Moving Forward Together: Engaging Students through Research and Inquiry
Mick HealeyUniversity of Gloucestershire, UK
“… universities should treat learning as not yet wholly solved problems and hence always in research mode”
(Humboldt, 1810 translated 1970, quoted by Elton, 2005, 110)
Long history at Brookes:• Research projects, including those by Blackman, Breen,
Durning, Jenkins, Lindsay, Patton-Saltzberg, Zetter• 2002-3 all undergraduate and taught postgraduate courses
were redesigned with the requirement that they ‘demonstrate how the linkages between research and teaching and learning are realised in the formal curriculum and the wider student experience’
• FDTL Project - 'Linking teaching with research and consultancy in the Built Environment’
• HEFCE funded CETL Reinvention Centre (with Warwick University) including national undergraduate research journal
• GEOverse - national undergraduate research journal in geography
Engaging students through research and inquiry at Brookes
• “There will be evidence of how LTC paper 07/014 Developing Undergraduate Research at Oxford Brookes University ... has been integrated into the programme”
The Academic Progression Initiative (API), Nov 2008
• “an excellent opportunity to create a new unique selling point. Namely, an undergraduate student learning experience where all students are encouraged and are afforded the opportunity to develop a strong set of research skills and expertise that complement their academic course content and facilitate the development of high level independent learning, analytical, communication and critical skills.”
LTC paper 07/014, p2
Engaging students through research and inquiry at Brookes
• Economic geographer• Director Centre for Active Learning • Director HE Academy project on Undergraduate research
in new universities• Geography Advisor to HE Academy Subject Centre for
Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences • Until 2008 VP for Europe International Society for
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning• National Teaching Fellow and Senior Fellow HE Academy• Research interests: scholarship of teaching and learning;
linking research and teaching; active learning; developing an inclusive curriculum for disabled students
Brief biography
Linking research and teaching
“For the students who are the professionals of the future, developing the ability to investigate problems, make judgments on the basis of sound evidence, take decisions on a rational basis, and understand what they are doing and why is vital. Research and inquiry is not just for those who choose to pursue an academic career. It is central to professional life in the twenty-first century.”
Brew (2007, 7)
Linking research and teaching
“Developing the Student as Scholar Model requires a fundamental shift in how we structure and imagine the whole undergraduate experience. It requires, as a minimum, the adoption of the Learning Paradigm in everything from the first introductory course through the final capstone experience. It requires a culture of inquiry-based learning infused throughout the entire liberal arts curriculum that starts with the very first day of college and is reinforced in every classroom and program.”
(Hodge et al. 2007, 1)
Linking research and teaching
1. Different ways of linking research and teaching
2. Different views on undergraduate research and inquiry
3. Issues in mainstreaming undergraduate research and inquiry
4. Conclusion
Different ways of linking R&T
•Learning about others’ research
•Learning to do research – research methods
•Learning in research mode – enquiry based
•Pedagogic research – enquiring and reflecting on learning
Linking research and teaching: different views
• Topic on linking research and teaching has generated much debate, some of it fairly emotive and polarised (Table 4 – p4)
• Many people hold the view that a key characteristic of universities is where research and teaching are brought together
• Some claim that the best researchers are usually the best teachers (e.g. Cooke, 1998)
• Others dispute this claim (e.g. Jenkins, 2000); many refer to examples of excellent researchers who are poor teachers and vice versa
Linking research and teaching: different conceptions of research
Source: Brew (2003, 6)
Linking research and teaching: different conceptions of teachingInformation transfer / teacher focused approach
Conceptual change / student focused approach
Prosser and Trigwell (1999)
Linking research and teaching: Conceptual compatibilities
Trading view of research and information transmission approach to teaching
Journey view of research and conceptual change approach to teaching
Trowler and Wareham (2007)
Linking research and teaching: Knowledge transfer and public scholarshipKnowledge transfer, knowledge exchange, ‘third stream’ activities – association with enterprise, knowledge economy, vocationalism, professional education and ‘performativity’
Public scholarship – ‘engaging in reciprocally beneficial ways with communities at local, national and international level’ (Krause, 2007, 5); develops from Boyer’s ‘scholarship of engagement’
STUDENTS AS PARTICIPANTS
EMPHASIS ON RESEARCH CONTENT
EMPHASIS ON RESEARCH PROCESSES AND PROBLEMS
STUDENTS AS AUDIENCE
Research-tutored Research-based
Research-led Research-oriented
Curriculum design and the research-teaching nexus (based on Healey, 2005, 70)
Mainstreaming undergraduate research and inquiry: discipline and department strategiesHow might undergraduate research and inquiry be ‘mainstreamed’ into courses and departmental programmes?
In pairs each skim read at least ONE different disciplinary case study (pp 12-24) OR at least ONE different department case study (pp 25-32).
5 minutes
What is research?
Breaking new ground; moving forward; exploration and discovery
How visible is it?
Laboratories and machinery (ie tools) but often behind closed doors
Where is it located?
Out there; at a higher level
Who does it? Lecturers
Students experience of learning in a research environment: Physics
Source: Robertson and Blackler (2006)
What is research?
Gathering information in the world; answering a question
How visible is it?
Most visible in the field
Where is it located?
Out there in the field
Who does it? Lecturers and (increasingly over time) students
Students experience of learning in a research environment: Geography
Source: Robertson and Blackler (2006)
What is research?
Looking into; gathering; putting it together; a focus of interest
How visible is it?
Not tangibly visible but apparent in the dialogue
Where is it located?
In the library; in the head
Who does it? Lecturers and students
Students experience of learning in a research environment: English
Source: Robertson and Blackler (2006)
Different views on undergraduate research
Dimensions of undergraduate research
Student, process centred Outcome, product centredStudent initiated Faculty initiatedHonors students All studentsCurriculum based Co-curricular fellowships Collaborative IndividualOriginal to the student Original to the disciplineMulti-or interdisciplinary Discipline basedCampus/community audience Professional audienceCapstone/final year Starting year one Pervades the curriculum Focussed
(Source: Adapted from Beckham and Hensel, 2007)
Different views on undergraduate research and inquiryOur working definition includes Boyer’s (1990)
scholarships of discovery, integration and application (engagement) and is characterised by breadth:
“undergraduate research describes student engagement from induction to graduation, individually and in groups, in research and inquiry into disciplinary, professional and community-based problems and issues, including involvement in knowledge exchange activities”
Childs et al., 2007
Mainstreaming undergraduate research and inquiry: institutional perspectivesHow might undergraduate research and inquiry be ‘mainstreamed’ into universities
In pairs each skim read at least ONE different institutional case study (pp33-41)
5 minutes
Issues in mainstreaming undergraduate research and inquiry• Is research and inquiry primarily for honours
and graduate students?
• Is research and inquiry for all students or a highly selected group?
• How are students prepared to undertake research and inquiry?
• What are students perceptions of research?
Students’ perceptions of research
A comparison of over 500 final year students’ perceptions of research in three universities CanRI; UKRI; and UKLRI (Table 5):
• Students agreed that being involved in research activities is beneficial
• Students do not perceive the development of their research skills
• Communication is one of the issues that we need to address – language used can exclude
Students’ perceptions of research:• About three-quarters of the items followed our
hypothesis (particularly about the awareness of research)
• Those where the hypothesis did not hold up were mainly in the experiences with doing research, where there were no significant differences
• Regardless of institution, there is the perception amongst students that learning in an inquiry or research-based mode is beneficial
Students’ awareness of research
U of A History Faculty
U of A Student Data
Research seminars 46% 75%
Books, articles or other research output 46% 68%
Notice boards advertising research opportunities 23% 59%
Existence of Research Centre or Institute 18% 72%
Areas with national or international reputations 18% 60%
Faculty are writing for publication 73% 79%
Faculty are supervising research students 46% 81%
Faculty are undertaking funded research 36% 77%
Faculty are supervising UG research assistants 18% 60%
Students’ experiences with research
U of A History Faculty
U of A Student Data
Staff discuss research 96% 85%
Reading research paper by staff 86% 60%
Undertaking independent project as part of course
77% 43%
Undertaking undergraduate dissertations 59%* 7%
Being subject of research 23% 47%
Development of research techniques 59% 27%
Attending research seminar 32% 27%
Contributing to research project outside of class
14% 17%
Attending research conference 27% 19%
Mainstreaming undergraduate research and inquiry: conclusions• Getting students to produce knowledge rather
than just consume knowledge is a way to re-link teaching and research
• The challenge is to mainstream undergraduate research so that all students may potentially benefit
• Adopting a broader definition of undergraduate research than is currently common is a way forward (Boyer et al.), which should benefit the learning of students in institutions with a range of different missions
Mainstreaming undergraduate research and inquiry: conclusionsIf undergraduate research is to be truly integrated into HE then the nature of higher education itself will need to be reconceptualised.
“universities need to move towards creating inclusive scholarly knowledge-building communities. … The notion of inclusive scholarly knowledge-building communities invites us to consider new ideas about who the scholars are in universities and how they might work in partnership.” (Brew, 2007, 4)
There is a need to do more thinking ‘outside the box’
THE END
Thank You
Moving Forward Together: Engaging Students through Research
and Inquiry
