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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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