Monday, July 27, 2009

The story of a PhD Candidate: Episode II

It had been a busy time for me over the last few days. That's why I did not have time to post the second episode of these writing series. I had some good time during the weekend, but somehow I still had something in my mind - always thinking about my study . Never mind, as long as everything is going well .

Following the last post, I had proposed to talk about my PhD studying experience as well as all things regarding a PhD program, I was going to share some thoughts about studying in a PhD program - what does it look like?, why do we need to do a PhD? and so on. So now I'm hoping to go to some points I wanted to share.

Ready? All right, let's talk a bit about studying in a PhD program. Personally, I think that studying in a PhD is not just going to the class and learn everything you want, but it's rather about learning everything you like by your own. You may wonder now, I suspect. I don't disagree that we still need to learn in classes sometimes, but I don't think we can learn all information we really want there. So my point of view is that most of the time we spend during the PhD program is to learn things you like by yourself. This sounds a bit strange, isn't it? I guess, this might lead one's mind to think that why would we need to go to a class or a Uni then as you still need to do things on your own anyway? Yep...this is a good question, but don’t forget that we go to the Uni to get some other things while study too. Of course, the main purpose of the study is to get the degree, however it's more than that - what else, mate? Well, while we study, we do lots of things with friends and teachers. We learn many things from what we do together, including fun or serious times. All the thing we have experienced while studying are the great things we will never have again in life and this is the way of preparing us before working in the real world!

That's all for today I like to talk...in fact lots of things are still in my mind, but I don't have much energy and good feeling for writing tonight...so let's wait for another post in near future...surely I will come back to go to more details...so don't forget to come back, otherwise you will miss out the thing you will never be able to find anywhere else! hehehe...

It's nearly midnight now...so I have got to go to bed...Good night
M

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

The story of a Ph.D. Candidate: Episode I

What is a Ph.D.? Why do we need to do a Ph.D.? What would you expect when doing a Ph.D.? There are many other questions that one might have in his mind. But, personally, we won't be able to know what it really likes until we do it!

Well, why did I say this? I don't know either what I am writing here and why I need to write this post. Perhaps the reason that made me write this post might have come from my gut feeling right now! Oh...my goodness! what's that mean? In fact I don't know either what does the gut feeling really mean, but for my own opinion it's just something about the feeling that we are frustrated or something like overwhelmed with all things happening around us.

What do you up to mate? why would you say this? oh...gosh...now..I'm confused...what am I doing here...what is the point I'd like to post in this blog...oh...dear....please pull me back to the right way.

So let's take a break for a while before coming back to the point again.

Ok..now I'm alright...let's come back the point where we were talking again. Ph.D. is the point, isn't it? Yep, mate you are right...come on...go ahead. Now I know where to go.... Folks, just some thoughts that came up in my mind while I was sitting on the train on the way to go back home....the thing I was thinking was that I should share my experiences of myself about the life I have had while study in a Ph.D. program. It may be not much fun, but thought, at least, it may be useful for someone. Anyhow...I've been talking to many things now, but you might have thought that you haven't seen any information that was really useful for you, wasn't it?...hehehehe...maybe you are right...but please do not complain me just yet as I am trying to get the feeling that would make me write the story in which I like to share with you guys. Also my thought at first was that I was going to separate this story for two Episodes at least. This is the first episode, so don't expect too much to find something really interesting here for now. Oh...dear....it's nearly 1am now...I haven't gone to any points of the story yet...so I'm thinking it is not the right time to finish this post for tonight....I'm tired and sleepy now.....so I should come back to finish this story off later...perhaps tomorrow...

Please do not complain me about what I've written in this post. Come back to read the next post of this series later, I'm sure you will find it interesting and useful too..I hope.. LOL....

Thanks for taking your time to read till the end of the post. I would appreciate it if you could leave me a comment .

Best wishes to all of you.
M

Saturday, July 18, 2009

An impressive quotation! :)

One day, during the day, while I was reading a Physics textbook - kind of a new generation physics textbook - meaning that it’s been published recently and also it’s based on physics education research too - wow! What a pretty book ;), I found a really cool quotation in this book. So I just wanted to share it to you all here.

Let’s have a look. “A good problem-solving technique does not begin with equations. It starts with a firm grasp of the concepts and how they fit together to provide a coherent description of the physical world”. What do you think about it now?

This is the nice quote, I would say anyway. So why do I consider this as a cool quote? Well…perhaps it might arise from mind own experience as well as my research interests at the moment too. Some of you might have known me already. My Ph.D. thesis is related to conceptual understanding - definitely this has made me so impressed…thought you guys can imagine what I mean, can’t you?

Alright…I won’t go over the details of the quote, but if you are interested in this kind of things, you could have a look in any websites related to physics education research. You should be able to find out the information you are looking for, I hope. ;) Another option is that you can read new generations textbooks since they are mostly based on the findings from the physics education community these days.

Contact me directly if you need some guidance regarding this sort of information…don’t be shy, folks ;)

Also send your thoughts right away to me if you like…I don’t mind seeing your positive or even negative comments, though! I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Thanks for taking your time to read my post.M@N