TITLE:
Identification of Issues Encountered by Students in Completing Their Research Dissertations for the Master of Education Degree Programme
AUTHORS:
W. M. Shaminda Wanasinghe
KEYWORDS:
Issues, Research Study, Master of Education Degree Programme
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.8 No.12,
December
9,
2020
ABSTRACT: Conducting educational research is important as it aims at providing
reliable information regarding educational problems which lead to the
recommendation of informed solutions to those problems. Educational research
can be defined as a “purposeful and systematic” enquiry “to solve a problem,
illuminate a situation or add to our knowledge” (Forbes, 2015). Therefore,
the research component is a vital part of the Master of Education post graduate
degree conducted by the Faculty of Education, at the Open University of Sri
Lanka. Our experience as members of the faculty is that the students, who have
the potential to work as prospective researchers in the field of education,
find it difficult to complete the research dissertation due to a variety of
reasons. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to identify academic
issues faced by the students in conducting research for the Masters’ Degree, to
identify personal issues faced by the students which affect the completion of
their research as well as to make suggestions to overcome the issues faced by
them in conducting their research. The survey method was used as a research
methodology to achieve these objectives. Data collection was done by using a
questionnaire handed to the students reading for the degree programme. A sample
of 176 students who were in the second year of Master of Education Degree
programme was the informants of the study. Data derived using the survey
questionnaire was analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. According to
the findings, issues on the identification of a proper area of research,
insufficiency of relevant literature and other related information on the
proposed research study, unavailability of primary sources of data and research
literature, lack of library facilities, the protracted time taken by the
research supervisors to provide feedback, the difficulty of collecting data
from several samples, the complexity of completing an action research and not
being interested in the selected research topic were identified as some of the
academic issues encountered by the students. In conclusion, the study revealed
that 24% of the samples encounter the issue of unavailability of primary sources of literature to
conduct a review of literature. In addition, 36% of students have issues
connected with meeting supervisors. Workplace commitments, family commitments,
health problems, insufficient support from family, problems on time management
and having to travel long distances to university were also identified as
personal issues. Preparing an action plan to meet the supervisors, conducting
workshops for supervisors, preparing a checklist and comprehensive guidelines
on writing and submission of the dissertation, maintaining a good rapport
between the supervisor and student for sustaining their motivation are some of
the methods recommended to overcome the issues encountered by the students
during the period they conduct research for this degree programme.