A brief look at surveys.  This article introduces a power-point show on how to design a survey.  As viewers will find, there's a lot more to developing an effective survey than meets the eye.

A suggestion I'd seriously make is that readers may also find it useful to peruse the paper about approaches to research.  That paper, like this resource, resides in the free research resources folder and it's just below this item.   

This paper provides an account of a class activity that was undertaken with some research methods students which led to the development of a procedure that can help candidates frame their thesis topic.  (Click here to access this very brief paper.)  A slide show was subsequently developed that traverses the process. (Click here to activate that slide show.)

In early October, I enjoyed the privelege and honour of being the inaugural key-note speaker at the inaugural National Hui of the Community Houses of Aotearoa New Zealand.  One of the most interesting things I discovered during my surfing of materials prior to preparing the presentation was that the concept of community houses appears to be firmly nested in Western culture.  In other words, houses which are used by members of communities and neighbourhoods do seem to be a mainly Eurocentric construct although I have no doubt that marae and fale are Maori and Pasifika equivalents.  And doubtless there are others…

Interestingly, some of the essence of just what a community house might be was traversed at a panel discussion during the morning session.  At the time I summarised the threads of the very wide ranging discussion by seeking to extract the very kernel of what the panellists were saying and after having shared it with the conference attendees, I promised I’d put it onto this website.  Accordingly, I've reproduced that summary here and I have to say that despite revision, I'm not yet sure that I've done justice to what the contributors had to say.  However, I think that what the panel said has substantial value so all I've tried to do is to capture, condense and concentrate their collective messages - with integrity!  Fundamentally, it seemed to me the people on the panel proposed that...

Community Houses are diversely responsive not-for-profit agencies which variously deliver three key dimensions of service to their communities of interest:

1. They provide space for community resources and services.  This means they serve as a meeting hub for the communities of interest and communities of practice which operate within them.  The size of the operational footprint that each house serves seems to determine the extent to which space is needed.  For large pockets of population such as in cities, larger shared buildings, often comprising a multitude of small spaces, appear to operate for a kaleidoscope of stand-alone agencies.  However, for smaller population pockets such as neighbourhoods, small cottages with many fewer spaces seem to be the norm.  And within cities where community houses are located in neighbourhoods, the size of buildings varies from medium to small depending upon the size of neighbourhood and population being served.  Irrespective of size, a reasonably useful indicator of the effectiveness of all such spaces seems to be not so much the numbers of people coming in and out of a building, but rather, the percentage of time each of the discrete spaces within those buildings are used.
2. They offer learning and development activities.  These programmes can be structured (non-formal programmes of learning) or unstructured (informal and incidental learning episodes).  They may involve facilitated learning exchanges, information giving and receiving, problem solving and/or conflict resolution, social development and knowledge creation and/or distribution. They are offered to people of all ages - young children (as per Plunket) through to the aged.  Moreover, the learning and development activities offered by community houses are open to all, irrespective of culture, ablility, disability and status.  Community Houses are, therefore, educationally egalitarian in outlook and seek to be so in practice - they are agencies which are led by practitioners and facilitators of lifelong learning and development.
3. They provide servant leadership.  This involves the facilitation of development so that individuals and groups may grow; it also involves the provision of remedial services which can ameliorate community inequalities and address injustices.  The provision of servant leadership is the means by which resources become marshalled and programmes of development delivered.  It is the flux which binds together the successful operations of community houses. 

Importantly, Community Houses seek to ensure that the developmental futures of the numerous communities of practice with which they are connected are assured. Community houses seek to enable individuals and groups to flourish with independence and integrity.  These groups and individuals must be allowed to do so at their pace and in their own time.  They must be able to prosper not only in places and spaces governed by community house members, but equally, they must be helped to operate within spaces which are more familiar to client settings.  This means that the remit of those working from community houses ideally extends beyond the walls of the house into all of the community.

 

I especially enjoyed what the panel had to say because, in many ways, it blends well with the ideas about Etienne Wenger's communities of practice I introduced during my presentation.  So if you have a closer look at the final slides of the powerpoint show that follows, you'll see some congruences between the two sessions.

When I prepared the key-note, I created a power-point show within which were displayed a number of hyperlinks.  These hyperlinks were internal links to WebPages which I'd saved to the hard drive on my laptop.  (I'd done that in case there'd been no capacity to hook up to the Internet.)  In the spirit of enabling, which is another hallmark of community houses, I've uploaded the slideshow onto this site.  But because the hyperlinks which were embedded within the slides have been removed, the slides don't link to anything external.  If you want to have a look at what was produced, though, click here.  And as always, feedback is very welcome. 

Jens 

The intention of this paper is to ignite discussion about continuing professional development (CPD) at Waiariki Institute of Technology.  Three formal forms of CPD operate within Waiariki and it is noted that data about the range, nature and extent of involvement in CPD can be easily recorded.  Such data should be gathered.  Not so easily documented are non-formal and informal forms of CPD but their importance must not be overlooked.  This discussion paper notes that although the Charter and the Business Plan are strong on espousing biculturalism, it appears that CPD which focuses on biculturalism may not be strong in practice.  It is suggested that measures to strengthen this should be considered and action learning approaches are advocated.  The discussion paper also notes that QA and CPD go hand-in-hand and while the Institute clearly provides CPD, the systematic linkage of such activity to performance appraisals is an important factor that must not be neglected.  The need for induction programmes is noted and the importance is highlighted of growing researchers through carefully planned and systematically delivered CPD, mentoring, symposia and workshops.  Finally, the discussion document provides two appendices detailing specific policies the Institute may wish to consider adapting and adopting. To access a PDF version of the paper, click here.

I've long been a fan of a piece of software called MindManager which is a mind-mapping tool that is considerably more powerful than Inspiration but not quite as easy to use.  I think that the software is very effect, for instance, for generating a research proposal or for formulate\ing complex project plans.  Literally, what you do is import the various criteria which have to be addressed and then sequentially trawl through those criteria whilst addressing their dimensions by populating them with whatever your valid responses might be.  

It can also be used to generate templates for action and I've developed two which I'm now sharing with you.  The first came about some few years ago and pertains to evaluation.  Quite literally, I generated a computer aided approach to an evaluation plan whilst others were using butcher's paper.  At that point, I decided that this represented a very useful template and in fact, it became a resource I've shared with postgraduate research methods students whom I've taught over the years.  To access a PDF version of that template, click here.  To negotiate gaining access the MindManager version of the template, contact us at the Woodhill Park Research Retreat.

More recently, I've facilitated a series of strategic planning workshop and to ensure that participants succeeded in what they had set out to achieve, I created a template that embodied the very best of what I'd been able to discern on the net.  Click here to see that template as a PDF.

There's a power point show that goes with the Strategic Planning template and if you click here, you can view it.  To get hold of the MindManager template on strategic planning, you'd need to contact me and you'd also need to find out about the software from me.  Patrick Baker is the New Zealand expert and he sells the programme through his company MindLogik.

If you want to contact me to facilitate either an evaluation exercise or a strategic planning workshop, do email us by using the contact us option on this website or by clicking here.  

The trouble with research for most people is that it falls outside of their comfort zone.  Research, therefore, becomes something we take for granted until the imperative to actually do some kind of scholarly or applied investigation envelops us.  That's the time people begin to squirm more than just a little.  Their need is to move beyond knowing about research to understanding how it all works and where it all sits in the scheme of things.  They require, in order to achieve understanding, a framework that merges theory with principles of practice so that they locate what they wish to do against models of research and knowledge development.

This paper provides beginning and advanced researchers with such a framework for understanding.  It captures some of my thinking about research which has evolved over many years and whcih became even more clearly crystalized for me as I wrote this paper. 

Specifically, the commentary was developed as an accompaniment to a slide show I used for workshops at the César Chávez Institute (a community of socially engaged scholars working in partnership for social justice at San Francisco State University).  Others, however, have found it to be useful so I thought I'd include it here.   

The ideal way of using the material is to click on these links:

• To see the notes and slides together as a PDF click here.  You may want to print them off to use whilst you are looking at the slide show.
• To view the accompanying slide show whilst reading, click here.  Do note that some of the slides are automated so be measured in your clicking-on rather than hasty.
• My suggestion is that you work through the slide show and then read the notes whilst you re-examine the slide show.  Happy learning and do share this resource with others if you think it is worth-while. 

Dr Jens Hansen’s team of Waiariki Institute of Technology researchers have reviewed e-Learning literature and surveyed students about support needs.  Wendy Monk’s examined pros and cons of e-Learning for Maori; Patrick Baker reviewed e-Learning design for tertiary education and Leonie Nichols surveyed support needs with an emphasis on discerning the needs of Maori e-Learners.  Dr Jens Hansen is preparing a research monograph on e-Learning.

Often the thesis supervision process is flawed.  This brief paper considers the importance of good supervision and offers the Woodhill Park Research Retreat as an alternative venue when supervision challenges arise.  Ideally, candidates and their supervisor/s should work together with staff at the Woodhill Park Research Retreat. 

Hint: Pay particular attention to the footnote because it provides a hotlink to a key-note presentation that was given by the author at a conference for Ph.D. candidates that was held University of Auckland (or if you like, you can click here to access that keynote address). 

This is a two page guide to writing an abstract effectively.  An academic abstract is a miniature work of art.  Abstracts are not always produced as a summarising version of completed academic labour; instead, they frequently espouse academic intentions to deliver scholastic outputs and/or research outcomes in time for a scheduled event.  

A robust abstract,  addresses four central questions which ask What is it about?; What did you do?; What did you find? and, How is that important?  An abstract that is concentrated is potent and potency heralds resolute work.  A well constructed abstract is staunch writing that conveys maximum meaning through minimum words.