HDR SEMINARS:

1
HDR SEMINARS WRITING YOUR THESIS THE
STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS
Tom CooperMathematics, Science and Technology
EducationKelvin Grove

• Taking a look at how the structure of a thesis
  can help with your research
• Giving my position ideas activities
• Providing an opportunity for your questions

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Like to acknowledge the traditional owners of
the land on which we are meeting Like to welcome
you all to this seminar and I hope I can be of
use to you
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WHO I AM WHAT I BELIEVE
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My situation

• Hillbilly in 50s Unemployed in 60s
  Scholarship boy
• 33 years lecturing This place still feels
  alien to me
• PhD in pure mathematics Lecturer-researcher in
  education
• Started supervising in the 80s Reason came to
  this place
• Love research Love the struggle to know Love
  the wonder of it Love the courage it
  requires The way it changes you
• Stupidly overloaded Attempting to set up a new
  Faculty Centre, start major research
  projects, and look after 10 HDR students
• No real time to prepare for this For anything

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My beliefs

• Knowledge is an invention of the mind it is
  not a discovery
• No way to logically compare we are
  responsible for all choices the only
  position I can give you is mine to
  understand it means you have to know me
• Knowledge is therefore consensus (Feyeraben)
  a social and political act that often
  benefits some against the many
• Research degrees are the hurdle you leap to be
  accepted Criteria are set by community For
  writing it is the ability to follow a line of
  argument
• Real insight could lead to failure unless
  consensus is ready for a revolution (Kuhn)

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My beliefs

• Sceptical that even the best research will
  uncover truth Hopeful it will bring
  understanding
• Believe that the best research will change the
  researcher Not afraid to see this as part
  of the research process and part of the
  research outcomes
• See thinking and growing as a cycle (dialetic
  hermeneutic) of thesis antithesis
  synthesis (Hegel)
• Believe that often you have to see the whole
  before the parts make sense parts ? whole
  whole ? parts
• Believe that the structure of a thesis is a
  good starting point for research

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Question
What is your starting point?
Is knowledge invented? Think/Framework Explore
Interpret Synthesise
Is knowledge discovered? Hypothesise Control E
xperiment Test/Confirm
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THESIS STRUCTURE AND RESEARCH
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The classical thesis structure
INTRODUCTION What I want to do LITERATURE
What others say about it DESIGN My plan for
doing it RESULTS What happened when I did it
DISCUSSION What this means CONCLUSIONS
What I found out
Line of argument Symmetry in layout
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The classical confirmation document
INTRODUCTION What I want to do LITERATURE
What others say about it DESIGN My plan for
doing it The symmetry means that the
Confirmation document indicates what the final
thesis will look like.The 3 chapters are enough
to show can follow a line of argument.
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Thesis structure indicates what you have to
think about

• Introduction - background - purposes -
  significance
• Literature - review of literature -
  theoretical framework - gap in literature
• Design - methodology - participants/subjec
  ts - data gathering methods/instruments -
  procedure - analysis

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Thesis structure indicates what you have to
think about

• Results - descriptions/narratives -
  interview responses - responses to
  tests/surveys - detailed vs overview data
• Discussion - compares against literature -
  relates to earlier frameworks/theories -
  builds new models/theories - interprets
  significance
• Conclusions - relates to objectives -
  looks at practice - looks ahead (new research)

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Your decisions on what you have to think about
can affect the thesis structure

• A straight line of argument usually results in
  the classical structure
• A spiral of argument thesis, antithesis,
  synthesis often means a change in
  structure
• Whether you are building larger or
  focussing smaller?

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The spiral thesis
INTRODUCTION What I want to do/Macro-design
LITERATURE What others say THESIS
RESULTS Micro-design/What happened ANTITHESIS
DISCUSSION What this means SYNTHESIS
CONCLUSIONS What I found out/Where to next
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The big-to-small thesis structure
INTRODUCTION What I want to do FRAMEWORK
My lens (the Big) LITERATURE What others say
about it DESIGN My plan for doing it
RESULTS What happened when I did it
DISCUSSION What this means (the Small)
CONCLUSIONS What I found out
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Activity

• Place these on the classical thesis structure!

Implications for the study
Hypotheses or questions
Limitations
Subjects
Comparison with literature
Inferences
Implications for future
Significance
Conceptual framework
Theory building
Instruments
Background
Methodology
Analysis
Objectives
Descriptions of what happened
Summary of literature review
Procedure
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RESEARCH TYPE AND THESIS STRUCTURE
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Types of research
Theoretical/Conceptual Open/Emergent Clarifying/En
umerating Validating/Theory driven Confirmatory/Ex
perimental
More knowledge of area
Increasing control
Mixed methods?
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1. Theoretical/Conceptual

• Structure
• Introduction/Design
• Literature review
• Reconceptualisation
• Conclusions (new theoretical framework)
• (No results or discussion)

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2. Open/Emergent

• Structure
• Introduction (questions)
• Literature (general)
• Design (open exploration)
• Results (emergent/categories)
• Discussion (comparison with literature)
• Conclusions (better questions)

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3. Clarifying/Enumerating

• Structure
• Introduction
• Literature/General framework)
• Design (exploration)
• Results (findings)
• Discussion (comparison with framework)
• Conclusions (new specific theory)

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4. Validating/Theory driven
Structure Introduction/Design Literat
ure/Initial theory (THESIS) Design/results
(ANTITHESIS) Discussion/Final theory
(SYNTHESIS) Conclusions
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5. Confirmatory/Experimental
Structure Introduction Literature/Hypo
theses Design Results (testing/significance)
Discussion (confirmation) Conclusions
(proved results)
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THESIS STRUCTURE AND WRITING THE THESIS
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RESOURCES

• Thesis presentation and management
• Thesis template for Word 2007
• - both by Baturo Cottier of YDC
• - show how to write within traditional
  structure

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QUESTIONS/COMMENTS