Alhamdulillah, on 30 October 2020, we received an email from RMC informing that our Reflective Brain project successfully secured FRGS 2020 (Phase 1). The project, which is officially entitled “Framework for Critical Reflective Thinking based on Neuroeducational Approach“, has been approved and granted RM56,200 from the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE).
Alhamdulillah, our “Reflective Brain” project is among the recipients of FRGS 2020 (Phase 1)
Personally, this is my second time receiving FRGS after my first project ended in 2016. Indeed, it was quite competitive this time around. 142 (out of 362) applications from UTM succeeded in securing the grant. Credits should be given to my faculty, FSSH, in collaboration with my Research Alliance, for all the workshops organised since early 2020. And also to the facilitators who had shared all the valuable tips, as well as the internal evaluators for all the constructive comments and suggestions throughout the process proposal refinement.
I delivered an online talk yesterday in conjunction with UTMLead’s Leadership Symposium 2020. The synopsis of the talks was as below:
This online session will introduce participants to practitioner research. Practitioner research is one of the various approaches in enhancing professionalism and leadership through research in which it assists practitioners in pursuing their continuous professional development (CPD) endeavor within the higher education landscape. Participants will be exposed to the elements of critical reflective thinking and reflexivity that serve as the two main fundamentals of practitioner research. In addition, its distinctive methodology includes a variety of qualitative research designs such as narrative inquiry, self-study, autoethnography and qualitative case study, which will be discussed in this session. Ethical considerations in practitioner research will also be highlighted during the session. For academics who are undergoing CPD programmes such as industrial training or attachment, this session would provide insights and guidance in preparing their final reports or publications upon programme completion. Participants are encouraged to actively engage in the discussion, with a Q&A session that welcomes enquiries related to the topics.
It was an hour talk, and so I have outlined the talk into three main parts:
Fundamentals of practitioner research
Critical reflection & reflexivity
Qualitative research designs for conducting practitioner research
This idea of conducting this webinar was originally stemmed from a participant’s concern during the previous talk delivered by AP Dr. Noraffandy (SOE). The participant was especially concerned over the ethical issue he faced while preparing his final reports after completion his attachment programme at an industry. I was later contacted by AP Dr Sharifah Hafizah (UTMLead) and was asked to share my knowledge on research designs that could accommodate those who are undergoing Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programmes. Thus, I decided to introduce the audience to practitioner research, which is one of the possible approaches that could be employed for CPD programmes. I hope it gave some insights to those who had attended online.
The half-day workshop on Sumitomo grant application was held yesterday, Wednesday, 23 September 2020 at Seminar Room 1, Language Academy (DO5). The workshop was facilitated by Mr. Kumaraguru Ramayah (fondly referred to as our “Sensei Kumar”) and AP Dr. Abdul Halim Abdul Raof who had the experiences in applying for the grant. In fact, Sensei Kumar is the recipient of the grant in 2019.
Sensei Kumar and Dr Halim were listening to a presentation by the participant
During the workshop, Sensei Kumar and Dr. Halim shared with the participants some analysis done on successful projects. For instance, last year Malaysian HEIs submitted 225 applications, but only 10 proposals were accepted and approved. It was competitive indeed (with only 4.4.% success rate), but according to the facilitators it’s worth trying. Sensei Kumar succeeded in securing the grant after three attempts himself.
Some of the tips given during the workshop
Among the tips shared by Sensei Kumar and Dr. Halim:
Always look into the details.
Make sure there’s no careless mistake, e.g. follow strictly the Japanese way of writing the dates.
The title of the proposal must include “Japan” or “Japanese” i.e. it must be Japanese related research.
Avoid “regular research”.
Budget wise, it it suggested within 0.2-1million Yen.
Group members must be between 3-4 researchers.
The concept of research project must be presented in diagram.
Methodology must be in point-form.
The summary needs to be translated to Japanese.
PI needs to contact his/her Japanese collaborator for consent.
Letter of recommendation must be included; RMC will assist on this.
Since mine was not successful last year, I believe there’s no harm in trying again for this year.
Yesterday our research group conducted test runs for Fatini’s and Shanthini’s PhD projects. As usual, Taha assisted us with the technical part while Sayyid served as the subject. Dr Zuri and Dr. Norlaili offered the technical expertise as well.
Sayyid was the subject for the test runsTesting Shanthini’s intervention using Rapid Automatised Reading (RAN)
I’m honoured to be selected as one of the international advisory board members for the newly launched Qualitative Social Sciences. Thank you Dr. Melih Sever and the rest of the journal’s editorial team members.
It started with an email I received on 5 November 2019 from an academic all the way from Turkey, which contained the following message:
Dear Narina,
I contacted you through Qualitative Research Conference abstract book where I really enjoyed reading your inquiry regarding meaning making and narrative story construction. I have done research on illness narratives of bone marrow transplant patients and I truly understood your dilemmas and inner doubts. I want to say that I believe you can make a great contribution to our brand new journal Qualitative Social Sciences.
The journal is an open access international peer reviewed free journal. There was no journal in Turkey focusing on qualitative social sciences so we wanted fill that gap. Qualitative studies are not considered as much science as hard sciences here, so we wanted to take a step in promoting qualitative research or study. This is how we start mainly.
It is a non profit journal meaning we do not charge anyone for publication, process or submission of articles. Our humble effort is just a step towards advancement of qualitative social research here. Because I also worked on narratives, I wanted to share this journal with you.
If you are interested to publish your qualitative work, you can do the online submission on the journal’s website or you can contact Dr. Melih personally.
Yesterday we gathered at DSP Lab SKE to discuss the progress of the Fatini’s research. This time around we were joined by Dr. Nurul Ashikin who shared us some of her thoughts based on her expertise and previous experiences conducting EEG on children with disabilities.
Fatini’s presentationYesterday’s attendeesDr. Zuri making comments….….while the rest stayed attentive.
