Читать книгу Fulfilling the Potential of Your Doctoral Experience - Pam Denicolo - Страница 29

Transitioning into the research process is a progression that should not be underestimated or ignored! One of the biggest problems facing new researchers is failing to reflect on their expectations – so we have provided Activity 2.1. Until you have completed the whole process, it is difficult to appreciate just how different undertaking doctoral research is from all other roles in higher education, whilst it is widely acknowledged that it entails one of the more challenging of pedagogies, a point we discuss further in Chapter 10. Two questions (and our suggested answers) may help you to reflect on the difference:

1 Dealing with uncertainty: How will you manage the unknown? This is likely to be the first time that you are seeking not simply a new answer to a project question but, in the initial stages at least, a new question within the discipline. Answer: You must adopt a flexible attitude so that you can manage the changing environment, your changing expectations, the excitements, occasional disappointments and even fluctuating levels of motivation. It is inevitable that things go wrong or you encounter unexpected barriers to progress, but this can open new avenues for research and often leads to better ideas, so should not always be viewed negatively. (Experienced researchers do often forget to warn new recruits of the truth of the adage ‘if anything can go wrong, it will’ because they have become acclimatised to it.)

2 Dealing with immensity: How do you eat an elephant (or a comparably large vegetable)? Answer: One bite at a time! This is an old joke – but a truism when faced with a very large project that stretches over years. So, to avoid choking or being overwhelmed by the size of the thing, you need to methodically munch your way through it one mouthful at a time. This is where your ability to plan is vital; dividing up the tasks not simply to undertake them in a logical order but also to check that they all can be completed in time (Chapter 3).