EDU7707-8+Planning+Dissertation+Research+in+Education

Started: 2 April 2012 Ended: 2 May 2012 Final Grade: A (97.29 / 100.00)
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I'm excited to be getting back to working on my dissertation. In this class I will expand on the information and materials that I included in the Topic Paper, and create my Concept Paper. This is exciting! Now, to see if the topic that I've chosen will work for a dissertation at NCU!

Assignment 1: Thinking about your Topic Area (98.6/100.0) - 1-2 page paper orienting the Mentor to the topic area. A couple of small improvements needed, but my Mentor says that I have a talent for synthesizing the literature and to keep up the good work. He says that the topic that I've chosen is well formulated, but I need to check the literature to see if it's been answered already.

Assignment 2: Reading Critically and Critiquing Research Articles (94.9/100.0) - 4-7 page paper identifying and applying questions and strategies for reading research articles. I tried a new approach for this paper, and it apparently didn't fly very well. Not sure what the response signifies, but I'm sure it means that my Mentor didn't like my approach to the assignment!

Assignment 3: Compile an Annotated Bibliography (100.0/100.0) - 40+ annotated bibliography entries. This assignment took some time to put together. It would have been good to know that this was coming a little further out - like last December! Anyway, my Mentor said it was outstanding, and other than brief comments at the beginning, had no other feedback.

Assignment 4: Issues, Debates, Controversies, Questions, Ambiguities Involving Theories and Findings in Your Topic Area (96.3/100.0) - 5-7 page paper discuss theoretical underpinnings of my topic area. This paper took me ten days to work on and write. My Mentor says that while the paper is excellent and strongly supports my positions it needs a better intro, conclusion, and connections between sentences and paragraphs - better flow and much better organization.

Assignment 5: Problem Statement and Research Questions (95.5/100.0) - Problem statement and research questions for my Concept Paper. My Mentor keeps exclaiming that my writing and papers are excellent, but still only gives me a 95 or 96 on the paper, with no feedback whatsoever. This disconnect is beginning to irk me! At least with this paper there was feedback, but I'm wondering how I can have a great research question that is also ambiguous!

Assignment 6: Brief Review of the Literature (100.0/100.0) - Write a brief literature review regarding my topic area. I put together my literature review that introduced and focused on where I want to go with my dissertation and it ended up to be over 10 pages long! I can see where I can expand since this was a synthesis of the literature but did not discuss in depth each study.

Assignment 7: EDU7707 Dissertation Planning and Self-Care (100.0/100.0) - 2-3 page paper on keeping on track during the dissertation. This was fun to do - I used lots of quotes and put together a time line for completion of my dissertation. It's a little aggressive, but I'd like to see it get done even before I've indicated.

Assignment 8: Write Draft Concept Paper (95.0/100.0) - The Concept Paper went well, but not perfectly. Still need to focus my problem statement, but it's a good start.


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