After finishing my final paper in W7000, I have decided that I am starting to like my topic. It would make an interesting and valuable dissertation topic. My final research question: What is the dominant preferred learning style of design students within each chosen major?
The purpose of the study is to determine if there is a relationship between learning styles of students and the major chosen in an art college.
When I began at Ai, and throughout my career there, I have heard teachers say that most of the students are visual learners. From my experience, I do not believe this is true. Especially with the diverse programs being offered. I would like to dispel this myth once and for all and give teachers something accurate to guide their teaching styles.
The writing course is almost over. I,ve learned that APA is like evil monster waiting around every corner – waiting to catch me doing something wrong. There are so many rules and exceptions to rules. Every rule has to be looked up and carefully read. Sometimes the example given is not what you think it is. It’s crazy!
4:44 am on a Sunday morning and I am awake thinking about how I am going to get everything done. Yeah!
I learned three things today!
Most doctoral researchers advise that organization is important when writing a dissertation. That seems logical. Today I actually learned some methodology regarding that organization. It’s easy, simply color code papers by topics, subtopics and agree or refute position. Then you can use highlighters to note the important elements.
I also learned that balance is important even while trying to obtain a doctoral degree. School administration may push to get you to the finish line quickly, but most teachers agree that only you know the pace you need to keep and how much you can sacrifice at any one time. One of the Doctors mentioned that in the group of 10 students that he studied with, only 2 were still married at the end of their program. I am not willing to sacrifice my marriage. It’s not worth it.
Lastly, I learned not to get in the way of wedding ditchers that are hell-bent on watching a horse race.
It is the end of day 3 of the Doctoral Residency. I am no closer to a dissertation topic; however, I now understand the importance of having a dissertation topic early in the program. I know that I will not pursue the study of learning styles among design management students. That topic, while original, would be problematic in so many ways. I think my goal will be to read the abstract and conclusions of 5 recent dissertations before the end of the June. The topics of dissertations will include the following: learning styles, first-generation students, online learning, technology in education, and one other random sample.
This class is truly kicking my butt. I didn’t expect it to be easy — but, I also didn’t expect it to be this insane. I’m trying to get caught up on all my homework for the week plus do all my class planning for this week and next week, and get my clothes ready, just so that I can go to this stupid residency in DC and meet all these lovely people that I don’t even know. This is just NOT my thing.
Most of all, I am not ready to write a research question for a dissertation topic. I was completely taken by surprise at the beginning of week 2 with the assignment and now for the duration of this class I am stuck trying to make a topic work that is stupid.
WHAAAA!
Trying to write a paper yesterday and all was going smoothly. It looked like I would be finished and still have time to soak up some sunshine. Then it happened. My MacBook Pro, that never locks up, decided it would crash everytime I tried to do something in a Word file. I did everything I could. Luckily it’s still under warranty, but I really don’t have time to take it in. So, when all else fails just stop stressing and go shopping. When I got home, my genius husband suggested that it might be just one file in Word that’s causing the problem. Sure enough, I had copied some text off of eCompanion website into my file and it was the culprit. No problems since. Love living with a techie!
I interviewed Susan yesterday to gain insights into her dissertation journey. She noted that her dissertation topic involved a potential career purpose. Knowing that she would finish her doctoral degree in a career field that sometimes values youth, she wanted to make sure she had a specialty where she would not be considered “too old.” She studied the older returning graduate student.
With these two things in mind, age and long-term career opportunities, I think it might be wise to consider a dissertation topic that focuses on learning in the online environment. I have always been interested in that topic. Since it is a realatively new environment there is not likely to be a lot of research already done on the topic, and an individual teaching in an online environment can be any age.
Considered another possible dissertation topic: Using student teams to enhance the learning experience. Of course this is still a broad subject area that would need to be narrowed. From my experiences using student teams, both good and bad, I think the subject could add value to the way teachers use team environments. My instructor reminded me that whatever I choose it will have to hold my interest for a few years. I am wondering if anything will hold my attention for that long?
Oh what a challenge it is for this author to learn to write in the third person. APA style requires Roberts to write in a non-personal manner. It is quite difficult. In fact this author has given up trying to eliminate passive voice as she is too busy trying to eliminate personal reference pronouns such as I, me or my even while writing about personal preferences and such.