Exploring the lived experiences of undergraduate education students in conducting research projects

Abstract

The undergraduate degree program in Education at the University of Namibia includes a compulsory module in Educational Research at the third year level. The module aims to equip students with basic knowledge and skills of planning, conducting and reporting on educational issues. Educational research module is a prerequisite for the research project at the fourth year level. At the time of this study, fourth year students were conducting their research project under the guidance of their respective supervisors and most of them were experiencing challenges in completing their project. Therefore, it is important to explore the challenges that students experience in conducting research projects and ways to overcome them. In this paper, we used a phenomenological case study design to describe the challenges that the selected undergraduate education students were faced with when conducting their research projects. The data were gathered through focus group discussions. By exploring the challenges facing students when conducting research, this paper provided insights for bridging the gaps between studying research module and conducting research projects. The findings of this study have implications on teaching strategies and ways to improve students’ research project supervision.