#phd work

[ed-smike]

June 2018.

[ed-smike]

Finished this sketchbook the other day. Here’s some of the best bits!

[thewenglishwarlock]

After a day of working through it again I’m back to loving my data!

[gregorys-901-insanity]

Week 3 readings for TE 902 ...

This week covered summery, and one journal article, both relating to writing, decisions to be made in relation to citations used, etc.  

The first, a summary of A Beginner’s Guide to Doing Your Education Research Project, by Mike Lambert, was narrowed down to ten sections, each with their own set of explanations.  I, then, took the ten sections as outline headings, and tried to summarize the writing within.  The outcome was the following:

Tip 1: Plan & build: the ‘swimming-pool’ approach

Set section titles

Add to each section as literature contributes to that section

Tip 2: Taking notes from your reading

Write out concise, clear notes

Compare and contrast as literature becomes more well rounded

Maintain database, of sorts, to keep references in line

Tip 3: Taking notes from your reading - contd.

Keep track of relevant statistical data

Make a note of your reaction/thoughts related to readings …

strong/weak case

gaps in thinking

how the topic is discussed (discourse)

Tip 4: History of events, or history of ideas?

Track important dates/establish timeline

How has content evolved, if at all

Tip 5: Use a range of literature

Books, dependable

Journals, more up to date

Newspaper/TV, popular opinion

Official reports, evidence of institution’s implementation, often “rosey” image provided by the institution

Research reports, shed light on what has been tested, what has been discovered

Internet, almost a member-check … may help establish that findings are rational, reasonable, well thought through

Tip 6 ‘Criticality’ -Strengthening criticality

Compare studies …

Compare perspectives

Evaluate the literature

Tip 7: Citing literature in your text

Vary the way you write the citations …

Do not vary the tense used

Tip 8: Where do research questions go?

They can go anywhere …

As long as the structure of the paper makes sense

Tip 9: Writing tips

Vary your vocabulary … nobody wants to be the “apparently” kid

Be mindful how you’re writing numbers … generally ten and below written as a word, above ten numerically … unless it starts a sentence, in which case it is words (what does APA say?)

Integrate short quotes when/where possible

Use long quotes sparingly?

Tip 10: Link your review to your own investigation (self explanatory?)

The second portion of this reading task was to sift through Kennedy’s “Defining a Literature” (citation below).  In this article, Kennedy walks the reader through the establishment of three rules set for the systematic review leading to a teacher-qualification and quality-teaching (TQ-QT) database, from which multitude of literature reviews have come.  

Of the more important items drawn from Kennedy’s piece (and I know this to be the case because it is the only highlighted portion in it’s own color), the effort of a systematic review must begin with rules in place governing what is, and is not, accepted into the pool of literature to be considered.  

Other aspects discuss how the author established the 465 separate studies (with some papers discussing more than one study, others referencing the same study).  

Kennedy follows their selection process by discussing the “lore” that arises form second-hand accounts of the work being done.  This makes me think of the telephone game we played in elementary school, where “it is almost time for recess” might be reported as “aliens landed on the playground yesterday and thus no recess for a month.” The author, though, admits that any one individual has little chance to read all the papers relevant to their work (in this case over 450 such articles) and thus the lore created becomes an important part of one’s understanding.  

On a final note, Kennedy demonstrated that, based on the research criteria stated for the TQ-QT project, journal articles were marginally better than books or book chapters.  Dissertations and Reports or Electronic Sources seemed to have more viable information for the project’s efforts.  Peer-reviewed journals are a staple of academic writing, but this one database (and yeah, it’s just one, so there’s that) demonstrates that journal articles may not be the end-all when it comes to scholarly writing.  Of course, the excerpt of Lambert’s work outlined above stated that as well.  

[gregorys-901-insanity]

For this Spring 2016 semester, this space will be utilized to comment on readings for two courses, TE 902 (the second siminar class for first year students) and TE 963 (Critical Race Theory). I have no answers, only thoughts and questions. As such, you are all welcome to watch my progress in developing my "truth" regarding race, gender, and the like in the context of education. Books to be read include ... Bell, D. A. (1992). Gaces at the bottom of the well: The permanence of racism. New York: Basic Books. Carter-Andrews, D. J. and Tuitt, F. (Eds). (2013). Contesting the myth of a 'post racial' era: The continued significance of race in U.S. education. New York: Peter Lang. Delgado, R. and Stefancic, J. (2012). Critical race theory. New York: New York University Press. Taylor, E., Gillborn, D., and Ladson-Billings, G. (Eds.). (2016). Foundations of critical race theory in education, 2e. New York: Routledge. Articles read will be included within individual posts ... I'll try to be good about all of it.

[the-greats-of-math]

I am not the most brilliant of students, but I am a KING at procrastination. Two netflix movies, a dozen or so youtube videos related to either Animal or Buddy Rich, and mass distractions across the board.

[the-greats-of-math]

Presented in a mock conference today…

Big feedback piece was to “not use self-deprecating humor. It doesn’t play well in academia.”

Cannot be sarcastic, cannot poke fun at myself…

What am i to do? That’s basically my entire skill set

[yolandaxiaojuan]

The Concept Of Video

Design garment related to body-based design,focusing on interaction for dress and body of wearer, investigate how observer feeling emotions, as inspiration for tangible design. I make the video for the initial prototype, which transmits a simple interaction with dress and dancer, experience with measuring and analyzing dance gestures expressive in terms of emotions: sad, depressed, frustrated, tense, relaxed, pleased, excited from the areas of full body movement with arms, hands, wrists and legs. Here is the concept process of the video:

At first, when wearer lying on the ground and into huddle form, the dress with body into a closed shape, and conveys sad; then the wearer sit up slowly from ground, the dress open up slowly along with the shoulder and arm, express the depressed mood of dancer; then touch the dress, the feathers slowly down with the frustrated mood of wearer; along with tense mood, breathing slowly, gently stroked the “Octopus” shape dress; after that, with the rotation of the head, arms, waist of wearer, the dress moving and rotation slowly with  body movement. The plastic material of dress slightly reflected lights like waves form, the wearer relaxed gently from it; After relax, the dress opening like a flower with the rotation of body, dancers’ mood become into pleased with the opening dress; and finally, wearer’s emotion reach to enthusiasm and excited with quickly rotation of body. In short, the video transmits a simple interaction with dress and dancer, convey basic emotions: from sad, depressed, frustrated, tense, relaxed to pleased and excited.