I have supervised many dissertations at undergraduate and postgraduate levels as well as supervising PhDs. Some are a breeze, some are a struggle and 90% are in the middle somewhere. The first stumbling block for me is the student’s choice of topic. Sometimes the proposed title is surprising, intriguing, exciting or off the wall. But …
Author: alisonlawson68
Academic, researcher, Doctor Who fan
Musings on curiosity
When my brother and I were very young, he complained that I broke some of his toys, specifically toy guns (he had a super pop gun with a little cork on a piece of string - I don't think I broke that one). I had wanted to know how they worked, so I took them …
Musings on statistical analysis – simple isn’t always right
Those who know me well (and, actually, those who don’t even know me all that well), will know that I am a life-long fan of the UK science fiction TV series Doctor Who. My first memory is of Doctor Who, I ran a Doctor Who library at primary school and a Doctor Who club at …
Continue reading Musings on statistical analysis – simple isn’t always right
Musings on visual methods
I was very lucky to attend a training session on the use of visual methods in research in January 2020. I say ‘lucky’ because I always feel that attending training or a research seminar or a conference is such an amazing privilege. I love learning and I love teaching and, as a teacher, I do …
Musings on randomised controlled trials
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, well it was about 12 years ago in London, I was at a Christmas party. I was working at the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) at the time, a not-for-profit contract research organisation, and the party was for all our clients and contacts, ranging …
Musings on the nature of reality
My 12-year-old son loves computer games such as Minecraft and Roblox. He is totally absorbed by them and loses himself in the blocky little worlds on his computer screen. He has an avatar, an alter-ego and becomes that character when playing the games. Left to his own devices (both literally and metaphorically) he would play …
Musings on ways of doing research (and socks)
There are some words and phrases you will encounter in methodological discussions and it’s important to understand what they mean and how they are used by researchers. Let’s start with ‘methodology’ itself. I tell my students that ‘method’ is what you do and the ‘ology’ is why and how you’re doing it that way. A …
Continue reading Musings on ways of doing research (and socks)
Musings on methodology 