I’m beginning to really try and shape my research question and finding it incredibly hard to be specific and not make it too broad. I recognise that in order to get value from this cycle I need to focus and not try and do too much. I’ve just made tried to make a version of a research cycle using a diagram that we’ve looked at and this was useful. I have real issues with structure and missed the opportunity of making a power-point for recent tutorials, so that I could really log my research activities thus far.
I have made several PP’s for students but these have been largely image-based to show examples of artists for example, so I’ve not registered a PP as being an effective way of demonstrating my thought process using bullet-pointing and compartmentalising the sea of information. I do feel swamped and daunted by how much I’ve read and then not actually summarised, or made notes from. I aim to get better at organising that. I’m going to look at making a MIRO so that I can have a more visual record of my sources and research explorations.
On Monday, my tutorial group was so inspiring. I saw several PP’s of my peer’s investigations. Also Petra had a really great system of mapping out her research. I was really impressed with how people, through their research questions, are grappling with the core issues of their teaching practice. This feels like big stuff, the stuff of experience and hard-won perspectives on personal concerns. I really got a sense of this through the presentation of the info using the PP’s and I kicked myself for not recognising how useful an organisational tool this would be. A good lesson to learn.