Educator and researcher
Frameworks in research play a crucial role in shaping the direction of a research project. They serve as the foundation upon which studies are built and analysed, offering a lens through which researchers can interpret their findings. However, they are also a source of confusion for researchers so, in this blog post, I explain the …
Continue reading “Theoretical and conceptual frameworks in research”
Let’s talk about one of the most complex parts of research – understanding the philosophical underpinnings of your worldview and how this shapes the way your research is done. This is called a research paradigm and is one of the areas I get the most frequent questions about from graduate research students. The popularity of …
Lecturers play a pivotal role in shaping the learning of their students. In a metric-focused university environment, this learning necessitates the assessment of students’ learning throughout their educational journey. Assessing assignments not only gauges the understanding of the subject matter but also evaluates the development of critical academic skills. These skills, such as research, analysis, …
Autoethnography has become an increasingly popular research methodology, particularly within the humanities and social sciences. I use it regularly because of its emphasis on personal experiences, reflexivity, and storytelling which allows for a deeper exploration of complex experiences and societies. So what is autoethnography? The name autoethnography comes from three core aspects: self, culture, and …
Continue reading “Autoethnography: What is it and how do you do it?”
Credit: This blog post is an adapted form of a recent paper I wrote. Artificial intelligence (AI) has been present in society for several years – think, for example, of computer grammar-checking software, autocorrect on your phone, or GPS apps. Recently, however, there has been a significant advancement in AI research with the development of generative …
Continue reading “Fostering AI literacy as students, teachers, and researchers”
Credit: This blog post is an adapted form of a case study I wrote for Advance HE. Universities have been cracking down on cheating and all sorts of dishonest academic behaviour recently. They’ve rolled out a bunch of strict rules related to academic integrity and use fancy software to keep an eye out for academic …
Continue reading “Improving students’ understanding by building a culture of academic integrity”
For many years now, I have been working to improve the experiences of PhD students. One practice I’ve found particularly useful is incorporating collaborative and peer-based learning through doctoral writing groups. My work with writing groups started way back in 2013 and, over more than a decade, I have further refined my approach. I currently …
Credit: Text and images have been republished from an article in the Monash Lens, https://lens.monash.edu/@education/2023/04/28/1385557/trauma-anxiety-depression-solitude-the-impact-of-covid-19-on-academic-indentity COVID-19 brought about unprecedented changes to society, causing widespread disruption to many aspects of our lives. The pandemic has impacted people from all walks of life, but particularly hard-hit have been academics, early-career researchers (ECRs), and PhD students. They’ve had to …
Credit: Text has been republished from an article in Monash News https://www.monash.edu/news/articles/how-the-pandemic-shaped-academic-identity-stories-of-resilience-and-struggle A new book shares the stories of PhD students, early-career researchers, and established academics during the COVID-19 pandemic to shed light on the struggles faced by those in the industry. The COVID-19 pandemic impacted every aspect of our lives, and academia was no exception. …
Continue reading “How the pandemic shaped academic identity: Stories of resilience and struggle”
I find it quite amusing that I would be writing this blog post to advocate for a research methodology as emotional and subjective as autoethnography. For over a decade, I was trained to conduct scientific research where objective answers were sought to solve problems. My research focused on examining a gene activated in athletes’ hearts …
Continue reading “Combining research and storytelling: Using personal experiences as research data”
