Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Projektpapir 14 Udgave August 2013
Projektpapir 14 Udgave August 2013
Table of contents:
1. Introduction
2. Project work in relation to the themes
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
2.5
Project organisation
Written report
Thesis statement
Types of thesis statements
Check points for a good thesis statement
7. Annexes
Annex 1: SCRIBO a shortcut to a good project
Annex 2: Content of the methodology section
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1. Introduction
1 Lov om uddannelse til professionsbachelor som pdagog, LBK nr. 315 af 19/04/2006: (Act on education of
professional bachelors in pedagogy, LBK No. 315 of 19/4/2006) During the bachelor project, your shall
independently acquire: 1) Special insight in a limited area or problem of both theoretical and practical nature within
a central pedagogical work area, 2) skill to collect, document, analyse, reflect on and put into perspective knowledge
and information within pegagogical professional subjects and issues, and 3) skill to communicate pedagocial
professional subjects and issues.
Problem-oriented project work implies that your study group thoroughly prepares a
certain issue on a problem-oriented and interdisciplinary basis. This is a process
that has a query as a starting point. A query may arise in situations, where the
knowledge and experience that you have as a student is not sufficient to solve a
problem. This should be very widely understood. It is the query that arises when we
are not capable of explaining or understanding a certain phenomenon with the
knowledge we have at our disposal. It may be a question of you in your professional
work facing concrete issues, where the knowledge and action readiness that you
have accumulated, is not sufficient to solve the problem.
The idea being that through the project work you take as your starting point the
specific issue formulated as a professional problem field, thereafter to make the
object of theoretical and possibly empirical analyses. This does not necessarily take
place to solve the problem, but rather to investigate the background, the
conditions or the perspective of the problem. In this way, this study form will
enhance your reflectionary and analytical competences.
The project organisation means that you will mostly be organised in study groups.
The groups take their starting point in a subject and thesis statement, and the
project work results in a written report/synopsis. The work with themes is built up as
an interaction between presentations from teachers, groups and team discussions,
instructions, group studies and independent study.
In the beginning of the theme period, the study groups are formed, thereafter
functioning as the frame of the project work. The organisation of the group in each
theme is seen from the description of each themed course from the teachers of the
team. When the groups have been formed, the real project work starts, and the
project is finalized at the end of the period.
Regarding the bachelor project, it is possible to work individually. See Regulations:
Examinations.
In connection to the preparation of the written report, your study groups should
focus on: Subject, problem area and thesis statement. The project work has its
starting point in a subject chosen by the study group. By this it is meant a broader
and not precisely defined field of knowledge, typically formulated as an area of
interest or object, for example:
Music in the nursery
Physically handicapped persons sexuality
Acknowledgement
Overweight children and young people.
On the background of the subject, your group shall describe the problem area and
explain and document the issue of your interest. The problem area is typically
presented in the introduction of the report. Here, you have to focus on:
Documenting the reality of the issue: Where did you read about it in
connection with theory, investigation, research, statistics etc., or where did
you experience it possibly during your practice periods etc.
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The course could be that the study group members starts with formulating concrete
experience (e.g. empirical data from practice periods), dilemmas or cases that are
characterized by various forms of your query. As this experience is discussed in the
group, more general issues begin to materialise.
These can also be based on you having read literature, theories, development
projects or research results with the practice experience completed by you. You may
also take inspiration from other ways of addressing things, new methods, new
legislation etc.
Gradually, the discussion will circle around certain phenomena, themes or concepts,
which the group wishes to concentrate on.
Subject/theme
Problem field
Query
Issue
Thesis statement
In connection with preparation of the thesis statement, you may also choose to
work with SCRIBO see Annex 1 page 13: SCRIBO a shortcut to a good project.
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Thesis statements may be outlined as a question, and it is a good idea to use whwords in the process.
Ask with:
What
Which
Where
Who
- and write an accounting, classifying and categorising text.
Ask with:
Why
- and write explanatory, interpretative, analytic and discussing text.
Ask with:
How
and write an evaluating, action indicative text (Rieneckder, 2005, p. 18).
The thesis statement may change along the way as you get wiser, but a possible
change should always be agreed with the group supervisor.
The thesis statement also includes a limitation: What do you not want to touch on.
Be aware to have the projects markedly defined, even if at the start it feels as if it
is futile. Further on, you will find that the interesting part typically consists in going
in-depth with a narrow subject as opposed to skimming over a broad subject.
Research and reporting are related but are not the same. During the total work
process, you will explore areas in an investigative way, you will read and write a lot
that should not necessarily end up in the report.
You may use the below check points in connection of preparation of your thesis
statement:
Relevance study-wise and professionally
The subject, problem area and thesis statement shall be kept within the
requirements of the study programme as to thematic projects, and the thesis
statement shall be professionally relevant.
Interest in thesis statement
You have to be motivated as to the thesis statement and the analyses, which
it entails, as well as you have to be interested in the methods that you
choose to work with.
Clear, unequivocal and with a possibility for analysis and line of reasoning
It has to be obvious what the projects aims are and which new knowledge
you want to contribute. At the same time the thesis statement shall give an
opportunity to analyse and reason.
Is it challenging enough and has a conclusion?
Does the thesis statement provide an opportunity to make the conclusion of
the report having an aha-effect? Or is it so trivial that the conclusion is
more likely to be well, we thought so?
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Question form
The thesis statement should preferably be able to be formulated as a
question with wh-words if possible. You might express sub-questions or
cases/theses
Be linguistically precise and directional
The thesis statement shall be precise, and it should be comparatively easy to
distinguish what is relevant to have a closer look at, and what to leave out.
Clear emphasis
The thesis statement shall be clearly emphasized, preferably by means of
typography
Can we make it in time?
Dont bite off more than, be ambitious, but also realistic (Jrgensen &
Rienecker, 2001).
The project work shall include a section on methodology (see Annex 2, page 14)
where your account for the scientific approach that you intend to use to investigate
and process the pedagogy-professional subject and answer to the thesis statement.
You also need to have a description of data collection methods to be involved in the
work with the thesis statement, such as:
Observations (qualitative and quantitative)
Interviews
Questionnaire
Field studies
Literature studies
Practical actions
Cases etc.
The section shall include your reflexions on which strengths and weaknesses lie in
the chosen data collection methods and the scientific theoretical approach, i.e. you
have to relate critically, including in the case of ethical problems and dilemmas.
4.2 Which expectations may the supervisor have with regards to the
group?
Shall (if standard form is not used see Regulations: Examinations for the theme in
questions) be used:
Report title if illustrations are included, these shall illustrate the subject
(remember to state source of the illustration)
Occasion for example 1st semester: Relation between pedagogue/user
Names and study numbers of the group participants, class number and group
number
Name of supervisor
Place of study - Pdagoguddannelsen i Holstebro (social education campus in
Holstebro)
Scope of the subject when you have chosen to investigate a certain aspect
of the subject, you will always opt something else out. You may for example
limit your subject as to user group, age group, institution type, time period,
pedagogical action/activity etc.
Possible reading instruction for the report (see section 3.1 page 6).
The methodology section shall include the following elements, but the order may
vary.
The main subject shall to the greatest extent possible include relevant national and
international research, study and development work. 2
Make headlines for each section, relevant to your project. The order in the main
section depends on you and your project. It is a good idea to have a partial aim and
partial conclusion for each single section.
5.2.6 Conclusion
The conclusion shall include a summary of the main p0ints of the report, i.e. there is
no new information in it. You have to make a clear connection between the
introduction, the thesis statement and the conclusion, so that you respond to and
answer/confirm/dismiss the questions of the thesis statement. The conclusion does
not necessarily have to be black/white, as gradations are welcomed.
A discussion opens for the opportunity to put the report subject into a greater
connection possibly remove one or more limitations or relate to new and
relevant information that has come up during the work with the report.
Use WORDs Reference handling program to make source references and list of
literature. Instructions can be found on Study net and you can get help and
support from the librarians at Campus Holstebro.
The list of literature shall include all literature, internet sources, DVDs etc. used.
PS! Be careful with the old versions of WORD. If the report is sent between group
participants and one of them has an older version of WORD (e.g. from 2010 to
2003) than the version from where it came, all source references may in the worst
case be deactivated.
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Now, children shall be brought up to be independent and internallycontrolled. Direct use of force is not suited for this. Power becomes invisible.
In this pattern, direct force, knowledge and discourses (e.g. concerning selfgovernment and competent children) and self-technologies (e.g. log books,
reflexion techniques etc.) is a part.
When the force becomes invisible, the strap has to be replaced by the pedagogue!
Conclusion:
Action plans shall ensure the residents against abuse, ensure that there are reasons
for the effort that they are left to, and that the effort is controlled in accordance
with individual considerations. However, there are many pitfalls within the work of
preparing an action plan and in the use of action plans in everyday pedagogical
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work. The pedagogical relation is always a force relation. Whether it benefits the
resident or becomes an abusive force, depends on the ethics of the pedagogue and
the institution. The professional pedagogue shall be able to handle many dilemmas
in order to be able to govern powers and responsibility and take care of the needs of
the residents. Good action plans may help the pedagogue and the institution insist
on the effort having to be for the sake of the resident, and the action plans shall
help developing the professional reflexion.
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7. Annexes
What is my thesis
statement?
Which literature and
information should I use?
How do I get on?
You may use SCRIBO as preparation for your session with the supervisor, group or
the librarian. If you already have a thesis statement and strategy for search for
literature, you may use SCRIBO as a check list.
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Below are shown proposals for what to include under each of the 5 areas:
Explanation of the methods used for collection of your empirical data: Which
methods were used, and which deliberations are behind your way of
collecting data? Explain e.g. your choice of observation method, the layout of
your questionnaire or the importance of using focus group interviews instead
of individual interviews.
Reflexion on what the methods meant for your collection of empirical data
and the knowledge you have obtained from the empirical data? Is it valid
knowledge?
If you use other peoples empirical data, then you shall reflect critically on
them in the same way.
Explanation of your analytic approach to the data collected: How did you
choose to read and interprete the data collected? Have you used a form of
systematics or aimed at objectivity during the processing of your data? How
did you handle the analysis of e.g. interviews or field work? If you made a
discourse analysis, then explain what is a discourse and write something
about the analytical tools used.
Reflect on you analytical approach and your special focus is there
something that you dont see?
If you use other peoples analyses and interpretations, then reflect critically
on these in the same way.
Which scientific theoretical approach have you chosen for the report by your
data collection method? (e.g. positivism, phenomenology, critical theory,
social constructivism or a combination thereof)
Reflexion on the scientific theoretical approach: Which possibilities/limitations
do your scientific theoretical approach offer? The scientific theoretical
approach depends on the knowledge that the project aims at unveiling, and
therefore also have a consequence on the data collection method.
Dont be too detailed as to CV of each author! Dont let it take up too much time!
Birthdays etc. are not necessary! If the information comes from the back page of a
book, the source is not necessary!
5. Ethics:
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