantitative: experimental, quasi-experimental

• Qualitative

• Case study

• Mixed methods

• Ethnography

• Historic study

• Philosophical study

• Spiritual study…

Site & Sample

• Where would you plan to conduct your research? Why? Permission? Use of data in the future.

• Sample– Who – Why – How (convenient or random)– Size: Qualitative vs. quantitative, Power of sig.– Consent form

Instrument

• Instrument selection– What to use & why– Adopt one or create your own– Reliability

• Reliability and validity

• Triangulation of data

• Basic and background data/info. (age, gender, ethnicity, geographic location, SES etc.)

Data Collection

• What procedures would you use to collect your data? Why?

• What is your timeline? Why?

• Who else may involved in your data collection?

IRB Considerations

• Independent Review Board

• For human/animal subjects:

• No harm

• Anonymous

• Consent & approval (location, participants)

• Secured and aggregated data

• 5 year

IRB Training

• 1. Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) program at www.citiprogram.org

•  

• 2. NIH

• http://phrp.nihtraining.com/users/login.php

Data Analysis

• What tools would you use to analyze your data? Why?

• Quantitative: Frequency, mean (SD), correlation, regression, t-test, chi-square)

• Qualitative analysis: theme, ground theory, ethnographic recording and description, cases.

• Other (historic patterns, philosophical theory building etc.

Researcher’s Role

• Your role– Objective observer or analyst

– Data collector or interviewer

– Participant and recorder

• Assumption– Public assumption

– Your own assumption and pre-conceived notion

• Objectivity

• Integrity

Summary

• Recap your research focus • Provide a transition leading to your next chapter

– Chapter 4 Findings

• Reference – leave no paragraph unsupported• Template – APA:

http://eddleaders.sdsu.edu/sites/eddleaders.sdsu.edu/files/APA%206th%20Style%20Manual(1).pdf

Research Sources

• Libraries– Harvard – www.lib.harvard.edu/– MIT – http://libraries.mit.edu/– Berkeley – www.lib.berkeley.edu/– Stanford – www-sul.stanford.edu/– UH-Manoa – www.library.hawaii.manoa.edu/

• Government– Library of Congress – http://www.loc.gov/index.html– Census – http://www.census.gov/– US DOE – http://www.ed.gov/index.jhtml– National Center of Education Statistics - http://nces.ed.gov/– Federal grants – www.grants.gov/– Fulbright Fellowship – http://fulbright.state.gov/– EWC – http://www.eastwestcenter.org/

Research Sources - continued

• International organizations– World Bank – www.worldbank.org/– UN & UNESCO – www.unesco.org/

• Organizations– Gates foundations – www.gatesfoundation.org/– Carnegie – www.carnegiefoundation.org/– Spencer– www.spencer.org/– W. Wilson Foundation– http://www.woodrow.org/– Education Trust – http://www2.edtrust.org/edtrust/

Research Source - Health

• Harvard Health Publication -http://www.health.harvard.edu/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=%2Bharvard%20%2Bmedical&utm_campaign=Brand_Health_Main_USA

• Center for Disease Control - http://www.cdc.gov/

• Mayo Clinic - http://www.mayoclinic.com/

• National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) - http://nccam.nih.gov/

• Rand.Org – Health Policy Analysis - http://www.rand.org/topics/health-and-health-care.html

Dissertation Tips

• Quality, quality, quality!!!

• Ethics matters

• Various research tools (library vs. internet, methods etc.)

• Diverse perspectives

• Global context

• Focus

• Ongoing and smart work

• Team work & inter-disciplinary

• Template

Help:

• Fitzpatrick, Jacqueline, Jan Secrist, and Debra J. Wright. Secrets for a Successful Dissertation, (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1998).

• Mauch James E., and Jack W. Birch. Guide to the Successful Thesis and Dissertation: Conception to Publication, (New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc., 1983).

• Back to Dissertation Basics: http://www.asgs.org/DissBscs.html

Conclusion

• “Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought.” –Werner von Braun

• “If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?” – Albert Einstein

Thank you! Mahalo!

Happy Learning!

Happy Research!

Happy Writing!