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!