Research Support Group
The Research Support Group meets monthly and is a forum for all researchers in the Faculty to talk about their on-going work in a friendly, informal environment. We hope to help each other with the ‘nitty-gritty’ of what we are doing in our research.
Possible foci include: data we are trying to analyze – a piece of writing in process – an ethical dilemma – a desire for more knowledge of a particular method – help with constructing an interview schedule/questionnaire. The agenda is entirely open and developed as we proceed. Researchers are welcome to attend on a one-off basis or more regularly.
Please contact Fran Tracy (F.E.Tracy@ljmu.ac.uk), Sandra Hiett (s.hiett@ljmu.ac.uk) or Jo Frankham (j.frankham@ljmu.ac.uk) for further information.
Timetable of meetings:
February 1st 2012
Fran Tracy will introduce her research from the MEd she conducted at the University of Cambridge on ‘University Teachers’ Beliefs about Small Group Teaching and Learning’. Examples of picture in picture video will be shown to demonstrate the methods used and to start a discussion about how to disseminate the findings.
March 7th 2012
Sandra Hiett will talk about a project she's working on called 'Angels with dirty faces: Postcode criminals'. The project is looking at how young people feel they are perceived in their local communities and ultimately hopes to challenge negative stereotypes of young people. We will look at the questionnaire she is using and help her think about other ways of gathering data for the project. She also has a small amount of data already gathered and hopefully we'll have time to look at that and have a think about what young people are saying.
May 2nd 2012
Gillian Peiser will talk about some of the dilemmas she faced in the course of developing her Ph.D (which she achieved with minor amendments just yesterday - congrats to her). She will talk about the tensions she experienced in relation to her methodology and ontological positioning and what it means to change research questions mid study. You may also be interested in hearing more about the viva process.
6th June 2012
Mike Inglis: I want to share my EdD research so far, having completed an initial study as part of my first year. My research is about exploring how student science teachers develop their physics subject knowledge. I am principally interested in students on the one-year Subject Knowledge Enhancement (SKE) course. The SKE course aims to support non-physics graduates to develop physics subject knowledge so they can go on and enter the Physics PGCE course. I want to explore the students' experiences of engaging with physics with a particular interest in the role of peer-teaching approaches. I intend to share some of my initial study interview data with a view to discussing my experience as a novice researcher.
4th July 2012
Working title: 'Using Pecha Kucha to support the formative assessment process; Exploring/or Contextualising perceptions in the context of two undergraduate modules.' (See link below for background on Pecha Kucha)
Nicky: The data I'll be sharing are questionnaires from students on 2 of my modules (level 5 & level 6) where I introduced an idea - Pecha Kucha http://www.pecha-kucha.org/what as a methodology where students could present their ideas for the group summative presentations using visual imagery as a stimulus. The idea wasn't to 'practice' the presentation, rather they presented their research to date. I also have transcripts of interviews with centre staff based on the key themes that emerged from the questionnaires. I spent some time considering the methodological approach of AR but am finding myself meandering down different paths - discourse analysis etc.
