Assalamu'alaikum,
It has been such a long time that I have not written on my blog. The last time i wrote was a year ago! Wow! Time flys so fast...
The first post on this blog that i created on October 2008, i have a perception of not liking research. It is funny! Alhamdulillah i had completed my PhD research, but i do not like research (that time).
Since early this year, i think i have changed my perception from "i don't like rsearch because i love teaching more" to "Wow! Research is fun!". I would really like to thank my students for changing my perception. Thanks to Faisal, Chrispin, Gasem, Nurul Aswa, Mohsen and Fadil. They really make me drown deep into research :). I mean deeper than before but i am sure my collegues are better than me at this. Again and again, i BELIEVE that there will always be rooms for improvements. Insya ALLAH.
Reasons for doing research is because there is a REASON, there is a problem underlying that we would like to solve. A problem that really motivates us to REsearch deep inside to look for solutions. We will not come to the solution if we do not seriously follow a proper method. For us to succeed, we must really really really WORK HARD. There are no short cuts.
Research is not like attending a lecture/classes where you listen to the lectures, do assignments, attend exams. It is much much much more than that. It involves a systematic way of THINKING. Thinking that teaches us to justify, clarify and synthesize what we know.
I had the opportunity to attend a workshop organized by the Ministry of Higher Education and AKEPT (Leadership Academy for the Higher Education) last 2 weeks. It is called "5 disciplines of Innovation". It has been conducted by 2 consultants from the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), US.
One of the most important lessons learnt is the "Value Creation Forum". In SRI, reseachers will go through 16-20 iterations (getting feedback on their ideas) before coming out with an innovation plan (a proposal).
What??? 16-20 times? So, research students i think we can learn 2 things here:
1) Frequent discussion with the supervisor is VERY important. Meeting the supervisor 3-5 times per semester is not enough!
2) We cannot work alone, we must get constructive feedback from other people around us.
3) We must learn to be open to share our work (of course with whom we trust) and we must learn to give CONSTRUCTIVE feedback, not merely CRITICISE.
Now, i can see the clearer picture the reason behind Prof Rose Alinda's seminars with her PhD students. Insya ALLAH will do this too with my students next semester.
So, dear students (this is especially dedicated to (Samira, Kent Seng, Marva, Elaheh and Saeed), have an OPEN & POSITIVE mind. When we meet and have seminars, take the opportunity the BEST that you can. Why? So that your ideas can be enriched. So that we can and we will produce QUALITY research, insya ALLAH. Oh Yes! 1 more thing, not only QUALITY research but an IMPORTANT research and not an INTERESTING research.
So what's the difference between IMPORTANT & INTERESTING research?
To be continued :) ....
