We examined the reliability of grading master's theses at a New Zealand university, where a variant of the academic journal review system is employed. The overall correlation between the grades ...recommended by internal and external markers of master's theses in psychology and applied psychology at this university was 0.39, which is similar to that produced between reviewers of submissions to academic journals. We conclude that thesis grading is about as reliable as the determination of the merit of journal submissions, which is usually regarded as rather poor. Applying a more objective rubric to thesis marking might raise the reliability, but such a change might also lower the creative and unique nature of theses, and hence reduce the contribution that an individual thesis can make to its particular discipline.
This study investigated citation features of Chinese English-major master’s theses and doctoral dissertations and compared the citations in the literature reviews and discussions. Xu’s (2016) ...framework based on systemic functional linguistics was expanded to incorporate content, function, writer’s stance and types of citations into the ideational, interpersonal and textual dimensions. The literature review and discussion chapters in 30 master’s theses and 30 doctoral dissertations were randomly collected for analysis. Results show that doctoral students fulfilled two functions of citations – application and agreement – significantly more than master’s students. Doctoral students are better able to evaluate and apply previous models in their research and start to establish their academic identity by presenting direct support. Further analysis indicates that the functions of literature reviews and discussions influence the distribution of citation features. Both groups used one citation function – topic-relevance – more in discussions than in literature reviews to interpret their findings and compare them against previous scholars’ claims. This study provides implications for theorizing L2 research writing and offers advice for students to improve their citation competence.
In this article, we document a framework for developing recommendations toimprove
a master's course for technology student teachers to better fosterresearch-inquiry
attitudes. A French case study of ...seven years of the master'steacher education course is
analysed. The study adopted a three-phaseeducational design research model: analysis and
exploration, design andconstruction, and evaluation and reflection. The data consists of
54 mastertheses (2014-2021), the degree coursework documentation, and
teachereducatorsnotes. In the end, a discussion is proposed on the practicesimplemented
in the teacher education master’s degree course oriented toresearch-inquiry attitude and
recommendations for potential enhancements totechnology teacher education.
In this study, the purpose was to reveal the content analysis of master's theses and doctoral dissertations in the field of CEIT between 2018-2020. The field of CEIT could be said to cover the fields ...of educational technology and distance education. A total of 156 master's theses and dissertations were examined in order to identify the keywords, academic discipline, research areas, theoretical frameworks, research designs and models, variables and related institutions. According to the research findings, it was seen that quantitative methods were mostly used in the theses and dissertations examined and that mixed methods were used in master's theses more than in doctoral dissertations. In addition, it was revealed that few of the theses and dissertations had theoretical foundations. K-12 students were mostly preferred as the type of participant, and scales and interviews were most popular as data collection tools. Moreover, the variables of academic performance and effectiveness were mostly used as dependent variables. The present study, which conducted systematic content analysis of master's and doctoral dissertations in the field of CEIT, is thought to be important in terms of revealing the current situation in the fields of Educational Technology and Distance Education and determining the research trends.
