XYZ-Intellectuals

Statement of Purpose and Personal Statement, to me, are technically the same. These two documents are expected to be prepared and submitted alongside other credentials by a prospective candidate seeking admission into an institution of higher learning.

These two documents are mostly required from candidates seeking to gain admission into postgraduate degree programmes both locally and internationally.

Candidates are expected to profile themselves in writing, showing their educational background, career/work experience, previous work achievements or challenges surmounted, career goals or motivation, and how all these qualify them as fit to be selected or considered for admission into the programme.

Hence, these documents are prepared to support prospective candidates in their application for admission into higher degree programmes. They are not just to show the admissions panel/committee the profile and antecedents of the candidate, but also meant to show the writing capability of the prospective candidate seeking to be admitted into their department and institution.

It has been observed that so many candidates find it difficult to prepare these documents, no thanks to so many articles found online and generated through AI that are focused on distinguishing between these two documents.

There are various articles online that enumerate the differences between these two vital documents, itemizing factors such as style, tone, major focus, content, purpose, etc. Concentrating on these differences sometimes makes it even more difficult for candidates to effectively prepare and submit a well-thought-out and well-presented document adequately covering all areas that need to be covered.

The differences between the names are just a matter of nomenclature from one institution to another. There is no real difference as both are meant to profile the candidates for consideration for admission into higher degrees, and to show the admissions committee whether a candidate who is about to be admitted into its prestigious department is capable of putting his or her expression into writing.

Abimbola Wilson Awotedu
Senior Research Fellow
XYZ-Intellectuals

Advances in technology are aimed at making work easier and for people to work smarter. It is meant to complement human efforts, not to replace humans. The development and advancement in Artificial Intelligence (AI) in relation to academic writing is to enable scholars and academics to work smarter, and not to replace their ability to reason or think deeply in order to create, recreate, or solve problems.

When faced with areas where a student or an academic has no previous knowledge, AI such as ChatGPT, Copilot, or Consensus can be used to brainstorm for relevant concepts or variables, their meanings, and how they fit into their write-ups. Genei, Scite, or Paperguide can be used for the scanning of large bodies of text for literature review, key themes identification, generating summaries of articles, and identifying gaps in knowledge or methodology. QuillBot and Grammarly can be used for paraphrasing words when there is a need for the writer to find an alternative sentence that carries equivalent or parallel meaning to the expression of his or her thoughts. Also, Grammarly or Trinka can be used to check or correct grammar, punctuation, clarity, and academic style. Also, Scite and Trinka can be used to generate and format references and in-text citations.

These tools and many more are available to complement writers' efforts. They are user-friendly and some of them can be signed up for free. Some of these tools are even available for purchase with local currencies now. So rather than discouraging scholars and academics from using these tools, they should be encouraged to use them fairly and responsibly in their works.

Abimbola Wilson Awotedu
Senior Research Fellow
XYZ-Intellectuals

THESIS STATEMENT
While teaching a class of students some while ago, I briefly mentioned "thesis statement" in my discussion and a student asked me for further clarification about the concept.

A thesis statement is a concise summary of the central argument or claim of a term paper or a research report. It states in a clear unequivocal term what the researcher intends to prove or explore. Strategically positioned at the end of the introduction section of the research report, the thesis statement sets the direction and scope of the research study.

Characteristically, a thesis statement is usually clear and specific about the intent of the study, and it is ideally one or two sentences long, devoid of unnecessary details. It also presents a claim that could either be disputed and/or affirmed, thereby leading to the attraction of further discussions and/or the provision of supporting evidence, respectively. It narrows the topic to a manageable size.

In crafting a thesis statement, the researcher should endeavour to identify the research problem or question, review the evidence and envisage the likely findings of the study, and decide on what the main conclusion of the study is going to be so as to phrase it into a clear declarative sentence.

From experience, a very simple way to craft a thesis statement is to rephrase the topic of the study. However, this can only be appropriately done if the researcher understands the various variables or concepts and their interplay within the study.

For example, a study titled "Impact of Social Media on Secondary School Students" may have as its thesis statement, "the examination of excessive social media use by secondary school students, and its increase in anxiety levels by undermining students' face-to-face social skills and sleep patterns".

Also, in a study titled "The Evaluation of School Feeding Programme in Primary Schools in Lagos", the thesis statement may be "the assessment of the concomitant effect of providing free meals to pupils at schools on their enrolment rate, school attendance, and academic performance".

The thesis statement is an original statement of the researcher about the intent of the study.

The Nigerian Versus England's Teaching Profession: Theoretical and Methodological Perspectives in International and Comparative Education (Cont'd).

Country's Educational Background
Nigeria until very recently practiced the 9-3-4 system of education which invariably indicates nine years of basic education (ages 5-15 pre-primary, primary, and junior secondary), three years of post-basic education (senior secondary), and four years of tertiary education (colleges of Education, monotechnics, polytechnics, and universities) (FRN 2013).

According to Statista (2022), there are 32,322 early childhood care and development centres, 116,925 primary, 33,000 junior secondary, 27,000 senior secondary, and 170 universities in Nigeria. In addition, there are a million primary school teachers, 681,000 junior secondary teachers, and 513,000 senior secondary teachers. Similarly, a total of 1.8 million undergraduates were enrolled in Nigerian universities while 242,000 enrolled at the postgraduate level for the 2018/2019 school year.

Education in Nigeria is regulated and controlled by the three tiers of government including the federal, state, and the local government. Private schools are also regulated by the government and are mostly a profit-making organizations managed by proprietors or board of directors.

In England, the regulation and control of education is also carried out by the government through the Local Education Authorities (LEAs). According to the DfE (2022), there are 24,360 schools in England in the 2021/2022 school year. 16,784 are primary, 3,456 are secondary, and 389 are nursery schools. In addition, 2,331 are independent schools, while 1,342 are special schools. There are also 219,956 and 204,712 primary and secondary teachers respectively in England. Teachers in independent schools are 76,359. A total number of 530,172 teachers are teaching in England schools.

The types of schools in England include state maintained and independent schools.

Abimbola Wilson Awotedu
Senior Research Fellow
XYZ-Intellectuals

The Nigerian Versus England's Teaching Profession: Theoretical and Methodological Perspectives in International and Comparative Education.

The debate as to whether teaching is a profession has been one that has continued to generate interest of stakeholders in education across the world. Some scholars have argued that there is nothing special about teaching and that anyone can teach, therefore holding the position that teaching is just another occupation or at best a lower status profession.

Others argued that for a teacher to be effective and to render quality teaching, he must possess the necessary pedagogical knowledge on how to teach. Therefore, he must be subjected to a specialised training on teaching where he will be exposed to the art and methodology of teaching. They are of the view that a teacher who does not possess a teaching qualification is not professional qualified to teach as professionalism entails offering quality and such a teacher may not be able to offer quality teaching.

It is perhaps important at this juncture to attempt a definition of a profession. Any occupation that is regulated by a body recognized by law, that has independent practice requiring its practitioners to undergo specialized training, gain specific knowledge from accredited institution, and that is committed to the development of mankind can be referred to as a profession. According to Onwuka (n.d.), the characteristics that determine whether an occupation could be regarded as a profession include knowledge, professional code of conduct, professional organisation, and in-service growth. The teaching profession in Nigeria possesses these qualities, yet the low professional status accorded teachers have not changed.

Awotedu (2023) therefore compared and contrasted the teaching profession in Nigeria and England with a focus on the minimum entry requirement, remuneration, professional organization, and continuing professional development (CPD). The justification for this comparison according to Burnett and Benavot (2006) is to identify accomplished national education framework in England that could be replicated for the teaching profession in Nigeria.

Your research Instrument may be reliable yet not valid. It may generate a consistent measurement yet not measuring what is intended to be measured.

This is the case illustrated in the attached photo.

In various academic writing such as research articles for journal publications, assignments, or project writing, a word limit is usually given.

Word limit refers to the number of expected words that a given task should entail. It is normally a number of words that the lecturer, supervisor, or editor expects the writer or student not to go beyond.

On a word processor such as Google document or Microsoft Word, the number of words in a particular document can be seen in the word statistics box.

The word statistics box entails information about the number of words, characters (with spaces), characters (without spaces), paragraphs, lines, and pages.

In place of a word limit, some institutions or journals may request a character limit and they do also specify whether this is with or without space. This could also be obtained from the word statistics box.

In some cases, the word limit may be presented as a word range. For example, a lecturer may ask an assignment to be written between 2000 and 3000 words. This is a range which indicates that 2000 is the lower limit of words expected from the students by the lecturer, while 3000 is the upper limit. This implies that the number of words to be submitted should not be less than 2000 or greater than 3000.

In other instances, the word limit may be expressed as an average. For example, researchers may be told to submit articles containing 3000 plus or minus 10% words. This invariably means that writers may submit articles that range between 2700 and 3300 words.

It is important for writers or students to know the intent of the journal, institution, or lecturer as regards word limit. They should know what is expected when the word limit is set strictly as a bar not to be crossed; when it is set as a range to stay within, or when it is set as an average to stay around.

Abimbola Wilson Awotedu
Senior Research Fellow
XYZ-Intellectuals

The systematic random sampling is also a probabilistic sampling technique that is used to select samples for a study. Just like the simple random sampling technique, samples are selected randomly which means that all members of the population have a fair chance of being selected to take part in the study.

The systematic random sampling also has the attribute of ensuring that the various characteristics of a population of the study are fairly represented and captured in the selected samples.

The difference between simple random sampling and systematic random sampling lies in their approaches. While the simple random uses approaches such as dice-casting, balloting, coin-tossing, etc., systematic sampling uses the approach of selecting samples based on a choice of either odd or even numbers, and the selection of samples at intervals of a chosen number (say 5 for example).

While using the odd or even number to select samples for a study, the researcher will first of all gather the whole population and give them numbers. Thereafter, he will tell those who by chance received the predetermined category (let's say even numbers for example) to wait and take part, while he will discharge those who were given a odd numbers. So, those who received even numbers become the participants of his study.

In the use of a predetermined number interval, samples are selected at a predetermined number. This means that members of the target population who fall on the predetermined number interval become samples of the study. For example, if the predetermined number is five, the researcher will consistently count members of the population from one to five. Every member counted as number five in the whole population will take part in the study.

The selection of samples using the systematic sampling is based on luck, and this underscores the importance of the fairness of nature (Adegoke, 2011)

Footnote:
Adegoke said 'nature is fair while teaching sampling to the M.Ed students in the year 2011. Late Benson A. Adegoke was a professor of Mathematics Education and Educational Evaluation at the Institute of Education, University of Ibadan.

Abimbola Wilson Awotedu
Senior Research Fellow

Simple random sampling is a technique used in the selection of samples for a research study. It is a probabilistic sampling technique because the selection of samples is done at random, which means that every element in the population has a fair opportunity of being selected as a sample for the study.

Simple random is usually used when a researcher knows the total number of the target population and has unhindered access to them. For example, simple random sampling can be used to select students and/or teachers in a school for a study. Also, simple random sampling can be used to select patients in a medical facility to observe the effectiveness of a newly manufactured drug.

Simple random sampling can be conducted using various strategies. It could be done through balloting, dice-throwing, coin-tossing, etc. The underlying principle is that the selection of samples is done randomly and not influenced by the researcher's bias.

Using this sampling technique gives every member of the population an equal opportunity to be chosen to take part in the study. It is a technique that shows the unique attribute of nature as being a fair element (nature is fair). It is basically determined by 'luck'.

This sampling technique is very useful in conducting experimental studies as it is capable of reducing systematic and error variance. It also ensures that all elements within the population are given a supposedly fair representation in the study.

Abimbola Wilson Awotedu
Senior Research Fellow
XYZ-Intellectuals

S.A.M.P.L.E, S.A.M.P.L.E. S.I.Z.E, & S.A.M.P.L.I.N.G

This section of the research report is often featured in chapter three.

Scholars and research students must bear in mind that there are three distinct but interdependent elements in this section.

The sample is the first and it refers to the element or subject of the study. The researcher is expected to identify this element. Is it a plant or an animal? If it is a plant, what species of plant is it? If it is an animal, what kind of animal is it? If the element of the study is human, what kind of human is the study interested in? The researcher must be able to correctly identify the sample of his or her study.

The sample size is the second aspect of this section and it refers to the number of elements of the study that will be extracted from the target population to supposedly represent the target population of the study. Computing to generate the sample size is a function of establishing four things. These include the confidence level, the margin of error, population proportion, and population size. This could be computed online using the online sample calculator available at: https://www.calculator.net/sample-size-calculator.html
It should be noted that the sample size obtained is the lower limit or least number of samples that could be used for a study to gather data to generate valid and generalizable results.

The third element in this section is the identification of the most suitable sampling technique to be used to select the samples for the study. The sampling technique can be categorized into two forms. These include probabilistic sampling techniques and non-probabilistic sampling techniques. Any sampling technique that adopts the use of randomization in its process of selecting a sample is categorized as probabilistic sampling while any sampling technique that does not use randomization in its process of selecting a sample is categorized as a non-probabilistic sampling technique.

Abimbola Wilson Awotedu
Senior Research Fellow
XYZ-Intellectuals

Are you an undergraduate, a postgraduate student, or a graduate who is interested in learning academic writing, project writing, research proposal, or statement of purpose/motivation, or do you want to become an expert in research reporting/writing?

If the answer to the above question is yes, kindly plug into this rare opportunity.

The XYZ-Intellectuals is conducting a training on academic writing and research reporting from Friday 7th - Sunday 30th June 2024. Training is expected to take place thrice (Friday - Sunday) a week between 4 - 6 pm.

Participants will also be hinted at how to do academic writing business to earn a living or to supplement their regular income.

Training costs just 50,000 Nigerian Naira. Early birds 30,000 Naira. Interested participants can contact +2348036892041 (WhatsApp message only) for further inquiries. Alternatively, you can register your interest to participate through the following link:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeGmmA340craA9H-DT597J8eOFvLrZ8IghZ76BZ8UEu6iu9Jw/viewform?usp=pp_url

The target population of the Study entails all elements of the study focus among which the sample of the study will be selected. The study focus could be on politicians, students, clergy, pregnant women, toddlers, teenagers, market men or women, aged people, young people, special people or people with special abilities, etc.

It could also be animals, plants, water, ocean, or other inanimate things like books, toys, cars, trucks, chairs, beds, tables, buildings, bridges, roads, railways, waterways, clothes, fabrics, etc.

The target population is normally presented in chapter three which is the methodology chapter of the study. It is important to note that the number of samples that will be taken for a study is a function of the total number of the target population of the study. In fact, the sample size is estimated from the target population of the study.

Abimbola Wilson Awotedu
Senior Research Fellow
XYZ-Intellectuals

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