Assignments are a scary business!

Submitted my first assignment this weekend. Got very tied working 7 days in a row to get it completed! Very difficult writing something that is part assignment and part research project within such a tight word limit of 4000 words - very difficult to balance how much to write in each section. Very scary seing all my colleagues assignments listed for peer review! Not a normal situation to see how good or bad your peers have done! At the saqme time its an interesting process to have a chance to get a fresh eye on my work and then be able to re-submit it. Focus is not on getting the assignment 'right' but the learning process.

Lots still to do with the module - lots of things to go back and build on. Big issue is about how to manage this work without being exhusted. Working early in the morning is working well to get time with the family in the evening, but its going to take more micro-management of my time, and more focsu to my time to use it effectively. Very easy to find lots of interesting avenues to go down with new things to discover and read about! Next assignment I think it will be useful to create a work plan in advance to balance my effort across all the aspects that will be needed - avoid missing out important issues such as understanding a critical issue such as validity etc. Will also try some sort of logic/knowledge map for the structure to the research as a backbone before geting deep into the writing process.

More questions than answers!

I'm just in the process of completing the data analysis stage for my first assignment on the programme. I've generally found that the process for this module has opened up more questiosn, sometimes than answers! I spent a few days looking at the different methods for qualtiative data analsyis - what is the difference between converstational, discourse, content, interpretive phenomenological and thematic analsyis?! All the way through the module I hav found that I am wanting to capture and explore a series of key questions - to get a better structure in my mind about how research, knowledge, truth is undertood from different philosophical perspectives. I'm looking for ways to model this thinking and learning - concept maps, knowledge maps, mind maps etc. - not found anything yet that suites my learning preferences!

Yesterday we had a great Skype meeting on the module assingment - great to hear colleagues voices in New York and Jerusleum all discussing similar issues we are having with our research.

3 months in!

OK, this is my first blog post for my PhD, which I started in Feb. 2009. It's amazing how quickly I find you can adapt to a new big thing such as a PhD, and how quickly it becomes the 'norm.' Reflecting back on the last 3 months, there are 3 things that stand out - how good and diverse the cohort is, how much I'm enjoying the content (much more than I originally thought!), and how much confidence I've gained from an in-depth study of research methodologies.

It has meant some big changes to fit in with my work and professional like. Probably the most radical change is the realisation that I will need to re-structure my work time - by default I'm a late worker! This has meant eating into family time, not just because I'm physically working, but also because I'm mentally pre-occupied with what I have just been reading. So, a big shift to working early in the morning on the PhD. This has meant that it the first thing I work on each day and not the last. Means that I can go home and be with the family more - more evening badminton tournaments in the garden!!!