Schools

Consultation is provided to schools to support school renewal processes through:

Professional learning workshops for teachers which focus on: productive pedagogies in learning and teaching; lesson planning and team teaching; cross curriculum design, unit and work program planning around big ideas and themes within an integrated model of thinking and learning; the middle years learner; designing middle years learning spaces; religious education, pastoral care;
Validating or acting as a critical friend of change processes and evaluating strategies, measuring improvement as a result of the education change implemented;
Professional learning of leadership teams, organisation mission and vision, individual appraisal, school evaluation and curriculum evaluation;
Parent and teacher workshops in how to work more effectively with young adolescent learners.

Research Support

Consultation is provided to HDR students, individuals and groups on:

research design,
methodological choices,
analysis strategies (qualitative and quantitative methods),
using NVivo and SPSS
preparation of theses, papers and reports,
proof reading academic writing, assignments and theses, and
formatting theses, styles and table of contents.

NVivo

Analysis of qualitative data can be significantly enhanced through use of computer software which provides tools to assist the process. NVivo, from QSR International, provides tools that allow researchers to work in diverse and effective ways with their data:

managing data sources and ideas and information derived from those sources;
searching data to locate passages of interest or explore expressions of interest;
recording developing ideas and understanding of the data in memos and models;
querying the data, and coding based on the data, to explore patterns or test emerging ideas;
linking qualitative with quantitative data.

SPSS and EXCEL

Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is a statistical computer based analysis package for analysing questionnaire survey data. As a beginning researcher working survey data an SPSS data file needs to be prepared from the survey data. SPSS can be used to analyse data from other sources as well, numerical data and non numerical data. Wherever data is organised on the basis of cases, and a common range of variables for each case, can be anlaysed using SPSS.

Using SPSS involves the naming and labelling of variables, management of multiple response questions, data entry and saving the SPSS data file to disk. There are four main analysis procedures using SPSS:

Frequencies
Crosstabs
Means
Graphs

The aim of the statistical analysis is to communicate data in graphical ways. SPSS introduces you to standard skills and techniques to analyse statistical data in:

Descriptive statistics
Graphic displays and distributions
Comparing means
Chi-square and contingency tables
Linear regression
Correlation and coefficient of determination

The consultation will provide an overview of the software. I will then take you through SPSS procedures, and help prepare your analysis following the four SPSS procedures.

Microsoft EXCEL can also generate similar statistical analysis with EXCEL add-ins, for example @risk software.

Academic Writing, Essay & Thesis Editing

It is important to have your academic writing/thesis professionally edited prior to submission. You should consult with a professional academic editor to edit your academic writing/thesis for the same reasons you should have an essay edited. However, as your thesis is a much more significant piece of work, it is even more important to ensure its quality before you submit it to your university.

You have just spent between one and three years (sometimes longer) researching and writing your thesis, which is the most crucial piece of writing you will ever do. Do not let yourself down by submitting a thesis that has not been edited by a professional thesis editor. Having your thesis edited by an experienced academic editor, who can relate to your research and writing journey will ensure that all your hard work is presented in the best possible way.

If English is your second language, your thesis could contain a significant number of grammatical, spelling and other errors that need to be corrected prior to submission. The correct use of English is important to create a positive overall impression of your thesis. Further, you do not want mistakes in your writing to confuse your examiners or distract them from the important arguments you are making. The correct use of English is crucial to ensure that the research you have conducted and the arguments you are making are being reported clearly in your thesis. Your thesis is an original contribution to scholarly research in your field, but in order to make this contribution effectively, it must adhere to high academic standards for the use of the English language.

It is important to have your essay/assignment/paper/thesis or dissertation edited by a professional editor to ensure that it is a polished document written in clear and precise academic language, free from grammatical or other errors. For an additional fee your academic writing/thesis can be formatted according to university expectations.