Enhancing students’ engagement with abstract ideas through conceptual and theoretical frameworks

Abstract

The expectation for doctoral research to contribute to knowledge is closely related to examiners’ attention to conceptual and theoretical components in the thesis. These components require abstract thinking and familiarity with a number of research ideas that are difficult to teach and learn. We argue that these can be made more accessible to students using the constructs of conceptual and theoretical frameworks, which can tie them together when there is a clear understanding of ‘concept’ and ‘theory’. Our aim is to enable students to make informed decisions around the research process and enable them to defend or justify their position when utilising either conceptual or theoretical lenses to better understand the contribution of their thesis.