Polokwane M&D workshop

Students paying attention during a presentation

This workshop was conducted on 3-4 April 2013 at the Unisa, Polokwane. The lecturers were Prof MT Gumbo, Dr M Mokhele, Prof ER Mathipa and Ms B Ramasodi. On Day 1 123 students attended, 121 on Day 2 and 87 on Day 3. Almost all the students were CEDU students. A few students were those registered in other Colleges in the fields of law, agriculture, psychology, etc. Their active participation and asking questions indicated to us that these students from other Colleges did not feel out.On Day 1 the workshop presented combined sessions that covered topics on understanding M&D procedures, academic writing, Unisa library – access to a wealth of knowledge, overview of a research journey, emotional support and time management in the study journey, and issues of ethics and ethical clearance.

Many students had just registered and had not yet started with their research proposals. They were advised to start with their research proposals and alerted to the fact that they only had one year left to complete their Research Proposal Module. They were also advised to visit MyUnisa (MPEDU91 and DPEDU01) to access the materials that have been posted for them, as well as to familiarise themselves with the policies and procedures of the postgraduate programme. Those that had already submitted their research proposal draft had been assigned supervisors already. So there were not many queries about supervisor allocation. The few queries received were of an administrative and technical nature, e.g. students could not be re-registered because they had no access online, their course codes were not active, etc. These queries were noted by Prof MT Gumbo so he could follow them up with DSAR.

Students engaged in the activity of implementing what they learned to suggest their research topics, research problems and questions. In this picture they critique each other’s ideas in group

On Day 2 and 3 the students were separated into two groups; Group 1 for those who were still at the research proposal stage and Group 2 for those who were already at the dissertation/thesis stage. Group 1 was taken through the research proposal structure. The presentations were followed by group activities where students began to think about their individual research topics, lecturers motivated and suggested sources of data and data gathering methods to them. Then they each gave a short presentation to get inputs from their groups and their facilitators. They however still have to consult the literature on their research topics. They were also guided on how to phrase their titles, how to present their introduction, the background to their study, how to come up with a research problem, -questions and -objectives.

Group 2 was trained on theoretical and conceptual frameworks and methodology. The work of those who had already decided on and had written their frameworks and methodology chapters was used as for discussions and to help others develop theirs. The library session on Day 2 and Day 3 was a hands-on session in the computer lab.

The lecturer’s impressions were that students were very much interested in and had benefited from the workshop. They indicated this in the half hour reflection session on the morning of Day 2 and Day 3. They were also actively involved and asked many questions.