This study recognizes that, when writing graduate thesis in academic situations, foreign students have the biggest difficulties. It notices the necessity of related education and aims to develop an instructional model which can give practical help to ...
This study recognizes that, when writing graduate thesis in academic situations, foreign students have the biggest difficulties. It notices the necessity of related education and aims to develop an instructional model which can give practical help to the students to become independent members in academic discourse communities. Consensus on the need and importance of teaching thesis writing has been formed via research conducted on graduate theses. However, as this study begins, there is no suitable education on writing theses that meets the learners’ needs and there is no perfect education method teaching the entire thesis writing process.
Among foreign students in Korea, most were undergraduates, and research undertaken on Korean language education for academic purposes were also for the undergraduates. However, the number of foreign masters and Ph.D. students increased 26 times over the last 10 years since 2010. Therefore, the necessity of research on Korean language for their academic performances has increased. The biggest difference in terms of teaching Korean for academic purposes to foreign undergraduates and foreign masters and Ph.D. students is “importance of a specific genre.” If “report” is the most important genre to the foreign students, “thesis” is the most important genre for foreign masters and Ph.D. students (Jung, Da-Woon, 2014b). In other words, “thesis” is the specific genre that differentiates foreign undergraduates and foreign masters and Ph.D. students.
A thesis is the overall product of a graduate school and an essential barrier. To foreign graduate students, theses have a great significance, and a failure can mean failure in studying abroad. A graduate thesis has strong features and needs to be written following a fixed formal system and outline, so education and training are a must. It is said that foreign graduate students enter graduate schools after having enough language skills to perform graduate courses, but it is very difficult to write a dissertation with a high-level thinking and academic discourse community’s communication method, only presupposing the language skill similar to that of a native speaker.
In order to solve these difficulties, this study aims to find a solution in Problem-based Learning (PBL), which embraces the principles of Korean language education; task-centered, learner-centered and interaction-centered learnings. I examined cognitive and affective effect changes of research participants when education applied with PBL is conducted and suggested some methods using it.
Research questions are as followings. First, how can we develop an instructional model based on PBL to help foreign students write a thesis? Second, will the model formed by the researcher be helpful when actually applied in thesis writing? What cognitive and affective changes can it give to the participants? Third, how will this model be applied in an actual education field? To solve these issues, we have performed series of processes.
In order to diagnose the current problem, I conducted request analyses in various angles. To find an implication of writing graduate theses, I went over previous research and figured out current problems in education by analyzing established courses and class syllabus on thesis. Also, in-depth interviews were conducted with foreign graduate students who are currently in schools, who finished four-year courses and foreign workers who achieved master’s degrees.
A class syllabus has been written after a PBL-based instruction model was designed using basic data from sufficient request analyses. Before applying to the research, validity was verified by taking expert’s advice and undergoing usability assessments. This paper examined cognitive and affective effect changes of applying an instruction model which went through the first correction step. The instruction model was especially designed to reflect various meanings of “integration,” and included “reading with expansion of content knowledge for writing,” because “collecting certain data and searching field on interested themes” is considered a part of a reading activity for writing from a view seeking “integrated writing and reading.”
The first half of the paper focuses on knowledge of genre and Korean language of an academic discourse community and the latter part focuses on planning, self-directed learning and cooperative interaction activities to solve problems after applying PBL. Through this process, cognitive and affective effect changes were detected in various aspects from the research participants. A process of the content knowledge being integrated was also found. Afterwards, the cognitive and affective effect changes of experimental research were evaluated and analyzed using quantitative and qualitative assessment tools. Then, relevance and feasibility of the model were verified through expert’s consultations and validity test. Final instruction model and application plan were suggested after going through the second correction step.
The cognitive and affective effects were as follows: First, via difference in pre- and post-tests assessed by analytic grade lists, PBL was confirmed positive on academic achievements for the participants. Second, an integrated instruction model based on PBL for thesis writing was also positive to academic accomplishments; self-directed learning, data collecting capability, problem-solving capability and critical and reasonable thinking. Third, PBL-based model had positive effect on affective areas including cooperative learning (opinion receptivity, communication capability), self-efficacy (self-control capability, confidence) and study motivation and interest in it. Fourth, a noticeable correlation between cognitive and affective effects was found. In other words, PBL had positive education effects on both cognitive areas including academic accomplishments, problem-solving capability, critical thinking, and affective areas including academic motivation, self-efficacy, self-directed learning, cooperative capability. Based on these positive effects, this paper suggests a management plan to designate required subjects and operate a program assisting thesis writing per two semesters. It is difficult to accomplish overall courses on writing a thesis, a final product of a graduate school, in a semester. Therefore, the education should be done in two semesters, divided into a basic and in-depth part, so that PBL problems can be solved after knowledge of genre and Korean language is sufficiently obtained. Furthermore, based on a research result, various activities and group activities during the semester, due to the characteristic of PBL, can mentally burden the learners. This paper says a program where learners can apply fluidly depending on their schedules is needed, instead of running term systems.
This research discovered obstacles in writing a thesis by foreign graduate students in various aspects and considering language skill as a must to write a thesis, has applied a comprehensive and detailed instruction syllabus teaching both genre and Korean language to the research experiment. This syllabus is valuable enough to be used as meaningful data in the future when opening lectures on writing theses or when revising and supplementing existing lectures.
The existing studies on theses emphasize process and focus on partial research and teaching methods. However, this paper has an academic implication in that it suggests an instruction model and a teaching method, which puts the entire process of writing a thesis together, while placing stress on an integration of process and genre and reflecting recursion. This is the first paper to discover the effect of applying PBL on the genre of thesis or dissertation. A thesis has a big significance since it determines the success of foreign graduate students in studying abroad. I hope the PBL-based integrated instruction model suggested in this paper can solve obstacles that the students face when writing a thesis and be a valuable first step for them to develop into an independent member of an academic discourse community.