Guest Posted April 13, 2011 Posted April 13, 2011 Hi all, I am in my last year of the Open University, and this is the first time I have come across writing a dissertation for the module; research with children and young people. Has anyone done this course before and had to come up with thier own research proposal? Help! Jenna
Gezabel Posted April 13, 2011 Posted April 13, 2011 Yes I did Ek311 can you be more specific with the help you need and I will try to help When I did the course we had a day school solely for ECA preparation where a lot of issues were 'ironed out' - have you got one?? If so I would highly recommend you attend if at all possible. Mine was on a Saturday and was really helpful
Guest Posted April 14, 2011 Posted April 14, 2011 Yes I did Ek311 can you be more specific with the help you need and I will try to help When I did the course we had a day school solely for ECA preparation where a lot of issues were 'ironed out' - have you got one?? If so I would highly recommend you attend if at all possible. Mine was on a Saturday and was really helpful I think u just saved my day!! We have three options to choose from, I have chosen Gender and Play, we have to come up with our own title something we want to research within this topic. So i was thinking along the lines of gender identity? Would you be able to pm me ur old eca at all if poss, so I know what the structure needs to look like. We have tutorials but none I know of to go over the ECA and its worth 50% of the marks which Im worried about! Thank you Gezabel
HappyMaz Posted April 14, 2011 Posted April 14, 2011 I think u just saved my day!! We have three options to choose from, I have chosen Gender and Play, That is potentially a huge subject area, jennac! For my foundation degree I looked at whether children's stereotyping of colour affected their participation in creative activities - it is just a small part of the gender issue but quite enough to get my teeth into. One idea might be to start off by making a mind map of all the aspects how you consider gender affects play, and see what emerges. I'm not sure how many words you have - but I do remember thinking that 8000 words seemed a lot for my BA dissertation at the beginning, but slowly realising that those 8000 words were quite limiting when coming to write up all my data and conclusions! Welcome to the Forum, jennac. I'm sure you'll get lots of good advice and support here as your project progresses!
Guest Posted April 14, 2011 Posted April 14, 2011 That is potentially a huge subject area, jennac! For my foundation degree I looked at whether children's stereotyping of colour affected their participation in creative activities - it is just a small part of the gender issue but quite enough to get my teeth into. One idea might be to start off by making a mind map of all the aspects how you consider gender affects play, and see what emerges. I'm not sure how many words you have - but I do remember thinking that 8000 words seemed a lot for my BA dissertation at the beginning, but slowly realising that those 8000 words were quite limiting when coming to write up all my data and conclusions! Welcome to the Forum, jennac. I'm sure you'll get lots of good advice and support here as your project progresses! That sounds really interesting actually!! The only part im struggling with is the layout and strcture I dont know what a dissertation is to look like its very different from an assignment?
Cait Posted April 14, 2011 Posted April 14, 2011 As my Dad said, when I was struggling with mine "Tell them what you are going to tell them. Tell them. Then tell them what you've told them"
Gezabel Posted April 14, 2011 Posted April 14, 2011 (edited) I think u just saved my day!! We have three options to choose from, I have chosen Gender and Play, we have to come up with our own title something we want to research within this topic. So i was thinking along the lines of gender identity? Would you be able to pm me ur old eca at all if poss, so I know what the structure needs to look like. We have tutorials but none I know of to go over the ECA and its worth 50% of the marks which Im worried about! Thank you Gezabel Really sorry I can't pm you my ECA as it is no longer saved on the computer. It ended up being a weighty document which was spiral bound. The best idea is to follow the detailed guidance to the letter and make sure you include all they ask for, The most difficult part was finding relevant research papers to refer to and I spent ages trawling the net and reading loads before I settled on the ones I used. I think from memory you have to use 10 papers? Gender and Play is a HUGE area and I think you first task would be to narrow this down and decide on which aspects of gender and play you want to focus on, then you need to refine you research question. I did mine on autism and transition but like your choice this was huge and in the end I narrowed it down to "Can social stories have a positive impact on the transition from pre-school to primary school for children with autism?" When reading papers on transition and autism the issue of social stories came up time and time again which helped me to focus and define my question. Sorry to hear you don't have a day school but I see no reason why you can't request that your tutor discusses the ECA at a tutorial - I would imagine it would be top of the list for all students. I would be very surprised if your tutor hasn't got it on her agenda for a tutorial. Don't forget it is a research proposal, you don't actually do any research and all your 'results' are potential. I think a starting point is to look for papers you are going to use and you may find (like I did) that the 'hunting papers' process actually helped in defining where you were going and what to include. HOpe this helps a bit and good luck sure you will be fine. Ooops quick edit to mention structure. I think presentation counts alot and things must be clear to the reader. I designed a front cover which clearly showed my research question so right from the start the reader knew what was to come. All the pages were numbered and I included a clear, concise contents page. I used sub-headings in bold font throughout and literally followed the guidance given on structure. Edited April 14, 2011 by Gezabel
Sue R Posted April 16, 2011 Posted April 16, 2011 As my Dad said, when I was struggling with mine "Tell them what you are going to tell them. Tell them. Then tell them what you've told them" That's what one of my earliest OU tutors used to say! Certainly helps you keep things straight in your mind. Your Dad's name isn't Andrew, by any chance?? Sue
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