Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 31 (2012) 5 9 WCLTA 2011 A study of the capabilities of graduate students in writing thesis and the advising quality of faculty members to pursue the thesis Mehran Mizany a *, Mohammad Khabiri b, Seyed Nasrollah Sajadi c a Master of Science in Sport Management, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran b Associate Professor of University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran c Associate Professor of University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran Abstract For this study, viewpoints of 137 graduate students in seven national universities were gathered. Research results indicated that the graduate students evaluated their scientific and practical qualifications (2.45 out of 4) and advising quality of their supervisors and advisors (2.65 out of 4) in a mediocre level. In addition, research findings illustrated a significant difference between supervisors and advisors in quality of advising (P=0.001) that quality of advising of supervisors (with mean of 2.75) was better than advisors (with mean of 2.54). There was a significant positive correlation between student qualifications and advising quality of their teachers (P 0.001). 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Prof. Hüseyin Uzunboylu. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license. Keywords: Thesis, Physical Education, Postgraduate, Student, Scientific qualification, Supervisor, Advisor 1. Introduction A simple look at the development of countries reveals that science could developed not only by education but also by research and those countries which doesn't allocate enough resources to fundamental and applied researches, could not gain development and growth in other sectors of their society (Institute of research and planning in higher education, department of scientific researches, 1981). Thesis is special and important kind of research which is written by graduate students for fulfillment of their degrees. Different scientists have proposed different aim for doing and writing a thesis in graduate degree. Some have recognized its aim for getting Research Competence by students, some have considered it as an ordinary Scholarly Work, and some other says that thesis should have Contribution to Knowledge (Fadaei-e Araqi, 1995). Writing thesis is important from several aspects. First, writing a thesis is the first experience in scholarly researches that gives opportunity for student to be familiar with research and the comprehensiveness which is needed for it. Second, writing a thesis in a special field, makes him/her an expert on that area and this could be a base for his/her future works (Saiiari, 1994). The most important factor in writing a thesis is the student and his/her scientific and practical capabilities. In other words, lacking of appropriate abilities in writing thesis such as research methodology and statistics, familiarity with scientific databases and their usage and etc., make the writing of thesis so difficult or,in some cases, * Mehran Mizany. Tel.: +98-914-406-8916 E-mail address: mehran.mizany2000@gmail.com 1877-0428 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Prof. Hüseyin Uzunboylu. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.12.006
6 Mehran Mizany et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 31 (2012) 5 9 impossible. Many different kinds of insufficient capabilities for graduate students have introduced by scientists. Koslowsky (1993) and Philips and Russell (1994), mentioned that having self-confidence is very important for being an effective graduate student as a researcher. Others such as Broughton et al. (1991), McCarthy (1995) and Kanamojiz (1998) have mentioned on importance of teaching the use of computer and search in scientific and general databases. Another important factor in the process of writing a thesis is supervisor and advisor and the quality of their advisement. Julles B. LaPidus, president of the Council Of Graduate Schools says: "The most intense discussions we had were about advising" (Mooney, 1991: A22). Supervisors are responsible for helping students in choosing an appropriate subject for their thesis, encourage them to continue their efforts in writing thesis, establishing a good relationship with their students and finally having enough scientific capabilities in research methodology and statistics. According to a study conducted by the Council Of Graduate Schools on the United States that in performed in 40 universities in US and 3 Canada in regard of dissertations written by doctoral students, many graduate students surveyed were dissatisfied with their supervisors. This study recommends that universities periodically review faculty supervisors, train them better, and prepare handbooks that will inform graduate students of their rights and obligations in the dissertation process (Mooney, 1991: A22). Participants of the Sullivan's study (2001) addressed the contingency of the quality of relationship between committee chair and student as defensibly the most critical in a thesis student's success. The abilities and skills of the committee chair in mentoring or serving as a role model, the support provided by their chair, the accessibility of the chair to the student, and the balance of control over the project between committee chair and student were all described as significant to success. A great amount of the researches done in any country is composed from theses written by graduate students. recognition of the problems of students in preparing and writing their theses will help the authorities and decisionmakers of the country to surmount obstacles that exist in the area of research. Considering that capabilities of graduate students and the quality of advising provided by their supervisor are two important factors in writing a successful thesis, heeding and exploring the problems that exist in this field is very important. Because no significant study had been done in Iran in this area, this study had aim to do that. 2. Methodology This research was a survey study. Statistical population was all graduate students of physical education and sport sciences of public universities of Iran who had passed three semester of their program and was in the process of writing their thesis. By cluster sampling and based on the geographical distribution of Iran's public universities, seven universities had been chosen as main clusters and 137 graduate students (based on Morgan & Krejcie table, 1970) chose as statistical samples. After reviewing the literature in the field of study, a researcher-made questionnaire developed for gathering the viewpoints of graduate students about their own abilities and qualities as a researcher and about their supervisor and advisors. The validity of the questionnaire was proved by sport management faculties of University of Tehran and reliability of that confirmed by Cronbach Alpha Coefficient (α=0.89). Main variables of the study were scientific and practical capabilities of graduate students, and the quality of advising provided by their supervisors and advisors. In addition to demographic questions, research questionnaire was composed of 51 questions in 4-point Likert scale. 28 questions were about the quality of advising provided by their supervisors and advisors, 16 questions were about the capabilities of students in writing thesis and 7 questions were about other obstacles in the process of writing thesis and finally, there was one open-answer question for covering those problems which was not mentioned in questionnaire. After gathering data from samples, this data was entered to SPSS (ver. 13) software and all statistical analysis was performed using this software. In addition to use of descriptive analysis such as frequencies, means, and percentages, inferential statistics such as One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test, Paired-Samples T Test, Pearson Correlation coefficient and Spearman Correlation coefficient. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences
Mehran Mizany et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 31 (2012) 5 9 7 3. Results Results demonstrated that the proposal of 63.5 percent of participants have been proved by department, 31.4 percent have been chosen their subject but their proposal by department yet. Only 2.19 percent of participants have not been done anything in regard of their thesis. 2.9 percent have already defended their thesis and accomplished it. Viewpoints of graduate students about their own capabilities are shown in Figure 1. Figure 1. Viewpoint of students about their own capabilities Viewpoint of graduate student about quality of advising provided by their supervisors and advisors is shown separately in Figure 2. Figure 2. Viewpoint of students about their supervisors and advisors
8 Mehran Mizany et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 31 (2012) 5 9 As we can see in Figure 1, the quality of advising of supervisors was more than advisors and according to paired sample T-test, there was significant difference between the quality of advising of supervisor and advisors (P<0.001). Results of this test are expressed in Table 1. Groups Table 1. T-test for supervisor and advisor Difference SD t df P-Value Supervisor/advisor 0.20 0.49 4.75 135 0.001 For investigation the relation between the quality of advising students receive and their capabilities in writing thesis, Pearson Correlation coefficient was used and according the results of this test (see Table 2), there was a significant relationship between the capabilities of students in writing thesis and the quality of advising provided by their supervisors and advisors (P<0.001). Table 2. Pearson Correlation coefficient Quality of advising r P-Value result Capabilities of students 0.303 0.001 Significant 4. Conculsion The aim of this study was to exploring capabilities of graduate students in the process of writing graduate thesis and the quality of advising they receive from their supervisors and advisors. According to results, the capabilities of graduate students in writing thesis were not assessed as good. This was the viewpoints of graduate students about themselves so real capabilities of them could be less than these reseals. The most important problems in regard of capabilities of graduate students were that they didn't have enough familiarity with statistics (1.90 out of 4). It can be suggested for universities to establish more and in-depth courses in statistics. The most critical obstacle in regard of quality of advising provided by supervisors and advisors was they make themselves completely involved in the process of writing thesis (2.46 & 2.21 out of 4). Multiple responsibilities of supervisors and advisors and being involved in business could be the reason of this problem. We suggest universities to apply more control over their faculty members and provide more monetary and non-monetary incentives. According to results, there was a significant difference between supervisors and advisors in quality of advising (P<0.001) and the quality of advising of supervisors was better than advisors. It is somewhat logical, because supervisors are awarded (monetary and non-monetary) more than advisors and they are considered as the chief responsible for student's thesis. Based on the results of study, there was a significant relationship between the perception of students about their capabilities in writing thesis and the viewpoints of them about the quality of advising they receive from their supervisors and advisors (P<0.001). The reason of this relationship could be the self-confidence which students gain through a good interaction with supervisors and advisors and support and encouragement they receive from their supervisors and advisors. This is similar to findings of Rees (1993) study. This relationship could be considered reversely; when good abilities of students result in establishing appropriate interaction with supervisors and advisors and so they estimate the quality of advising as high.
Mehran Mizany et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 31 (2012) 5 9 9 Acknowledgements I would like to thank Dr. Mohammad Khabiri for his great help in doing this thesis and Dr. Seyed Nasrollah Sajadi for his unending supports. Finally I would like to acknowledge kind contribution of Mr. Ehsan Soleimanifar, Mr. Mahdi Bashiri, Mr. Saeed Yarmohammadi, Mr. Omid Adman, and Miss Azam Bidgoli and Mrs. Zahra Fathi Rezaee in gathering data from statistical samples. References Broughton, N.; Herrling, P. & Meclements, N. (1991). CD-ROM Instruction: A Generic Approach. CD-ROM Librarian, No.6, pp. 16-19. Fadaei Araqi, G. (1995). Analysis of methods in preparing thesis and dissertation in postgraduate and doctoral degree. Quarterly journal of Research and Planning in Higher Education, No. 1, pp. 75-110. Institute of research and planning in higher education, department of scientific researches (1981). The plan of research system for Iran. Ministry of culture and higher education. Kanamojiz, A. B. (1998). Planning, usage and management of compact disc services in developing countries. Translated by: Zahra Seif Kashani. journal of library message, No. 3, pp. 34-46. Koslowsky, M. (1993). A Comparision of Two Attitudes, Behavior Models for Predicting Attrition in Higher Education. Journal of Applied Behaviorl Science, No. 29(3), pp. 359-366. McCarthy, C. A. (1995). Students Perceived Effectiveness Using the University Library. College & Research Libraries, No.5, pp. 26-41. Mooney, C. J. (1991). The Dissertation is Still a Valuable Requirement, Survey Finds, but Graduate Students Says They Need Better Faculty Advising. The Chronicle of Higher Education, No. 37, pp. A15 & A22. Philips, J. C., & Russell, R. K. (1994). Research Self-Efficacy, the Reasearch Training Environment, and Research Productivity Among Graduate Students in Counseling Psychology. The Counseling Psychology, No. 22, pp. 628-641. Rees, R. (1993). Mentoring: A Supervisory Process. Educational Canada, No. 33, pp. 4-7. Saiiari, A. A. (1994). Analysis of problems and limitations of higher education in Iran. Quarterly journal of Research and Planning in Higher Education, No. 5, pp. 19-46. Sullivan, J. E. (2001). The Experience of Thesis Writing From The Perspective of Graduate Student Nurses. UMI Published Thesis: University of Alaska Anchorage.