{"id":219,"date":"2010-05-22T13:13:00","date_gmt":"2010-05-22T13:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/2010\/05\/22\/focus_on_the_process_not_the_task\/"},"modified":"2025-01-30T07:49:41","modified_gmt":"2025-01-30T07:49:41","slug":"focus_on_the_process_not_the_task","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/2010\/05\/22\/focus_on_the_process_not_the_task\/","title":{"rendered":"Focus on the Process, not the Task"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In order to <a href=\"http:\/\/www3.imperial.ac.uk\/gslsm\/transferableskillscourses\/transferrequirement\">upgrade<\/a> from MPhil to PhD student status, research postgraduates at Imperial College are required to undertake a certain amount of <a href=\"http:\/\/www3.imperial.ac.uk\/gslsm\/transferableskillscourses\">Transferable Skills Training<\/a>. One option for obtaining the majority of the required credits on one go, and the reason I was unable to attend <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/henrygee\/2010\/03\/10\/cromer-is-so-bracing-2010---first-circular\">CISB10<\/a>, is the residential Research Skills Development course (&#8220;the RSD&#8221;), which is run by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www3.imperial.ac.uk\/graduateschools\">Graduate Schools<\/a> and takes place off-campus in <del>the middle of nowhere<\/del> a pleasant, rural <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eastpark.co.uk\/\">setting<\/a> in Berkshire.<\/p>\n<p>For the benefit of future participants, the specifics of the course program cannot be disclosed. However, I can safely summarise some of the skills addressed, taken from the Graduate Schools&#8217; <a href=\"https:\/\/www8.imperial.ac.uk\/content\/dav\/ad\/workspaces\/gslsm\/Course%20Descriptions%2009-10\/GSLSM%20Booklet%202009-10.pdf\">website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>PhD Planning and Management<\/li>\n<li>Creativity<\/li>\n<li>Communication Skills<\/li>\n<li>Group dynamics<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Research collaboration&#8230;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You can probably imagine the types of activities, if not the details. The course was fun! It is attended by postgraduate students from across the college. As well as working with a few familiar faces, I made a number of new friends.<\/p>\n<p>At the beginning of the course, the course director read an extract from a document published by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.leru.org\/\">League of Europoean Research Universities<\/a> (LERU) in March this year entitled <a href=\"http:\/\/www.leru.org\/file.php?type=download&#038;id=1888\"><strong>Doctoral Degrees beyond 2010: Training talented researchers for society<\/strong><\/a>, which<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n<em>sets out the LERU&#8217;s vision for doctoral education beyond 2010<\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The extract she read was<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n<em>The modern doctorate is at its core determined by an interplay between professional research experience and personal development, the most important aspect of which is an individual trained to have a unique set of high level skills.<\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The document goes on to emphasise the value of the transferable skills acquired during the PhD.  Some recommendations are made as to how universities, governments, employers and the students themselves should derive the maximum benefit from this &#8220;most important&#8221; outcome.<\/p>\n<p>When we were issued with instructions during the RSD, we were encouraged to <em>focus on the process, not the task<\/em>. Parallels were drawn with the PhD process. The LERU document highlights<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n<em>While historically [the doctorate] was seen as a qualification for an academic career, in many countries and among many employers the doctorate is now seen as a high level qualification that trains people to think deeply and rigorously about a subject and to translate this knowledge into novel opportunities for society.<\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>By focusing on (or at least keeping in mind!) the <em>process<\/em> as we worked, we could take more from the RSD than if we had considered first and foremost the outcome of the <em>tasks<\/em> alone. In the context of my own PhD at the moment, this resonates. I feel that the process is progressing well &#8211; I have learnt a lot of the background material, developed some useful practical skills, and learnt &#8211; through reading, journal clubs, talks and conferences &#8211; where the field is at and where it is going. That said, the &#8220;task&#8221; is somewhat less encouraging. I am frustrated by the lack of results even though I am close to getting there with the first part of my project, and daunted by the seemingly overwhelming nature of the work left to do.<\/p>\n<p>For those NNers who have completed their PhDs, in hindsight do you view your doctorate as a &#8220;task&#8221; or a &#8220;process&#8221; (or perhaps a combination of the two?) How do you think others &#8211; such as your employer &#8211; view it? Has your perspective changed over time?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In order to upgrade from MPhil to PhD student status, research postgraduates at Imperial College are required to undertake a certain amount of Transferable Skills Training. One option for obtaining the majority of the required credits on one go, and &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/2010\/05\/22\/focus_on_the_process_not_the_task\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[189,192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogging-the-phd","category-nature-network"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3077,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219\/revisions\/3077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}