Research Project Week 4: Collection and Reflection

I'm over halfway through my research project now - it has flown by! Here's what I got up to this week; I particularly focussed on personal development and how I could incorporate my new knowledge into my project.
Research Project Week 4: Collection and Reflection
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This week my research project took a bit of a backseat as I waited for data collection. In the mean time I concentrated on continuing my literature review, and starting to plan the poster I'm producing as a product of the project. Motivation was running low, as I felt there wasn't a huge amount I could do until my data was collected, so much of my focus shifted towards the personal development side of the scholarship.

  

On Tuesday I had my first coaching session, where we discussed my Talent Q results. The thought of spending an hour just talking about myself wasn't something I was very comfortable with at first, but the session actually felt like one of the most valuable parts of the scholarship to date. As someone who enjoys reflecting, setting goals and focussing on self improvement, it was surprising how many aspects of myself I'd never thought about before. We discussed how my preferences can have many implications for my role as a leader, as well as my current research project. I'm really hoping to utilise my creativity, for example, when drawing conclusions from my data (what follow up research could be done? what other ways could the data be interpreted?) I'm also hoping to improve my communication skills, making sure I'm not holding back from asking any 'silly' questions I may have. After the session, I drafted up my personal development plan where I set specific goals for the future. I'm hoping that by using the knowledge of my preferences, strengths, values and career aspirations I will improve my confidence and likelihood to succeed in life.

  

Towards the end of the week my data collection was complete. I spent some time paying participants for their time (something which Prolific simplifies very nicely) and I had a brief look at the data. I have never worked with such large amounts of data before, so it was a little overwhelming. However my data processing and analysis skills are something I'm especially keen to develop during this project, as I have really enjoyed the little I have experienced in the past.

  

Next week is the penultimate week of my project, so my main focus is going to be data analysis. I can't wait to see if I have any interesting results!

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