Workshop 9: Participatory research

Understanding “what is participatory research” requires considering what we mean by the term “participatory” and how it is different to other forms of research. This weeks topic introduced me to this inclusive research design methodology which  involves engaging members of the community which provides the setting for  the research. (Cornwall and Jewkes, 2005) argue that what distinguishes participatory […]

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Workshop 10: Grounded Theory

This week’s topic provided a broad overview of grounded theory (GT) and its evolution from first to second generation grounded theory, referencing also emergent third generation GT. We had the opportunity to hear first-hand from two recent PhD graduates, Dr. Hamid Pousti and (almost Dr.) Joanne Mihelcic on their experience of using GT in their research project. This knowledge was […]

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Time for Research

As a busy higher degree research student one feels that they never have enough time to get to their research, particularly the writing part. And that other things like work, administration, committees, emails, project management, life etc demand all the time. This workshop conducted by Hugh Kearns shows how to guarantee that one spends high quality time on their research outputs. […]

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Questionnaire Design

This workshop was conducted by Dr Mehmet Omen from the Department of Econometrics & Business Statistics, Monash University. The focus was on how to design questionnaires aligned with one’s research objectives, what are the pitfalls of poor questionnaire design, become familiar with different types of questions and answer formats and to understand how physical characteristics and deployment of the […]

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Research Integrity

It is very important for a researcher to be able to differentiate “right” from “wrong” behaviour in a research environment. There are many different forms of research misconduct. The three severe ones include falsification,  fabrication of results and plagiarism. There are also issues around authorship, conflict of interest and redundant publication (people publishing same thing more […]

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Monash Graduate Research Induction

The administrative aspects of the candidature is as important as the research project itself. This is where the role of Monash Institute of Graduate Research (MIGR) fits in the picture. I undertook this online module “Monash Graduate Research Induction” to get familiar with the administrative aspects, the support services and the key milestones in a PhD candidature. All these activities […]

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