Preparing a Thesis

 For Taniguchi-sensei's class next week - the one where we are combining our students - I will talk about how to prepare a graduation thesis.  This will include how to pick a topic, dig into some research, and craft a thesis statement.

One refrain I've heard here is some of the senior theses read like informational reports.  It is difficult to blame the students because their entire academic career has been focused on standardized tests.  They do some writing.  But the only time they really have to do anything research related is this one document at the end of their university degree program.  If you have no experience writing a thesis, it is almost impossible to do.  So, I will do what I can to describe the process.

As an armchair reader (and blog writer) it is easy to say "if students are expected to write a thesis, then just teach a class where they learn."  One statement made by one of the older people I've met here explains why this won't happen.  Japanese people may be willing to say something should change in this way or that way.  Their bosses/supervisors could be comfortable agreeing the change needs to be made.  And that's where it stops.  It takes a very long time to change anything here.

On top of that, once you sign up for or agree to do something, it is almost impossible to stop doing it.  It is easy to imagine being a professor where making changes to schedules and courses is difficult, if not impossible, with the added stress of knowing there is no "1-year commitment" to a project, and you don't really have time to devote to developing a new course.  If I were in that situation, I would be reluctant to work on making curriculum changes.  No matter how valid and important I might feel they are.  It just takes so much energy.

I have the advantage that everyone expects my courses to change.  The syllabus I submitted at the beginning is long gone.  Everything is different.  So I can pretty easily make one of my classes an outline of this process.

Early today I was talking with a student about her teaching practicum.  She explained about being nervous and trying to make changes.  She said one thing she figured out is that if she wants to teach English, she needs to figure out how people learn English.  This student had to miss some of my classes because she was out of town.  As a make up assignment, I asked her to write a short paper about how she learns English.  What does she do to build her skills?  What did she come up with on her own and what was she told to do?  How can she know if it is working?

At first she thought I meant for her to write about how she learned English.  The classes she took, the books she used, that sort of thing.  When she figured out what I was saying her response was "That is much more difficult!"  I agreed, but "if you think you need to figure out how people learn English, you would do well to start with yourself."  We will meet every Thursday morning to talk about her progress and what her thoughts are.  We'll see how far she can go.