Salam ( Peace be upon you readers)
Bis millahi rahmanir rahim ( In the name of God the most beneficient and most benevolent)
This is a small writing on how to conclude your research work. I would like to dedicate this to my malaysian students/ friends who are trying to put the final words on their masters / PhD work. Let me call it the first draft for s/he must show their work to their supervisor for the final approval regarding this concluding chapter only.
All chapters in a thesis has an introduction.
So my advice is in your introduction it is wise to declare whether this is a quantitative work, qualititative work or a mixture of both/ experimentation/ programming etc etc. This can help the readers to proceed with knowing your work in advance.
So the structure of this chapter is
introduction/ a quasi-experimental research. Pre- Experiment - Post Test + Control
contents - your contribution to the body of knowledge (BOK)
limitations of your work
future recommendations
THE END ( smile please)
----------------
Brief history of your work.
Research Questions RQ1, RQ2, RQ3 etc etc.
Sample/ place
I was instructed by my supervisors/examiners to write this
chapter based on my research questions RQ1 to RQ4.
RQ1:
RQ4:
What conclusion have you derived?
This chapter must incorporate points like :
·
Your
contribution towards the BOK Body Of Knowledge.
·
Limitations of your study
·
Recommendations
I think you should stick with 1 or 2 recommendations only
for a start.
Your recommendations are:
Firstly, recruit better technical students into the
polytechnics MTUN systems in Malaysia.
Secondly, recruit teachers who masters in mathematics education background and not engineers who could only see things from the engineering applications point of view.
PLease elaborate.
If you have a recommendation, just tell us. Why?
How?
The contribution towards
the body of knowledge?
First you briefly state some important theories that are the
foundation towards your research. My
study was about learning and teaching of
mathematics using computers/ internet among 18+ polytechnic students MOHE in
Malaysia undergoing certificate engineering programs. Sample was 137 students (70% males; 30%
females). The study was conducted in the
first 8 weeks of the first semester.
Certificate engineering programs run for 4 semesters with one semester
in industrial placement.
So the theories that were used are: Mays (2000) from Australia, Mayer(1995) from Cambridge ,UK , Marzita
Puteh (2003) about mathematics anxiety in Malaysia and Felder (2000)
in USA. See you have put down the big
stones that acted as the foundation/ pillars throughout your study.
I introduced a courseware called CDiCL ( a CD with collaboration
learning principles in a polytechnic students population age 18+). The
courseware was built using ADDIE model (acronym for Analisis, Design, Develop,
Implement and Evaluation). This acted as
my contribution.
My findings. Put them
here.
So what are your contributions? I contributed in two things. Firstly, I experimented using CDiCL with four
quadrants on 1 computer screen at a time in pre-algebra where we believe that
text and visual clues can help to develop many mathematical weaknesses among
weaker sets of learners. I found that many students can understand maths much
better and faster than to expose them solely using text clue . By having four different quadrants, few
students can share their ideas while using the computers in small group of 2 -3 only. Second, the CD was built taking into account the strength of
each individual students' learning style i.e., they are strong in learning things using visual clues and
few other students are stronger in building their maths understanding in text
mode only. By combining two different
strengths of any student , you are introducing an element that had saved learning and teaching time in the Malaysian
polytechnic, technical schools and college communities in this country. By saving the time, you have saved money, funds and working time since Malaysians enjoyed many
kinds of holidays annually. The CD was
built using the theories by Mayer (1995) multimedia learning and Flenders (2000) collaborative learning. Admission: the courseware was pilot tested in
three different places before it was used in Polytechnic Kota Bharu, Kelantan , Malaysia MOHE in
2006. Sample 137 students 18+ 70% males and 30% females.
The
statistics of the students doing better must be given at this point.
See chapter 4 findings section 4.1 and section 4.2 in this thesis. Explain briefly the figures to show that
there was an impact of learning pre-algebra using CDiCL.
Once you state something, and you gave the readers (your
"examiners") with supporting evidence then you may claim that ..this is your
contribution towards the BOK (body of knowledge). My claim includes the incorporation of
Hermann Brain model into the development of CDiCL in learning mathematics in the polytechnic.
The final section of this chapter could include both
limitation and future recommendation .
The limitation of my work was
- The medium of instruction in the CD
(CDiCL) was in English
- The study was run for the
first eight weeks of the first semester of certificate engineering
programmes of Polytechnic Kota Bharu, Kelantan. During this time , some administration
of the students were not yet finalised especially the funding aspects of their
studies. However, this is the time
when algebra is taught for the certificate engineering students.
- The content of the CDiCL
was pre-algebra (factorization, simplification and word problem solving
which was equivalent to GCE’O’ Levels ) only.
Recommendations.
Recommendations . you can
suggest/ use the word “may’ which is
more polite when you are not forcing
anybody to follow your idea. If they
follow ..good ..if they reject it ..it is also very good. It is not the end of the world. Moreover, you are not going to solve all the
problems in this sick sick world by doing PhD right?
An example of a recommendation:
- The CDiCL should be used throughout the
first two semesters of the certificate engineering programmes/ why?
Then we can see its (CDiCL) suitability and proper adaptation between
algebra and calculus in engineering
He..he… think positive ..when you write this chapter. But you must show that you have built /
gained some authority in your subject matter.
The examiners can detect this easily by the way you explain few things
in this chapter. Once you got this
confidence/ authority .. your PhD explains that you are the master of your
research in this world.
Thank you for
reading.
God help you OK? See
you then …
Wallahhuaklam. (God
knows best).
By : Sazali Khalid
Ph.D ( UTHM, Malaysia), M Computers in
Education (Birmingham), B.Sc OR & Computing (Leeds)
References:
Cryer, P.(2000). The research student's guide to success. 2nd Ed. ISBN 0 335 2086 7 Buckingham: Open University Press
Phillips, E. M. and Pugh, D.S. (2000). How to get a PhD - a handbook for students and their supervisors . 3rd Ed. ISBN 0-320550-X Maidenhead: Open University Press
Sulaiman Yamin (1988).
Quantitative research - Tests,
evaluations and assessment in Science Education in UTM Malaysia. PhD thesis.
Oregon, USA.
Clark, R.E.(1994).
Media will never influence learning.
Educational Technology Research and Development , Vol 42(2),
21-29
Aida Suraya M Yunus
et al (2006). Coonfidence in teaching
mathematics among pre-service teachers. Journal
of Science and Mathematics Education in South East Asia. Vol 29(1)
. Penang: Seameo, Recsam 1- 20
This would certainly help a lot of people who are writing their conclusion part of thesis paper. I think thesis writing can be hard and tedious at times, but with article and blog post like this can truly help people find the better and easier path to travel. Anyway, I do hope everything went well with your paper, Sazali.
TQ Prof Gloria Adams
Yes with some help like the above structure, I managed to submit my thesis in April 2010. I was conferred with my Ph.D in July the same year.
I think your support is great at this point. God bless you Gloria.