Doctoral Dissertation Research Trend: A Comparative Study of Postgraduate Programs in Education Universities

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyze the research trends in the doctoral dissertation program over the past three years (2016 - 2018). A qualitative approach with content analysis methods was conducted at 4 universities, selected from 12 universities of the Teacher Education and Training Institute, namely Univeristas Pendidikan Indonesia, Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, Universitas Negeri Surabaya and Universitas Negeri Jakarta. Sample in this study were study program at Educational Management, Language Education, Sports Education, Basic Education, and Education Research and Evaluation. A total of 327 dissertation were analyzed, consisted 36 dissertations from UPI, 32 dissertations from UNY, 35 dissertations from UNESA, and 224 dissertations from UNJ. The parameters used to analyze the study was focus on research issues and themes, theories used, research methods, data collection techniques, sampling techniques and data analysis techniques, novelty, citations and reading sources. The results showed in the last 3 years, UNJ produced higher numbers of dissertation compared to others university. While others, less than 40 dissertations were selected. Education research trends in each study program are very diverse, ranging from issues and research themes, research methods used to data analysis. Majority of the research methods used were descriptive qualitative, quantitative and R&D, data collection using questionnaires, observations, interviews, and documents, while data analysis uses more descriptive analysis. Keywords: Content analysis, Educational research, Dissertation research trends