{"id":2381,"date":"2019-11-04T01:00:37","date_gmt":"2019-11-04T01:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/education\/?p=2381"},"modified":"2022-09-20T11:14:41","modified_gmt":"2022-09-20T10:14:41","slug":"news-the-institute-of-educations-first-masters-dissertation-conference-was-a-big-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/education\/2019\/11\/04\/news-the-institute-of-educations-first-masters-dissertation-conference-was-a-big-success\/","title":{"rendered":"NEWS \u2013 The Institute of Education\u2019s first Masters Dissertation Conference was a big success"},"content":{"rendered":"

This news item is written by Dr. Rebecca Berkley<\/a> (Deputy Director of the MA in Education programme, and Co-Convenor of the EDM133 MA Dissertation module)<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the challenges of writing a Masters dissertation is that you don\u2019t know how to write it until you\u2019ve written it, and by then it\u2019s too late because you\u2019ve finished it. The Institute of Education (IoE) held the first Masters Dissertation Conference on 30th<\/sup> October 2019 to support students who are embarking on this challenge.<\/p>\n

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The aims of the conference were to give students a good understanding of the whole task in writing a dissertation, to get them started on choosing their research topic, and to encourage students to meet others on the programme. The intensive, individual study that a dissertation requires can be isolating for students, so it\u2019s really important for them to know that they are not alone in this process.<\/p>\n

The conference opened with keynote presentations from Dr. Holly Joseph <\/strong><\/a>and Prof. Alan Floyd<\/strong><\/a>. Dr. Joseph introduced students to \u2018Hot Topics in Educational Research\u2019 with particular reference to the wide and varied interests and publications of IoE staff. We always encourage students to pick topics that relate to areas of staff interest so that they can get the best support from their supervisor. Prof. Floyd discussed what is distinctive about Masters level education research and reviewed how the researcher collected data and draws conclusions from educational research. He pointed out to students that Masters research should be critical in the way that the research engages with big ideas and theories, but does not need to be original. A well-structured focused research project organised around some pragmatic choices of what kinds of data the researcher can collect will often lead to a successful dissertation. This led to the first open discussion session where students reviewed topics of interest in research, many drawing on interesting problems from their professional practice as teachers and educators.<\/p>\n

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Three Masters alumni gave presentations in the second part of the conference, reporting on their experience of writing their dissertations and sharing the highs and lows of the journey:<\/p>\n