Studying at postgraduate level

1. Student Services Studying at postgraduate level Get Ahead 2012 Angela Dierks www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

2. Student Services What do you think are the differences between UG and PG study?Check with your neighbour. www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

3. Student Services What will be different about postgraduate study? • Develop your skills to a higher level • Acquire new skills • Work more independently • Work with a supervisor www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

4. Student Services Develop your skills to a higher level gather appropriate material critically evaluate your material (eg assess relevance of theories) use it as the basis for logical argument and discussion (developing a rationale) www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

5. Student Services Anderson’s and Krathwohl’s Taxonomy of Cognitive Domain • Remembering: Retrieving, recalling, or recognizing knowledge from memory. • Understanding: Constructing meaning from different types of functions be they written or graphic messages activities like interpreting, exemplifying, classifying, summarizing, inferring, comparing, and explaining. • Applying: Carrying out or using a procedure through executing, or implementing. • Analyzing: Breaking material or concepts into parts, determining how the parts relate or interrelate to one another or to an overall structure or purpose. • Evaluating: Making judgments based on criteria and standards through checking and critiquing. • Creating: Putting elements together to form a coherent or functional whole; reorganizing elements into a new pattern or structure through generating, planning or producing. www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

6. Student Services Acquire new skills • Read more widely and beyond core material • Demonstrate academic judgement by gathering appropriate published material and evaluating it • Gather and process evidence • Apply appropriate research methodologies • Present your findings in an appropriate manner www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

7. Student Services Read more widely and critically • Know your way around a range of resources including electronic databases and ejournals • Need to evaluate material in terms of relevance, provenance and research methods www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

8. Student Services Demonstrate academic judgement • Question what you read • Draw your own conclusions about the value of the work www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

9. Student Services Gather and process evidence • Undertake literature review • Gather data, eg through questionnaires, interviews or surveys • Be aware of ethics www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

10. Student Services Apply appropriate research methodology Three types of research: • Quantitative (eg based on surveys and numerical data) • Qualitative (eg interviews, grounded-theory, case study) • Mixed: quantitative and qualitative www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

11. Student Services Present your findings • Giving a presentation • Dissertation writing • Appropriate referencing www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

12. Student Services Work more independently Need to be good at project management including • Time management • Organisational skills • Knowledge management • Scoping www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck

13. Student Services Work with a supervisor • Clarifying the scope of your work • Finding the right supervisor • Establishing a positive working relationship www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck