Getting started in pedagogical research and writing:beyond the first steps

David Boud

Overview

1. First steps2. Outlets for publication3. Positioning one’s work4. Is teaching and learning writing different?5. Pre-writing6. Building capacity to write effectively7. Becoming productive8. Commenting on drafts9. Getting published

Scholarship of teaching and learning

To be called scholarship

“an activity has to manifest three essential features, it should: be public, subject to peer review and evaluation, and accessible for exchange and use by members of one’s disciplinary community”.

Lee Shulman

1. First steps Understanding and being thoughtful about

student learningIt isn’t about teaching but the consequences for learning

Don’t expect anyone to be interested in what you are doing, if you are not interested in what they do

Know what is going on elsewhere, keep in touch Become a connoisseur

Appreciating pedagogy requires knowing the concepts and the language and using it well

What am I doing? Am I doing something interesting that is

different from what others are doing elsewhere? What is different about it? How do I know that it is different? How will I know if it is worthwhile? What will others be interested in knowing

about? What might convince them of the worth of this

practice?

Key questions What is the problematic? What is the focus of your study? What is your research question? How can it be approached

(methodology/methods, research design)? What evidence can I assemble to illuminate it? What kinds of analysis will I need to do? What is enough?

2. Outlets for different purposes

Teaching and learning meetings and conferences First exposure

Newsletters/magazines• Internal and external: quick dissemination

Academic journals Discipline education and general teaching and learning in

higher education Work won’t really be valued, except locally, until it appears

in a journal or equivalent

3. Positioning one’s work

We can’t communicate with others without knowing what other work is going on

Researching the topic Ephemeral and substantial sources

4. Is teaching and learning writing different?

Essentially no! It needs to exhibit all the qualities you would

expect to see in any academic writing Shows knowledge of literature and current ideas Has interesting ideas/practices to communicate Uses evidence well to make a compelling argument

5. Preparation—pre-writing

Specifically, which outlet am I ultimately writing for (not just intermediate ones)?

Do I have an idea/form of practice that will interest others?

What will others need to know about it? Do I know enough about what others are

doing/thinking? What evidence will they find compelling?

6. Building capacity to write effectively?

Read, read, read• Don’t expect others to read you if you don’t read them!

Write, write, write Find out whether you need to change your

normal disciplinary style Use intermediate steps Write with others Show drafts to others

• Which others?

7. What do I need to know to be productive?

Identify early the outlet that I will ultimately end up writing for

• Understand how it is positioned, what it publishes, what approaches it accepts

Identify literature in relation to which I am going to position my work

• Conceptually and practically

Identify if I have enough evidence or if additional investigation/reading is needed

Find some good peers to comment on the writing

Commenting on drafts

Your expertise is as a reader—does the writing communicate to you and to those it is planned to influence? You are not the writer, don’t tell them what to write

Share your personal responses in the role of the kind of reader it is aimed at

Listen carefully to the kind of comments they want at this particular stage

Commenting on drafts—checklist

What is the outlet for this? (specific journal—now and later?) What stage of writing is this? (comment accordingly) Is it positioned vis a vis other ideas/literature? Is this work

adequately referenced? What specifically is being argued? Is it completely clear to me? What evidence is there to support the argument? Is it compelling? Am I being persuaded by what I am reading? What is missing that I might reasonably expect to see? What would I expect to see in the next draft that is different from

this?

Receiving comments on drafts

Listen carefully, don’t respond or defend Make detailed notes or even record comments If readers have picked up the wrong idea, don’t justify

what you wrote, but work out why this interpretation could have been made—was there something in the paper that prompted it?

End by thanking the givers and briefly say how you are thinking of proceeding from here (saying you will scrap it is not an option!)

GENRES IN THE ASSESSMENT LITERATURE (from Hounsell)

Checklist on publishing a pedagogical research paper (1)

1. Should I try this out first in a conference, seminar or workshop? If so, where?

2. Have I read the literature relevant to this? Do I know where my contribution will fit? What other work am I building on?

3. Have I researched possible publication outlets (considered at least 3)? Does it best fit in the education literature of my discipline or related disciplines, or in the more general teaching and learning literature in higher education?

4. If I, or one of my colleagues in another university, encountered this paper what questions would I expect to have been answered? What does the reader need to know to make sense of what I have done?

5. Does the title make really clear what this is about? (quirky or obscure titles are to be avoided until you are famous!)

Checklist on publishing a pedagogical research paper (2)

6. Have I framed the problem being addressed (a) conceptually, (b) in terms of the literature and (c) the context in which I am operating?

7. Is it clear what the paper is trying to do and how it does it? Does it deliver what is promised in the introduction?

8. Who should I consult about (a) this kind of research, (b) the outlet in which I am seeking to publish, (c) getting feedback on a draft before submission?

9. Have I got enough evidence to support the argument I am making? If it is an innovation, have I tried it and have data about it from at least two cycles of students?

10.What should I be writing next? How will writing this best prepare me for the next step?

Producing the paper for a journal

Think about this before you write the very first version!

Stages of producing a paper

Don’t start writing yet! Finding an audience Joining the conversation Researching outlets What is a paper? Before submitting Coping with editor’s responses Success!

What comes first?

“Joining the conversation” Who do I want to speak to? Who is available to be spoken to? Finding an opening

Researching outlets

If I don’t know the journal, why would it want to know me?

Where is my work positioned? Where do I want it to be positioned? What business (field) am I actually in?

What is a paper?

Not a conference presentation Not a chapter in a book Certainly not a book or a thesis! A discrete communication located in a specific

area which argues a case based on evidence Playing with the genre is for experts

Before submitting

If it is written for this particular journal exactly what does it need to satisfy?

What would any reasonable reader of my paper in this journal expect of it?

Don’t forget the abstract (and make it an abstract!)

Follow referencing conventions, avoid referencing ephemera

Understand the submission process

Editor’s responses

When is a rejection not a rejection? Reading referees’ reports—what to take

seriously? What is a sufficient revision? Another cycle? Dealing with proofs

What to expect after publication

Nothing for a long time!

The conversation is a very slow one