Ba education dissertation

[sacomawhite]

help!!!

[Scylax]

OK, but what is the problem?

[sacomawhite]

need to come up with a proposal for my dissertation, thinking of doing something regarding reading recovery, catch up etc but cannot think logically, only just handed in two huge assigments and already statrting next years work, - my head is in the shed !!!

[Scylax]

Your dissertation for a BA will be no more than
10,000 words. A major problem for most students
would be in keeping it within that narrow parameter.

Your suggestions about 'reading recovery' and
'catching up' sound very limited however - these
are topics for essays. A dissertation needs more
'meat'.

Personally, I would opt for something like:
'Theories of education and child-development,
and their relevance in the 21st. century'

This would allow you to expound on Piaget,
Bruner, Watson, Skinner, Pavlov, Thorndike, etc.
and commenting upon the practicality of each.
This is known as a 'Critical Literature Search',
and, believe me, 10,000 words is not enough.

Undergrads are not really in a position to do
any empirical research; leave that until you are
doing a Master's in the subject. So, your
dissertation will be 'book-based', as I suggest.

Let me know what you think........

[sacomawhite]

hmm thank you, i did make some suggestions to my tutor about a broader subject such as child development, gender and play etc. however, she insists that i undertake research pertinent to my current employment - therefore as i am currently running a catch up programme for pupils in years 1 and 2 , she strongly recommends that i run with this and produce a dissertation around this

[Scylax]

Of course, you must follow your supervisor's lead,as she will be marking the finished product.

So, the easiest investigation to conduct is a survey.
This would require you to devise a questionnaire
of,say, 20 questions, regarding your area of work.
This can then be handed to a number of colleagues,
teachers, parents and older pupils for completion.

The questionnaire should have a page or two for
personal details, eg. age-range, gender, occupation,
parent or not, years of experience, qualifications,
marital status etc. These details will provide all
the variables you need.

I suggest you use a Likert Scale to record the
responses, from Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree.
Also give plenty of space for 'Any Other Comments?'
These comments can go into the dissertation
verbatim, with no editing.

Lastly, I strongly urge you to look carefully at
some 'back-numbers' of dissertations which were
successful. Your college library will probably have
hundreds that you can browse. From these, find
a methodology and style which suits you.

Think it over. Meanwhile I'll stick around.

[sacomawhite]

oh thank you very much starting to see the woods from the trees so to speak, sorry didnt mean to mislead anyone, the project i am working on at school at present is the actual "catch-up " programm. - S. Clipson Boyles etc this is a programme i am running at prsent with specific year 1 and 2 pupils, i have analysis data now and will be continuing in sept with the group that have moved up into year two - so i have continuous data to ponder over!!! it seem likely that i will also be establishing a group of More Able and Talented children to work with but as this is not in place at the moment, i have no time to waste as i need to be reading and some writing over the summer.
once again iam very grateful for your advice

many thanks

[sacomawhite]

thank you for your suggestion, have spoken to my tutor and so far shes happy for me to proceed. I need to come up with formal proposal, question etc. very difficult to "keep it tight"!!! anyway thanks again i will keep in touch
natalie

[caelin]

Firstly you have to consider that the length of your dissertation is honestly related to the area of your study. If you are writing your dissertation on psychology than your guidelines would be completely different as compared with a dissertation in education.

Don�t rely on the guess work which causes to put off your dissertation works. You might be intimidated because may you have to write 200 pages while your dissertation only required 80 or 100 pages. Consult with your supervisor or look out for your university guidelines for the length.

Writing about something which you find interesting also helps you to keep engaged and than you will easily produce the exact numbers of words or pages required.