The Inquiry

I would like to provide a brief summary of what has taken place over the past eight months.

I have written my upgrade report, which outlines a proposal for a mixed methods design. I will be examining the relationship between (non-clinical) psychotic-like experiences (PLIKS) and academic achievement (national curriculum assessment scores). PLIKS are considered a risk factor for various forms of mental illness, including depressive and anxiety disorders, as well as psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia.

I have been learning about various types of data analyses, including growth mixture modeling (GMM) and latent class analysis (LCA) that I intend to use in my research.

After attending the Kaleidoscope conference workshop “Research in a Digital Age” (which I also briefly presented an overview of an open-review publishing initiative I am involved in) at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, I have also decided to take advantage of some of the available digital technologies to assist in my research. In particular, I have decided to trial the usefulness of Scoupt.it by creating a “Mental Health and Academic Achievement” webpage to ‘scoop’ available information in this area. Additionally, I have added a number of mental health and education related feeds to my Twitter account to learn about work emerging on these topics.

My next leg of the journey will be focusing on a secondary quantitative data analysis at another department in Cambridge. When I return, I hope to share more of what I have learnt from this experience.