My oral exam 26 August 2010

I did it people- I'm a survivor

This morning I went to my oral exam and found that the questions in previous post were not asked at all in my exam. The examiners asked very specific questions line by line- page by page - (^o^).
If you haven't read your thesis, you wouldn't be able to answer those questions for sure. I was asked a lot about the literature review, theoretical frameworks and methodology.

Well I promise you that I'm gonna put the REAL QUESTIONS that were asked.
For example:
1. Tessie, you did a literature review about EFL writing instruction. How come it doesn't appear in your topic?
2. You have mentioned about activity theory and sociocultural frameworks in both chapter 2 and 3 are you thinking about making a connection between these two chapters?
3. How I got my semi-structure interviews participants?
4. What exactly does the scenario represent? the instruction or the practice? (this one was the most difficult question, my heart almost stopped beating)

The major recommendation was to refer some parts of the findings to the questionnaire or the interview questions, so it will be easier for readers to follow.
Of course after this, I have to work on the corrections that the examiners asked me to do - within a time frame of 1 month. Then I will be free and go home- get back to the classroom.

^_^ The best thing for today is when I see my supervisors' happy faces.
See more about the exam on Massey GRS page
http://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/postgraduate/convenors-handbook/exam-result/exam-result_home.cfm

Commom Questions in Oral Defense

Yesterday we had a meeting of PhD students of SLS. I proposed the topic "Dealing with your research challenges"; and since I am waiting for my oral defense. I talked about how I get prepared for my oral exam questions. Here are some useful questions to think about.
1. What do you see as the problems in your study? How would you correct these in the future studies?
2. If you want to improve the procedure or the measure, how would you do ot?
3. How would you explain the discrepancy between your findings and those of X?
4. What implications do your findings have for future research methodology in this area?
5. Waht have you learned about this area from doing this research?
6. What would be the next logical study to do as a follow-up to this one?
7. Have you ever talked about the results with your participants? What do they think about your study?

These are based on the meeting and this book "Dissertation and theses from start to finish" by Cone and Foster (1996).

However, there are a lot of questions that can be asked at the defense. I will keep you posted later what kind of questions asked in mine.

Here come the REAL QUESTIONS?

Waiting for my final exam- ever!

I'm back to Massey and waiting for my thesis oral exam. There will be a rehearsal on on July 13. For me, everything is in my head. I did everything by myself from the very beginning. I know it by heart. They can ask me any question about my thesis.


But let's see if there're some statistical questions which are not my cup of tea I can give the overall figure but not exactly sure about trivial numbers. I don't think it's a big deal as my thesis is more qualitative. I just try to keep up my best performance...

Good mood, good sleep, no jetlag, no headache or stuffy nose. That will do the trick!

Well- the exam date is set now. August 26, 2010.

Preparing for my oral examination

After submitting my thesis, things that I need to do is to study my own thesis. My supervisors told me that there're lots of thing to keep in mind. These are key ideas that I'm gonna work on during my holiday at home for 8 weeks.

Since my thesis emphasises Thai EFL in-service teachers' thinking at work. I need to be clear on these aspects:

Teachers:

- Teachers' responsibility at their working contexts
- What are students' expectations of EFL teachers in Thai tertiary context. (wait- this is interesting, I haven't read any research article about this...doubt if there's any...??)
- imagine practice and professional development or teachers as learners
- teacher maxims
- the three teachers using technology at work

Theorethical Issues:
- The interconnectedness of teacher cognition and sociocultural framework


Methodology
- Implications and limitations
- Developing my instrument
- Scenarios
- research settings

Background and supporting studies
- ELT trends in Thai contexts
- Students background and curriculum
- key quotes from researchers


When answering questions- it's not just giving the right answer. It's how you express your thoughts and understand the examiners' point.

- show that you are open to feedback
- able to discuss the issues in conversational style
- show your ability to explain things to lay audience
- how to extend the research or further investigation
- show appreciation and understanding of examiners' views

The examiners- they are doing you a favour. Appreciate them

Today is the day.

Nothing much to say. I just got this from the Graduate Research School.

Three years and 20 days. Finally it comes true.

I would like to thank Professor Cynthia White, Dr Ute Walker, and Dr Gillian Skryme for their support and encouragement through out the years.

Now I have to excuse myself...I'm gonna party up the storm!

Almost there...

One of the most frighthening questions to PhD students is "How's your study going?" or "When will you finish?".
At School of Language Studies, the lecturers know very well how I am sensitive to this question. I mentioned it at my presentation. It's not just me. You can try asking this question to other PhD students, and you will see the changes of their facial expression. Am I right? It's a bitter sweet stage of life.

Anyway, as I am exploring Massey Stream. I find this page very useful for my thesis submission and preparation for oral exam.

http://stream.massey.ac.nz/course/view.php?id=1075


I know that the Graduate school always give workshops to PhD students but I'm not in the mood to meet people. Putting the presentation online is very helpful. I like to study at my own office at any time. I think a lot of PhD students don't know about this.
Yeah..it's quite frustrating to find out what to do or where to go for PhD students.
We are lone wolves...

At the end of January, are we, already?

"Time is the fire in which we burn." Somebody says this...
Since Christmas I have been working on my drafts. My supervisors are patiently helping me polishing it. I know that my writing is a disaster. However, one thing that I feel confident is my research highlights on teachers' thinking at work. It's not common in my working context that teachers are investigated about their teaching principles and practices. I'm so grateful that my participants are open and kind enough to talk about their personal thoughts about teaching with technology even though I am a total stranger to them. This is rare in Thai education.
If you look at the content of recent studies in Thai EFL contexts, there will be a lot of issues about student-centredness, constructivist in ELT, project-based tasks, form-focus curriculum, etc. But hardly to find something about teachers and their teaching perspectives. I believe that teachers are the centre of the instruction- no matter what kind of approach they adopt- they are still the gatekeeper of and facilitators of students' learning.

My Third Chirstmas in NZ

Here's another Christmas in NZ. Every year is the same- I'm in my office and trying to get my head around the research- not the Christmas sales in town.

Being away from family is very hard. But I have to get over it and tough it out.
My supervisors are working hard in helping me getting this done...Sometimes i feel bad that they have to spend thier holiday time on my drafts...

I have put a lot of effort along this PhD journey. I don't want a slopply finish. It has to be neat. It has to appear worth doing.

Best Practice in technology-mediated instruction

On November 12, I gave a presentation about a part of my research findings. The night before that I went to a Thai student party at Prof Ian Warrington's. I shouldn't have gone out...but it turned out really good. I quite like the way I add some jokes about my PhD life before I started. That really helps...:-) check this out...

Best practice in technology-mediated EFL instruction

View more presentations from tessie_th.