Скачать с ютуб Supporting Postgraduate Students in Research Methods degrees (Megan Barnard, Uni. of Nottingham) в хорошем качестве

Supporting Postgraduate Students in Research Methods degrees (Megan Barnard, Uni. of Nottingham)

The transition to Higher Education symbolises a period of new-found independence and opportunities for some; for others it can be associated with insecurities associated with unexpected academic workloads, unfamiliar environments, and a lack of support from others (McMillan, 2013). Whilst there is less research into this issue within the postgraduate population, findings suggest that these students encounter feelings of isolation and loneliness during their degrees (Demiroren et al, 2020). In 2021, 31% of postgraduate students on UK Taught courses considered withdrawing from their degrees (Leman, 2021), further highlighting levels of dissatisfaction. Support whilst transitioning into postgraduate education may be particularly important for disciplines with a research methods component. Across multiple disciplines, research methods is often associated with anxiety in Higher Education. Many students are unaware of the role statistics may play in their degree (Kitching & Hulme, 2013; Ruggeri et al., 2018), and for postgraduate students this may especially be the case. For example, Psychology programmes in the UK offer Conversion courses that allow postgraduate students to study Psychology as part of a Master’s degree. However, in terms of pre-requisites students are only required to hold a 2.1 in any undergraduate subject, as well as some experience of maths at GCSE level or equivalent. An increased diversity of undergraduate qualifications and perceptions of capability with statistical knowledge could impact the wellbeing and anxiety levels of students studying research methods. Thus, understanding the experiences, feelings, and needs of these students is vital for the provision of useful support and resources. This presentation will firstly discuss the findings from co-design research conducted in order to understand the experiences of postgraduate students transitioning into an MSc Psychology Conversion course in the 2021-2022 academic year. Results suggested that students face similar concerns to undergraduate Psychology students, such as feeling ‘lost at sea’ with the terminology used and concepts discussed. However, they also faced unique challenges such as an assumption of prior knowledge by academic teaching staff. Participants also noted that whilst tools such as interactive software guides may support learning and reduce anxiety, developers would need to make resources for postgraduate students without that previous assumption of prior knowledge. The presentation will also discuss further ideas for researching the postgraduate student experience in research methods education. This will include suggestions such as, but not limited to, larger scale research into statistics anxiety amongst the postgraduate population and understanding the attitudes of statistics teachers towards the capabilities of undergraduate and postgraduate populations.