What do Master's students' structured reflections say about the learning processes involved in commencing a research project?

This study aims to unpack the reflective learning processes involved in developing a Masters’ research project proposal as part of a multidisciplinary Research Design course. Using inductive analysis, we explored students’ reflective blogs written over a period of a semester and defined the reflections according to an adaptation of Hatton and Smith’s (1995) framework. Our findings are that the nature of each individual blog topic affected the quality and level of reflection, which in turn is affected by the ‘learning ecology’ (Harvey, Coulson, & McMaugh, 2016 p. 12). More highly scaffolded blogs showed greater evidence of reflective practice. Likewise the nature of the practice (starting research) influenced reflection, since many processes are internal rather than requiring explicit practice to reflect on. In addition, as nascent practitioner researchers, the students are also involved in reflexivity rather than reflection and therefore some topics encouraged this form of reflection more than others did. This study is significant in that it explores reflection in research and practitioner contexts, focuses on early career researchers/practitioners and brings a multidisciplinary perspective.

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Práctica reflexiva y concepciones sobre escritura académica de los docentes en áreas de fundamentación (Ciencias Básicas) de la Fundación Católica Universitaria Lumen Gentium

Revista Lumen Gentium ◽

10.52525/lg.v4n2a5 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

pp. 62-75

Author(s):

Marilyn Molano de la Roche ◽

Ángela Adriana Rengifo Correa

Keyword(s):

Reflective Practice ◽

Text Comprehension ◽

Teaching And Learning ◽

Learning Processes ◽

Research Project ◽

Text Production ◽

Lumen Gentium

Este artículo presenta parte de los resultados del proyecto de investigación titulado “La práctica reflexiva como estrategia de mejoramiento en el ejercicio docente en los procesos de enseñanza de comprensión y producción de textos académicos”. El objetivo general consistió en generar apropiación de la práctica reflexiva en los procesos de enseñanza. Abstract This study presents the results of the research project titled “Reflective Practice as a Strategy to Improve Teaching in Academic Text Comprehension and Production Teaching Processes”. The question that led to the study was how to generate appropriation of reflective practice in teachers of foundation areas of disciplinary fields of Fundación Universitaria Católica Lumen Gentium, in order to influence the teaching and learning processes of academic text production.

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Le Malaga Faigatā: Misadventures of An Accidental Academic

The Journal of New Zealand Studies ◽

10.26686/jnzs.ins33.7389 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Roannie Ng Shiu ◽

Fetaui Iosefo

Keyword(s):

Academic Success ◽

Fairy Tale ◽

Early Career ◽

Research Project ◽

Doctoral Thesis ◽

Early Career Researchers ◽

The University ◽

Youth Resilience

E lele le toloa, ae maˈau i le vai The toloa will fly far and wide, but will always return to the water—Samoan proverb In my doctoral thesis, I examined the barriers to and enablers of academic success for Pacific tertiary health students at the University of Auckland. Ten years on, now back at the University of Auckland, I find myself again reflecting on the barriers to and enablers of academic success for Pacific academics. This reflection piece stems from a seminar I gave for the University of Auckland’s Pacific Research Hub, entitled “Constructing Resilience: Lessons from An Accidental Pacific Academic.” Initially, I was only going to speak to my current research project on Pacific youth resilience. But I was encouraged to share my experiences as a Samoan researcher and academic, especially for early career researchers. I therefore decided to use the seminar as a talanoa to share my experiences and have an honest discussion about some of the challenges that we, as Pacific researchers, experience within the academy. Rather than trying to sell a fairy tale, I decided to use the opportunity for real talk, sharing some of the things I wish someone had told me before I went down the academic path.

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Investigating collaboration in project management research: using action research as a meta-methodology

International Journal of Managing Projects in Business ◽

10.1108/ijmpb-01-2020-0033 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Shankar Sankaran ◽

Ralf Müller ◽

Nathalie Drouin

Keyword(s):

Project Management ◽

Action Research ◽

Collaborative Research ◽

Scientific Research ◽

Early Career ◽

Management Approach ◽

Management Research ◽

Research Project ◽

Content Type ◽

Early Career Researchers

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to investigate collaboration in project management research. Although the literature shows an increase in collaboration between scientists and social scientists for various reasons, it is unclear how and why such collaboration takes place in project management research. The literature does show that co-authorship of articles published in project management journals is on the rise due to increased collaboration between researchers in developed countries and emerging economies as well as developing countries. However, no detailed study has been conducted to investigate how such collaboration occurs in practice in project management research. This article addresses this gap.Design/methodology/approachWe use a multi-method approach (action research as a meta-methodology and surveys) using qualitative data to reflect on a successful collaborative externally funded research project. At the end of the study, a survey was used to investigate how collaboration occurred among the 26 researchers involved, who were spread over nine countries to collect data on a sponsored research project led by the authors who were the principal investigators. We also compare our findings from the original project with findings from a second survey of a purposeful sample of ten project management researchers who have conducted or are conducting collaborative research in order to validate our findings.FindingsThrough this study, we were able to compare the reasons for increased collaboration in scientific research reported in the literature with what we learnt from our own experience in collaborating on a large-scale project across geographical boundaries and cultures around the world. We were also able to get some insights on enablers and barriers to collaboration from peers who have collaborated on project management research from the second survey. We found that, although some of the reasons explained in the literature were confirmed in our study (e.g. the reputation of lead researchers), some other reasons (e.g. the prestige of institutions) were not that important. The conclusions section of this article provides a more detailed comparison. We also found that using a project management approach would deliver better outcomes. The literature on scientific collaboration was divided on the value of a project management approach and preferred a combination of firmness and flexibility. We found that using action research as a meta-methodology to reflect on our research gave us further insights into why we did what we did at certain critical points in our research that moved us forward.Research limitations/implicationsOur study used two surveys with a limited number of researchers to compare what was found in the literature on reasons for collaboration in scientific research and how research outcomes were measured using citation rates. Conducting interviews or focused groups could have provided more nuanced findings. However, our findings did show that collaboration is beneficial to both experienced and early career researchers and helps them to publish in higher-ranked journals resulting in better visibility for the research. This is an interesting observation and merits further investigation. Theoretical implications: Findings from this research contribute to the broad literature on collaborative research in science and social science with a focus on practice-based fields such as project management where collaboration between academics and practitioners is becoming important.Practical implicationsThe study provides some insights into the reasons for processes used and benefits from collaboration in project management research. Our findings have also been validated with our peers. Thus, this study will be useful for setting up and managing collaborative research in project management.Social implicationsEffective collaboration in research can provide social value through mentoring of early career researchers.Originality/valueThis is the first detailed study of collaborative research in project management. It also proposes an action research model that can be used to retrospectively analyse long-term research projects to reflect upon and improve.

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Incorporation of Early Career Researchers within multidisciplinary research at academic institutions

Research Evaluation ◽

10.1093/reseval/rvt004 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 22 (3) ◽

pp. 169-178 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

A. J. Sobey ◽

N. C. Townsend ◽

C. D. Metcalf ◽

K. D. Bruce ◽

F. M. Fazi

Keyword(s):

Early Career ◽

Academic Institutions ◽

Multidisciplinary Research ◽

Early Career Researchers

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Insights From Setting up the First Wave of a Qualitative Longitudinal Study

International Journal of Qualitative Methods ◽

10.1177/1609406920954057 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 19 ◽

pp. 160940692095405

Author(s):

Mag. Dr. Veronika Wöhrer ◽

MMag. Dr. Andrea Jesser ◽

Barbara Mataloni ◽

Andre Schmidt

Keyword(s):

Longitudinal Study ◽

Informed Consent ◽

Young People ◽

Data Quality ◽

Organizational Structure ◽

Early Career ◽

Ethical Challenges ◽

Master's Students ◽

Early Career Researchers ◽

Research And Teaching

In this paper we describe and reflect upon the process of setting up the first wave of a complex qualitative longitudinal study with young people in Vienna. We explain the project’s agenda, design, and organizational structure connecting experienced and early career researchers with master’s students. In particular, we describe the tools used to coordinate the research, the challenges and benefits of blending research and teaching, and the materials and strategies we employed to ensure data quality and self-reflexivity. We conclude with reflections upon ethical challenges associated with incorporating marginalized young people into the research within the context of school, especially concerning pseudonymization, informed consent, and hierarchical settings shaping the research.

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