A NEW CHALLENGE FOR ME

Here I am again -- teaching Communication Research. It's not easy. It's not easy to explain complicated research matters to undergraduate students. It's not easy to be really strict so the students would learn to READ, READ and READ. It's not easy to say their proposals are not acceptable, or that no panelist would ever want to read a problem with no basis -- no strong background and no significant at all. It doesn't feel good looking at clueless graduating students. They seem to be so clueless whether they hit the jackpot in the proposal they submitted. Ayoko kasi ng research proposal na PWEDE NA. I want their research output to be significant and worth their time. If the students spend time thinking about their problem and how they would be able to come up with sensible topic and problem, then I also spend nights thinking, and searching the net or searching for books in the library, just to help them in their brainstorming. But I cannot suggest a problem or a topic because I want their theses to be originally theirs. I want to give them a sense of ownership. Dapat in the end, masasabi nila, "IDEA KO ITO. BABY KO ANG THESIS NA ITO." My friend, Cathy, is right. Students have to develop a certain level of relationship with their theses for them to excel in it. Students have to love their topic and problem, or else, they will perish and not graduate on time.

Writing a thesis is not a joke. But it is also not something that should make them feel so burdened with or frustrated (when they are asked to revise). The thesis should be a challenge, both for the students and the teacher.

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