RESEARCH STAY ▼

DOING RESEARCH AND EXPERIENCING DIFFERENT CULTURES IS THE MOST WONDERFUL THING FOR ME.

AN INTERVIEW WITH YI-JHEN WU | by Madalena dos Reis Gonçalves

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SHORT PROFILE

Name: Yi-Jhen Wu
Field: Educational Psychology
Country: Taiwan
Occupation: Doctoral Fellow at the Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences
Research Interests: Gender difference on math achievement, item response theory, latent analysis, and international assessment

+GO TO FULL PROFILE

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▐ BAGSS members have many opportunities for doing research abroad. One of them is our doctoral fellow Yi-Jhen Wu, who is currently doing a research stay in China at City University of Hong Kong.

In an interview, she talks about the project she is working on and gives insights about the benefits the stay provides for her career and her personal life.

// At which university or institution do you spend your research stay? Do you work on a specific project?

Y.J.W. Currently, I am staying at the City Hong Kong University (City U) and I am working on a topic related to response styles and item response theory with a City U’s professor and her collaborator.

// In which way does the research stay inspire and enrich the work on your dissertation project?

Y.J.W. In my dissertation, I applied The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) to do content-related research. Apart from that, focusing on PISA data triggers me to be interested in other research ideas, which are response styles and survey design. Thus, having a short-term stay at the City U inspires me to expand the scope of my dissertation, such as understanding response styles in PISA. Additionally, my dissertation focused on East Asian students’ learning behavior, which includes Hong Kong students as well. Take this opportunity to do research stay in HK, I can deeply understand an educational system and a learning environment in HK, which gives me a chance to reflect and reassess what I have done in my dissertation.

// To what extent is the research stay beneficial for your academic career?

Y.J.W. During a research stay, I have a lot of discussions with linguists, psychologists and psychometricians. Through discussions, it broadens my knowledge and understands how to collaborate interdisciplinary. Thus, I believe that this research stay will help me develop a better research idea and conduct an interdisciplinary research effectively in the future.

// Which aspect of the research stay appeal to you most?

Y.J.W. The topic of response styles are the most appealing to me. Additionally, the experience of the local culture is also fascinating to me. Generally speaking, the combination of doing research and experiencing different cultures is the most wonderful thing to me!

// Does the research stay benefit you personally?

Y.J.W. Yes, it really benefits my personal growth and development. This research stay provides me a lot of chances to meet scholars from different backgrounds, which help me identify myself and develop a better communication skill.

// How does BAGSS support you during your research stay?

Y.J.W. Prior to the research stay, I think the biggest support from BAGSS is that it offers me a great of autonomy, which motivates me to do research in other countries. During the research stay, the staffs at BAGSS are really supportive of assisting me to deal with the administrative procedure for preparing the defense, which let me have less worries about the preparation for the defense. Thus, I really appreciated what BAGSS has done for me!

// Interview: Madalena dos Reis Gonçalves

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