This morning we kicked off PG Week 2017 with a delicious breakfast and a lot of food for thought.
The speaker at this year’s welcome breakfast was Dr Jesse Pirini. He got his PhD at AUT in 2015, and has had a stellar run since – working at the AUT Multimodal Research Centre, gaining several sources of external funding, and even publishing a book!
Dr Pirini spoke about the value of reading deeply – he recommended reading one article thoroughly per week, rather than skim-reading ten and forgetting them. He also spoke about heuristic learning. His 4-month-old baby has a kete (basket) of objects to play with. As opposed to toys that have one specific purpose, these objects can be played with in all sorts of ways. This is ‘heuristic play’ – play that is explorative, rather than prescribed. Dr Pirini recommended taking a similar approach to postgraduate research. The deepest learning, he suggested, comes from discovering things ourselves. With that in mind, we shouldn’t expect to merely follow instructions from our supervisors or from the university. Instead, we should forge our own paths, follow our curiosity, and learn by exploring.
Check out the Facebook album from the event, tag yourself and your friends in the pics, and enjoy the rest of your Postgraduate Week!
What’s coming up tomorrow?
Tuesday is all about progressing in your research. There is an all-day NVivo Core Skills workshop on offer – book at CareerHub (AUT login required). There is also an Interviewing Skills workshop in the evening. Plus, throughout the week, you can view research posters in the foyer area at WG306.
