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Matters of PhD Research: Converting Practical Knowledge
into a Pattern of Regularity
Ismail Said The School of Graduate Studies
UTM 8 August 2015
8/9/2015 1
New Discovery: Water Strider Robot
Mechanical engineers from Seoul National University
have developed a robotic insect that can jump on
water.
8/9/2015 2
Quorum Theory and Talking Bacteria by Bonnie Bassler
8/9/2015 3
PhD research is my baby
8/9/2015 4
What is a PhD?
The journey is a process of analytical and critical thinking. It is a sacrifice against you norms or routines.
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Being analytical
ANALYTIC INTELLIGENCE: The ability to solve problem using academic skills.
CREATIVE INTELLIGENCE: The ability to deal with novel situations and to come up with original solutions.
PRACTICAL INTELLIGENCE: The ability to deal with problems and challenges in everyday life. (Robert Sternberg)
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Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
Viva-voce
Research Conceptualization; Preparation of Research Proposal; Literature Review, Problem Definition
Data collection and analysis
Thesis writing
CP1 CP2 CP3 JP1 JP2
Submit thesis
The Journey
CP4 JP3
Day 1
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What are the criteria of PhD candidate?
• Consistent
• Discipline
• Stay focus
• Be skeptic
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What is PhD Research?
• Doing PhD study is putting yourself into a world of investigating new ideas and knowledge of a subject. And, to attain the new knowledge, you always link your research field with others. (Theoretical framework)
• Doing a PhD research may not solving a dubious problem that is it is not a rocket science. Neither, it is a breakthrough. It may investigate an obvious inquiry. (Quorum sensing, Higgs boson)
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What is PhD Research?
• Doing PhD study is converting your practical/personal experience knowledge into a pattern of regularity.
• To generate the pattern, a candidate is required to construct a theoretical framework.
• The method of inquiry is replicable.
• A clear practical and theoretical implications on a research subject.
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Siphonic roof drainage technology to drain rainwater. It applies the
principle of full bore flow (pressure flow) in building roof drainage
design. The potential energy from the height of a building provides the
necessary hydraulic head to transfer water through pressure flow.
Through 14 years in the business of Fast Flow Technology, Goh Chun
Hee, an architect, has vast amount of knowledge on roof drainage
technology for tall buildings.
A practice in architecture on rainwater discharge
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1. HOW NOVEL IS HIS KNOWLEDGE?
2. WHAT THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK THAT SUPPORTS THE KNOWLEDGE
OF FULL BORE FLOW?
3. CAN THE TECHNOLOGY BE ASSOCIATED WITH RAIN WATER
HARVESTING?
4. HOW ARCHITECTS CAN ADOPT THE FASTFLOW THEORY AND
TECHNIQUE FOR OTHER COMPONENTS OF BUILDING DESIGN?
5. HOW THE TYPOLOGY OF THE BUILDING WILL INFLUENCE THE WATER
DRAINAGE SYSTEM AND HOW FASTFLOW CAN IMPROVE THE BUILDING
TYPOLOGY?
Questions
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Examples of UTM Thesis Titles
• Children’s View of Friendly Environment in a Low Cost High Density Urban Neighbourhood
Research Aim: To determine the Malaysian children’s view of friendly environment in
urban neighbourhood.
• The Cultural Landscape Values of a Nupe Community in Nigeria
Research Aim: To determine the Nupe ethnic group values and perception associated
with the transactions with their cultural landscape.
• New Microwave Based Transesterification Techniques for Biodiesel Production from Cultivated Microalgae
Research Aim: To improve the biomass and lipid content of microalgae during cultivation using LED lights of various wavelengths and intensities.
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Content of a Thesis
Chapter 1: Background, Research Problem and Research Gap
Chapter 2: Literature Review
Chapter 3: Research Methodology
Chapter 4: Results and Discussion
Chapter 5: Conclusion and Implications
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ISSUE OR RESEARCH PROBLEM
• The fundamental matter that you like to solve.
• You get the research problem for synthesis of literature and/or from your expert observation.
• Easy to elicit data.
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RESEARCH GAP
• Once a problem is encountered, a researcher foresees the gap of study that he or she would like to bridge through empirical investigation.
• A review of literature can ensure a researcher to define his or her study gap by analyzing what previous studies had examined and what have not been investigated.
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AFFORDANCES OF SCHOOL GROUNDS FOR CHILDREN'S OUTDOOR PLAY AND ENVIRONMENTAL LEARNING
There is a good engagement with the academic literature throughout the thesis and the candidate demonstrates a good knowledge of the debates – although I think a more critical take on the work would have really strengthened the thesis.
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AFFORDANCES OF SCHOOL GROUNDS FOR CHILDREN'S OUTDOOR PLAY AND ENVIRONMENTAL LEARNING
RESEARCH AIM
To identify the influential factors affecting the actualisation of
affordances and children’s preferences regarding the use of school
grounds for outdoor play and environmental learning
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AFFORDANCES OF SCHOOL GROUNDS FOR CHILDREN'S OUTDOOR PLAY AND ENVIRONMENTAL LEARNING
Research Objectives
1. To explore the affordances of the school grounds
from the children’s perspective
2. To identify the factors that influence the level of
actualised affordances in the school grounds
3. To explore the perceptions of children and
teachers on the use of school grounds for
environmental learning
4. To distinguish the meaning of ideal school grounds
that permit environmental learning
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Research Objectives
1. To explore the affordances of the school grounds
from the children’s perspective
2. To identify the factors that influence the level of
actualised affordances in the school grounds
3. To explore the perceptions of children and
teachers on the use of school grounds for
environmental learning
4. To distinguish the meaning of ideal school grounds
that permit environmental learning
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What is a literature review?
• Literature is a body of information that has conceptual relevance for a particular topic of inquiry.
• A critical look at the existing research. • It is not a summary or annotated bibliography. • It is synthesizing a subject from a set of previous
studies in your own stance. • Evaluate the work, show the relationships
between different work, and show how it relates to your work.
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2 Overview
Content
1. Model of Architectural
Quality
2. Model of Behavioral-
based Simulation
/120
Pedestrian movement
Understanding Crowd
Behavior & environmental design
Conway
Crowd modeling
Introducing AI
Reynolds
Behavior& automata
Way-finding
Fruin
Handerson
Okazaki
Matsuda
Ortony
Hiido
Kuwahara
Watanabe
80s 90s 70s
Particle & flow-based sim.
Decision Support sys.
Synthetic perception
Interaction & emotion-based sys.
Social & cognitive emergence
Crowd dynamics
Reasoning model
AI
00s Rao & Georgeff
Tyrell
Yoshida
Ebihara
Terzepoulos
Thalmann
Renault
Bates
Thalmann
Palechano
Watanabe
Monzani
Mussee
understanding- behavior, crowd of
pedestrian, Limited- computer
power
Modeling using- AI, cellular automata,
Development of- way finding alg.
More modeling, AI using physics,
emergence, cognitive models
AI with reasoning model, model
based on dynamic vars.
2 Overview
Model of Architectural Quality Model of Behavioral-based Simulation
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1Introduction
Objective & Goals Limit of study Originality Contribution
/120 8/9/2015 23
Situating a research with current status quo of a subject
Urban Morphology
Environmental Psychology
Conservation Preservation
Urban
Element
Urban
Structure
Change
Urban
Setting
Place
Attachment Image of
the city
City
Marketing
Culture
Conzen, 1960; Lynch, 1960; Kostof, 1991;
Wikantyoso,1997; Hillier, 2001; Ikaputra,
et. Al, 2000; Fattahi and Kobayashi,
2009a, 2009b
Whitehand and Morton,
2004; Rapoport, 2004;
Samant, 2004; Tweed
and Sutherland, 2007;
Smith, 2008; Rabady,
2010; Ragab, 2011, Kim,
2011
Boblic, 1990; Hall, 1997;
Purwanto, 2005; Hanh, 2006;
Hara, et.al (2008)
Schuller, 1898; Geisler, 1918; Whitby, 1951; Conzen,
1960; Muratori, 1960; Hillier aand Hanson, 1984;
Forties; 1989; Kropt, 1996; Hall, 1997; Levy, 1999;
Canigia, 2001; Jiang and Claramunt, 2002; Chapman,
2006; james and Bound, 2009; Tian et.al, 2010; Topcu
and Kubat, 2012
Rodwel, 2007; Kolzlowski and
Bowen, 1997; Sevinc, 2009;
Wei and Kiang, 2009;
Whitehand and Gu, 2010; Albert
and Hanzen, 2010; Hillier, 2001
Inn, 2004;Gospodini, 2004, 2011; Doralti,
2004;Watson, 2006; Plaza, 2006, 2008; Butina,
2006; Niebrzydowski, 2007; Novickas, 2007;
Lewicka, 2008; Handal, 2009;Chen, 2011;
Sainz, 2012 Tuan, 1974; Steele, 1981; Altman and
Low, 1992; Hummon, 1992; Jackson,
1994; Cross, 2001; Guillani, 2003;
Willian and Vaske, 2003; Smaldone,
2006; Handal. 2006; Beidler, 2007;
Hernandez, 2007; Brown and
raymond, 2007; Watson and Bentley,
2007; White et.al, 2008; Liu, 2009;
Raymod et.al, 2010; Najafi and
Kamal, 2011
Rebuilding City Identity
Place
Familiarity
Sense of
Place Identity
Authenticity
Urban
Reminder
City's Identity
Place Character
Identity of Place
Place Identity
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My study is the combination of phenomenology such as perception, feelings
meaning and symbolic such as how the landscape is culturally embedded in the
transactions of the people.
Cultural Landscape Paradigm There exist 4 poles of cultural landscape studies, the subjective, symbolic,
the intersubjective and the physical paradigm (Backhaus 2011)
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Your research framework is generated from review of subjects from different disciplines. Your task is to cogently write the materials into a pattern of regularity. It must present a composite of past findings related to your
research subject. The composition is like making this salad. It is a mixture of vegetables and spices that only fit for Briyani Hyderabad that I prepared for
Eidul Adha.
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Research Underpinnings
Environmental
Affordances Person-
environment fit
z
Environmental
Preferences
U2 U1
U3
Gibson, 1979; Heft, 1988, 2010; Reed, 1996; Miller et al., 1998; Kyttä, 2003, 2004, 2006; Powel, 2007; Kernan 2010; Storli and Hagen, 2010; Laaksoharju et al., 2012
Muchinsky and Monahan, 1987;
Caplan and Harrisson, 1993; Kristof, 1996;
Edwards et al., 1998; Ozdemir and Yilmaz,
2008; Eccles et al.,
1991; Stokols, 1979; Bonnes and
Secciaroli, 1995; Haikkola et al., 2007
Kyttä, 2003
Ulrich, 1983 ; Kaplan, 1987; van Andel, 1990; Eubanks Owens, 1994; Malinowski and Thurbert, 1996; Korpela et al., 2002; Hartig and Staats, 2005; Matsuoka and Kaplan, 2008
8/9/2015 27
Research Underpinnings
Environmental
Affordances Person-
environment fit
z
Environmental
Preferences
U2 U1
U3
Gibson, 1979; Heft, 1988, 2010; Reed, 1996; Miller et al., 1998; Kyttä, 2003, 2004, 2006; Powel, 2007; Kernan 2010; Storli and Hagen, 2010; Laaksoharju et al., 2012
Muchinsky and Monahan, 1987;
Caplan and Harrisson, 1993; Kristof, 1996;
Edwards et al., 1998; Ozdemir and Yilmaz,
2008; Eccles et al.,
1991; Stokols, 1979; Bonnes and
Secciaroli, 1995; Haikkola et al., 2007
Kyttä, 2003
Ulrich, 1983 ; Kaplan, 1987; van Andel, 1990; Eubanks Owens, 1994; Malinowski and Thurbert, 1996; Korpela et al., 2002; Hartig and Staats, 2005; Matsuoka and Kaplan, 2008
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Variables of the Study
DIMENSION VARIABLES ITEMS
1. Properties and attributes of school grounds
(ENVIRONMENT)
a) Physical environmental properties
b) Physical environmental attributes
c) Social/cultural properties and attributes
d) Accessibility
Features – natural and man-made features Design – spaces, size, space connectivity
Availability, functionality, adequacy, aesthetic quality, safety
Policies, regulations, social dynamics
Physical – location, easily access Socially – permitted/restricted
2. Behavioural responses
(ACTION)
e) Opportunities for outdoor play
f) Actualisation of affordances
Use, activities, types of play, play behaviour pattern, social interaction, performance
Place affordances, level and taxonomy of affordances, fields of free, promoted and constrained action
3. Perceptual responses
(EXPERIENCE)
g) Place preferences
h) Perception of environmental learning
i) Conception of ideal school grounds
j) Emotional effects
Favourite and disliked places in school grounds
Potentials and barriers of environmental learning in school grounds
Needs – Communal, physical, emotional and educational needs Preferences – Features and design patterns
Positive and negative feelings from interaction with school grounds environment
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Environmental
Learning Children’s
Outdoor Play
Actualisation of
Affordances
potential site for
Preferences
School Grounds
Environment
Pe
rce
ptio
n a
nd
a
ttitu
de
to
wa
rds
Co
nc
ep
tio
n o
f id
ea
l sc
ho
ol g
rou
nd
s
offered affordances
perceived affordances
offered affordances
BOTTOM
UP
Children’s
interactions
Children’s
needs
CHILDREN’S BEHAVIOURAL AND PERCEPTUAL RESPONSES
PLANNING AND DESIGN OF SCHOOL GROUNDS
Children’s
emotions
Interrelationship between Variables
D1 D2
D3
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Research Methodology
Research Design
Exploratory
research
Mixed methods design
(Concurrent nested strategy)
Transactional approach in a
phenomenology study
Qualitative
(Predominant method)
Quantitative
(Embedded method)
Children
(Stratified purposeful
sampling)
Teachers
(Simple random
sampling)
Data analysis and triangulation
Findings
Measurement Strategies
STRATEGY RESPONDENT OBJECTIVE
a) Walkabout interview and mapping
Children (n=80)
RO#1
b) Photography and discussion
RO#2
c) Drawing
RO#4
d) Preference survey
RO#3
e) Survey questionnaire
Teachers (n=71)
RO#3 RO#4
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RO #1 Affordances of school grounds
Children’s
walkabout interview & mapping
(n=80)
Children’s photography &
discussion (n=80)
RO #2 Factors that influence
level of affordances
RO #3 Environmental learning
in school grounds
Children’s preference
survey (n=80)
RO #4 Ideal school grounds for environmental learning
Outdoor play
activities
The use of school grounds environment
Play behaviour
patterns & children’s performances
Place preferences
Children’s affection & evaluation towards the environment
Properties & attributes of school grounds
Person-environment relationship
(“ACTUAL” environment)
Needs &
preferences
The potentials & barriers of school grounds for environmental learning
Beliefs, preferences & needs
Meaning and
understanding on the potential affordances of school grounds
Features, design patterns & aspects considered
Perceptual & conception
(“IDEAL” environment)
Physical &
social
factors
Theoretical & design implication in enhancing school grounds’ potentials
Teacher’s survey
questionnaire (n=71)
Children’s drawing
(n=80)
Descriptive statistics (Univariate) Spatial analysis (Hotspots)
Content analysis (Interpretative)
Descriptive
statistics
Descriptive statistics
RASCH Model
Descriptive statistics Content analysis
TRIANGULATION
Perceptions &
attitudes
Research Objectives
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The Model of Child-Environment Transactional Process
1. P-E fit
2. Affordances
3. Environmental preferences
Conclusion & Theoretical Implications
8/9/2015 33
AFFORDANCES OF HOME-SCHOOL JOURNEY AS A PLAY AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
FOR MIDDLE CHILHOOD CHILDREN
NOOR AIN YATIMAN : MB113011 SUPERVISOR: ASSOC. PROF. DR. ISMAIL SAID
‘
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The study found that the children were engaged with continuous activities along the journey and perceived the home-school journey as their play and
learning space.
However, the study found that physical setting of the journey and children's mobility to school are factors that influence their physical, social and cognitive
performance.
OF HOME-SCHOOL JOURNEY AS PLAY AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENT CHILDREN’S EXPERIENCES
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Ana
8/9/2015 36
OF HOME-SCHOOL JOURNEY AS PLAY AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENT CHILDREN’S EXPERIENCES
‘ The experiences include walking on shifting topography (uphill and downhill), feeling
tired walking uphill, seeing the silhouetted figure of oil palm tree, walking on different texture of the road (sand and asphalt), feeling calm by the birdsong, hearing the noisy
sound of a machine, seeing orchard, seeing squirrel, seeing and feeling afraid of monkeys, seeing dying durian tree and seeing flower dropping.
8/9/2015 37
Qualities to attain a PhD
• Academically rigorous
• A master piece
• Demonstration of essentials
• Read, read, read
• Write, write, write
• Share, share, share
• Never hide from your supervisor
• Learn how to ask the right questions
• Keep an annotated bibliography
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Upcoming Conferences in 2016
• SETI: International Conference on Science, Engineering and Technology Innovations Osaka, Japan
• 17th International Conference on Recent Advances in Medical and Health Sciences (ICRAMHS), Tokyo
• Academics World 22nd International Conference on Management and Information Technology (ICMIT) Boston
• RW- 10th International Conference on Chemical and Biochemical Engineering (ICCBE) Oxford, United Kingdom
• Joint Workshop for Global Engineers in Asia 2016 at King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi
• South-east Asian Technical University Consortium Symposium 2016 (10th SEATUC )
8/9/2015 39
Read Novels
The Uncharted Path: The Autobiography of Lee Myung-Bak
What is a life well lived?
8/9/2015 40