Steps to Writing a Research Proposal

Submitting a research proposal that is assessed by the concerned committee as being well- written and professional is undoubtedly the objective of any scholar recently admitted to the field of research. This positive acknowledgment would be the keystone to guaranteeing one’s admission to higher research programs. As a matter of fact, the current work aims to equip the targeted audience namely; post graduate students who are novice in the field of research, with initial but basic skills that would be indispensable to help them reach the aforementioned goal. It provides them with the different steps required to write a quality research proposal along with simplified explanation of the different concepts used in research which may be newly introduced to them and thus aims to familiarize them with these key concepts that would be translated and reflected through their professional proposal writing at later stages.

Evaluating Major Problems of MA Students of TEFL in Developing Proposals: MA Students and Their Professors’ Perceptions in Focus

This study aimed at evaluating the major problems of MA students of TEFL in developing proposals from the viewpoint of MA students and their professors. This quantitative study enjoyed a descriptive method and presented the frequencies and percentages of the analyzed data. The participants were a sample of 40 MA students of TEFL and 15 professors. They were requested to fill out a separate valid and reliable 40-item questionnaire. These two questionnaires were designed to evaluate students’ viewpoints about writing proposals and professors’ viewpoint about students’ proposals. Since the obtained data were non-parametric, Chi-square test was applied to analyze the data. The findings showed that APA style was not completely taught to MA students. The students had enough familiarity with the layout and physical appearance, and had appropriate knowledge of skills and subskills; however, they did not know how to analyze the data. Professors also believed that students could not explain the implications of the study perfectly in their proposals and could not provide a complete reference section. They also believed that students were not able enough to use cohesive devices. On the other hand, the difference between MA students and professors regarding the issue of affective factors was not statistically significant. The findings of this study will be useful for professors who teach seminar courses, and the administrators of the universities to offer acceptable format for the proposals, and to make students more aware of principles they should follow in proposal writing to submit an acceptable proposal.

Academic emotions in giving genre-based peer feedback: an emotional intelligence perspective

Researchers have become interested in the emotion in feedback situations, yet little research has examined peer feedback-giving emotions. Giving feedback is emotionally laden and it is challenging and demanding for feedback givers to manage their emotions. Uncovering how feedback givers regulate their emotions as well as determining what influences them could extend the current understanding of the peer feedback-giving process. Informed by emotional intelligence (EI) (Goleman, Daniel. 1995. Emotional intelligence. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.), a notion describing an individual’s ability to monitor and manage one’s own and others’ emotions, this case study investigated how two Chinese Ph.D. English as a foreign language students utilized EI to regulate their feedback-giving process on research proposal writing. Data was collected from research proposal drafts and revisions, peer feedback, self-reported emotions, interviews, and stimulated recalls. The textual and qualitative data analysis revealed that individual differences existed regarding feedback focus, strategies, and emotions. The findings suggested that the feedback givers adopted different EI patterns to regulate their feedback giving process under the influence of five factors: goals and purposes, prior feedback experience, time constraints, the intimacy of relations, and the feedback givers’ perceived significance of the sections in a research proposal. Practical implications for teachers, supervisors, and students were discussed.

Pengabdian Peningkatan Keterampilan Menyusun Penelitian Tindakan Kelas (PTK) bagi Guru-Guru di Aceh Timur

The purpose of this activity is to train teachers in East Aceh District so that they are able to understand why it is important to implement PTK and teachers can compile PTK reports using learning models. The method of implementing community service activities consists of classical and discussion which includes several stages, namely; 1) submission of systematic material for proposal writing, 2) material regarding, 3) technical implementation of research, 4) clinical preparation of PTK, 5) assistance for research implementation and 6) preparation of final research reports. Based on the results of the activity it can be seen; 1) PTK is very important for teachers to understand as professional development of teachers through three things, namely; research, write and develop the profession in a sustainable manner and include learning models that can affect student learning outcomes, 2) The implementation of training and mentoring for teachers in East Aceh District can have a direct impact on increasing knowledge about the preparation of PTK by using models learning, has provided technical knowledge for teachers in order to compile PTK reports, 3) Local government response is needed, especially the Education Office in carrying out similar activities so that participants who take part in these activities are fulfilled seeing that the number of teachers in East Aceh Regency is high, 4) partnership and cooperation between the Indonesian Academy of Banking Finance, East Aceh Regency and SDN East Aceh Regency.