Research methods learning diary 7

Overall Reflection

I have learnt so much over the past few months and have recently just researched focus groups, perceptual mapping and designed my own survey all are really important as they will be the main body of my project. I have often fallen in and out of love with this module as at times I have loved doing all the research and writing up my findings and then hated it when I can’t find words for my proposal. There has been many times where I feel I have been on top of my work and so many times where I have stared at my computer waiting for a miracle.

The last few weeks I didn’t feel very confident about my work as my project proposal feedback hit me that it wasn’t very focused, this was a knock to my confidence as I realised how much more work I had to do hence falling out of love with the module. However the last few days I have been able to focus and fall in love with it again as I do feel very confident about my work, I have worked very hard to complete this module and have put in many hours to get it to the standard I now feel happy with.

The area I found the hardest was actually writing my proposal as I thought my first draft was good however my feedback proved that it lacked focus, after editing a lot of my word count I then struggled to write anything as I constantly reminded myself not to write anything unnecessary. If I am honest, on many occasions I just wanted to actually start the project as I am so interested and passionate about my title. I took a few days off from my proposal and when I got back to it the words came flowing. This is something that I have learnt, I need to take time away from an area I find difficult so that I can start again with a clear head.

It has only been recently that I have been thinking about the rationale for my degree title, I always wanted it to have education in it somewhere and it wasn’t until speaking to Peter that we agreed on Human Movement & Education. I have to be honest, I had no idea what human movement was but Peter explained what it was and I also researched it and I have to say I am very happy with it.

If I could do it all again I would defiantly try and get time off work to get to the campus sessions as being able to discuss things with people is a way that I learn. I like and feel comfortable when I write lists of things that I need to do or ask and this then benefits my work. I have gathered that the campus sessions have been very helpful as people have been able to do this.

Overall I have mixed emotions of this module but I defiantly feel ready to start my project.

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Research Methods Learning diary 1 (16th Feb 2010)

Campus Session 16th February 2010 at Cat Hill Campus was extremely helpful this week. This is my first campus session since the induction day, so to put some faces to all the people that I have been reading about and leaving comments for on from the previous tasks was nice. It was also good to meet Rosemary who is extremely enthusiastic about the course and the whole blogging thing!

I like many my other fellow BAPP buddies was very overwhelmed when reading the course handbook and even contacted my advisor Peter about it before the session. He explained that it’s about learning how to research for a project so when we have learnt how to research we can put in place everything we know for the final module (actually doing the project). After the session everything started to fall into place, I just have to keep reminding myself that it’s how to research NOT doing the research.

In order to learn how to research I have to think about what I would like to research or what I would like to find out. It was often mentioned that trying to find out something that you don’t know would be a good starting point, and to try and base the title of your project on something you want to know about, are interested in or want to bring attention to. I have many ideas of titles for my project and as I am going to be learning about different methods of research and my project over the next year it needs to be something I will really enjoy writing about. My only worries are most likely to be the same as others and that is that I won’t have enough solid information and that my title will not be interesting to read.

So, now I have grasped the concept of the module I am looking forward to putting some notes together on my chosen three titles to see which one I feel has the most content and the most interesting to find out about.