Peter SamuelsUniversity of Wolverhampton · Business
Peter Samuels
MA (Cantab), PhD, PG Cert MS DD FHE
About
188
Publications
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Introduction
My core role is as an academic developer. I am passionate about developing students and staff into competent academics. My main areas of expertise are quantitative research methods, mathematics education, using technology and academic writing.
I am particularly interested in how to capture the thinking and writing processes of mathematicians.
Additional affiliations
January 2010 - April 2018
April 2018 - December 2024
November 1994 - January 1996
Education
February 2010 - February 2011
January 1988 - October 2000
October 1984 - June 1987
Publications
Publications (188)
This purpose of this guide is to help university students, staff and researchers understand the basic principles of analysing the typical kinds of quantitative data they may collect or encounter in the course of their learning, teaching or research. It focuses upon descriptive statistics and statistical testing in the context of undertaking a resea...
This book helps students with the initial phases of their business research project, offering a clear step-by-step approach from defining aims and research questions through to conducting literature reviews and writing a methodology.
Features to aid learning include chapter objectives, plentiful real-life examples to demonstrate good practice, exe...
This chapter introduces two complementary statistical analysis techniques: Scale Reliability Analysis (which is used for establishing a single scale) and Exploratory Factor Analysis (which is used for establishing multiple scales). A scale is a group of fields of data which are believed to, or have been shown to, describe the same thing.
https://d...
An exploration of the nature of fundamental Divine rights of Christians
The rising of Jesus Christ as the stone that the builders rejected in the End Times.
Workshop given at the UKCGE 5th International Conference on Developments in Doctoral Education and Training. Based on experiences of developing/delivering proposal writing training at Birmingham City University and higher educational institutions in East Africa.
Provided as a resource on Day 4 of the training.
Instructions on installing SPSS.
Blended learning resource provided on Day 4 of the training:
Introductory teaching
Briefing on training
Use instructions and videos to follow through the activities (with partial blended learning support)
Final plenary discussion
Provided as blended learning on day 3 of the training.
Training summary: Briefing and initial training in qualitative analysis; Self-directed learning using instructions or videos with blended learning support; Completion of training in qualitative analysis; Plenary discussion
Provided as an additional resource on Day 3 of the training.
Instructions on how to install NVivo version 12.
Example data set used in NVivo analysis
This is the third part of the presentation given on Day 1 of the training. It covers the process after you submit your article.
First part of presentation delivered on Day 1 of the training. It covers how to prepare yourself before you produce your article.
This is the second part of a presentation delivered on Day 1 of the training. It covers how to produce your article.
This presentation provides a brief description of my current STEAM fellowship at Birmingham City University.
This was an interactive workshop which covered the process of deciding on a project idea then writing a funding proposal. This was split into: Title; Executive summary; Rationale; Aim and objectives; Impact Project management; and Budget.
Academic writing can appear a strange and daunting world to scientists who prefer precision and finding solutions to precisely prescribed problems. As a mathematician who has become an academic writing tutor I can empathise with this mindset. I have therefore written this brief guide to assist science students to get a general grasp of academic wri...
The discussion below was created over December 2020 and January 2021 with members of the Network for Educational and Multidisciplinary Research Africa. The discussion is presented as a Platonic dialogue between researches with minimal corrections.
This presentation draws from the presenter’s experiences within UK Afro-Caribbean and East African neo-Pentecostal churches and seeks to address the following questions: If there has been a genuine restoration of the apostolic ministry to the body of Christ since the new Latter Rain Movement in the 1940s, how should this ministry be identified? If...
10 tips for writing an excellent dissertation and getting a good grade. Written specifically for undergraduate dissertations but also relevant to postgraduate dissertations.
This paper provides a brief critical review of the English executive summary to Integrating Ubunifu, informal science, and community innovations in science classrooms in East Africa (Semali et al. in Cult Stud Sci Educ 10:865–889, 2015. 10.1007/s11422-014-9640-x). It was written as an example of a critical review for an Erasmus + -funded training (...
This presentation covers the second stage of critical review - the review stage. It is based around an example from science education in East Africa.
This presentation explores the supervisory relationship in undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations from the point of view of the supervisor.
This presentation covers the basic principles of academic writing and critical thinking.
This presentation introduces the first stage of critical review: how to summarise a research paper. It is based around an example from science education in East Africa.
This presentation explains how a student should prepare for their viva preparation. It begins by addressing basic factual information then moves to advice on how to approach the event based on the presenter's personal experience.
This presentation encourages the audience to share their writing ambitions. It provides advice on journal selection, and the writing and submission process, dealing with rejection and handling major rewrites.
This presentation covers the qualitative research process with emphasis on research strategies, data collection techniques, data transcription, data analysis using a theory and writing up findings.
This presentation explains the quantitative data analysis process in four parts: descriptive statistics, parametric assumption checking, parametric testing, and nonparametric testing.
The presentation provides an overview of the doctoral journal and some in-depth teaching on some related subjects such as the proposal writing, literature reviews, the supervisory relationship, academic writing and stress management.
Introduction; models of the supervisory relationship; roles of supervisors and doctoral students; keeping records; assertiveness; advice for a successful relationship; troubleshooting.
Introductions; overall strategy; initial guidance and tips; socialising the writing process; selecting a journal; example using Scimajo; some writing models; example introduction; maximize your chances of not being rejected; the publication process; dealing with rejection; the major rewrite; case study; activity; developing a social media research...
What is a conceptual framework? Purposes of a conceptual framework. Examples. Activity.
Method v. methodology; method(ology) in context; philosophies; how to plan a methods section; example; activity
The main doctoral phases; GANTT charts; writing your proposal plan; general time management issues:
Overview
Planning and completing tasks
Scheduling and time management
Troubleshooting
Stress management
Argumentation styles; Argument metaphors; Activity 1: Argument structure and common errors; Activity 2
How to summarise; the systematic review process; a 9 step guide to doing a literature review:
Have a plan
Use critical thinking to select your sources
Divide your literature into about three themes/dimensions
Include a theoretical perspective
Analyse your sources collectively
Structure and plan your review
Analyse important sources individually
In...
This fourth sessions covers the principles of academic writing style including hedging and objective academic language.
This third session covers the general structure of a PhD proposal and some associated principles.
Examples of specific claims that require citations. Examples of reporting verbs. Citations using the APA style. Interpreting a Turnitin matching report.
Definition; Length; Model structure; Transitional words; Examples; Short and long paragraphs; Activity
This second session covers how to write a title, aim,main research question and objectives.
This session introduces academic writing and the aims and contents of the rest of the course.
This is the first in a series of 7 generic workshops on doing and writing up a dissertation at the undergraduate or masters level. It covers an introduction to dissertations, the topic selection process and writing a proposal.
This is the second in a series of 7 generic workshops on dissertation support for undergraduates and masters students. It covers research planning and management, getting the most out of your supervisory relationship, overcoming flagging and managing stress.
This is the third in a series of 7 generic workshops on dissertation support for undergraduate and masters students. It covers academic writing style, paragraph writing, argumentation, writing models and how to do and write a literature review.
This is the fourth in a series of 7 lectures on dissertation support. It covers, methodology, method, conceptual frameworks and data collection techniques including questionnaire design.
This is the fifth in a series of 7 lectures on dissertation support. It covers data preparation and description, both for qualitative and quantitative research.
This is the last in a series of 7 lectures on dissertation support. It covers the assembling of the dissertation report document by considering the writing process and the genre of important sections and chapters. It also covers referencing.
This is the sixth in a series of 7 lectures on dissertation support. It covers advanced qualitative and quantitative data analysis.
This file contains a draft critical review of the example paper used in this project.
This excel file contains the review comments made on the example paper used in this project. They are divided into positive and negative comments.
This file contains the final version of the review of the example paper used in this project.
A PhD proposal is a focused document that introduces your PhD study idea and seeks to convince the reader that your idea is interesting, original and viable within the allocated study period and with the resources available. It also provides a preliminary review of the literature and proposes how the research should be carried out. The purpose of t...
There is growing evidence of the potential of educational robotics to enhance science, technology, engineering and mathematics education provided that they are deployed carefully. This paper describes a developmental research project between a university and a secondary school in the UK to develop ex-tended robotics enhancement classes, mainly usin...
Study guide that explains the exploratory factor analysis technique using SPSS and Excel.
Whilst it is common statistical advice not to attempt a reliability analysis with a sample size less than 300 a recent simulation study by Yurdugül indicates that this is possible in certain circumstances. The most common statistic used in reliability analysis is Cronbach’s alpha and an often quoted rule of thumb is a coefficient value above 0.7 is...
Within the context of secondary and tertiary mathematics education, most so-called learning technologies, such as virtual learning environments, bear little relation to the kinds of technologies contemporary learners use in their free time. Thus they appear alien to them and unlikely to stimulate them toward informal learning. By considering learni...
A literature review is not just a sequence of summaries or critiques of selected sources (this is known as an annotated bibliography). Rather, it should take the form of a critical discussion, showing insight and an awareness of differing arguments, theories, methods and findings. It should analyse and synthesise relevant published works.
There is growing evidence of the potential of robotics to enhance learning provided that they are deployed carefully. This paper describes an action research project to develop extended robotics enhancement classes using real and virtual robots. Two styles of class were deployed: student-led project creations and facilitator-led challenges. The ped...
Updated version of previous study guide.
Contains a list of 23 common errors I have observed in providing statistics advisory tutorials.
This paper is an example draft submission sent for review
This file is an example revised submission what has been amended based on the reviewers' comments.
Whilst it is common statistical advice not to attempt a reliability analysis with a sample size less than 300 a recent simulation study indicates that this is possible in certain circumstances. The most common statistic used in reliability analysis is Cronbach’s alpha and an often quoted rule of thumb is a coefficient value above 0.7 is acceptable...
Questions
Questions (7)
Dear RG community,
I have been trying to help my PhD student with an EFA. We have ended up with a very nice stabilised solution (using principal axis factoring, varimax rotation and extracting a fixed number of factors) apart from the determinant of the correlation matrix being too low. We had initially checked for correlations > 0.8 in absolute value but did not find any so we went back and removed one item from each pair where the bivariate correlation was > 0.7 in absolute value. This improved the determinant but it was still considerably lower than the recommended threshold of 0.00001. What do you suggest we should do: continue to reduce the bivariate correlation threshold and remove more items, just live with the low determinant value as what we are really interested in is the scales themselves derived from the EFA, or is there another way to detect and remove multicollinearity?
Thanks very much for your expert advice.
