Duncan Reavey
University College Chichester
Bognor Regis Campus, Upper Bognor Road, Bognor Regis, West Sussex PO21 1HR, UK
d.reavey@ucc.ac.uk

If students are to learn processes of educational research, and not merely outcomes, some of the most important skills to develop are those of research design and interpretation. Often these skills are also the ones that students have the least opportunity to learn. On its own, a lecture course on how-to-research is not enough. Learning hands-on during an independent research project at the end of a degree is too late. Here I outline a useful intermediate step in which students can work their way through the research process with the right support at the right time. The intended result is a greater awareness of the way that research happens, an awareness that will be put to good use by proactive teachers in the classroom.

What our undergraduates can't do

Good researchers

  • pose difficult questions
  • have the craziest of ideas
  • embrace critical feedback
  • allow approaches to evolve
  • spot the significance of their results
  • sell their findings to academic and practitioner colleagues

Our undergraduates in education - and science too - don't get the chance to do this, given that

  • results of major studies are learned through lectures and textbooks
  • practical work, if it exists, is usually prescriptive
  • resources and time for practical work are very limited and opportunities for students to take active decisions are few
  • lip service is paid to team work
  • research in coursework is a snapshot of just part of the research process

What's missing are

  • follow through from the very start to the very end
  • planning and interpreting experiments on a realistic scale
  • real world complexity
  • heated research discussions
  • full interactions with colleagues
  • coffee

A response

I have developed classroom activities designed to allow undergraduate students to develop skills of planning and interpreting research investigations. Each activity is based on a published paper. Students go through the same steps as the authors in the development of the research, but work a step ahead of the authors.

The paper is divided into short sections. A number of tasks are associated with each section, and students work on these in small groups. Students work quietly as individuals, then in lively discussions within their groups, then in discussions across the class. During the group work, the tutor rarely intervenes in the workings of the groups, but picks up main points of contention or misunderstanding by careful listening from a distance. These points can be raised during the class discussion.

Examples of questions thought through by individuals, discussed by groups then the whole class are

  • Why is the problem interesting?
  • What data are necessary and how should they be collected
  • How might the data be presented and interpreted?

At the end of each stage, and only after the students have decided on their own answers, is the appropriate section of the actual paper is distributed. Participants then compare their proposals with those used in the paper and discuss whether they could be improved. Then they decide on the next steps of the study, once again before seeing what the authors actually did.

Students are required to draw widely on their knowledge and apply it to a problem of greater complexity than could be tackled in a directed study task or a class project. The study of this type of problem, to which there is frequently more than one correct answer, also helps students to gain an insight into how educational researchers work.

One example of an activity for BA(Hons)QTS undergraduates is based on the paper by Evans et al (1996) "School children as educators: the indirect influence of environmental education in schools on parents' attitudes towards the environment" in Journal of Biological Education 30:243-248. Another is based on Byrne (1999) "Health, wealth and honesty: perceptions of self-esteem in primary-aged children" in Health Education 1999 (3): 95-102

Suggestions

  • Give a briefing sheet the week before so they have a flying start
  • Include a working coffee break
  • Don't rush it - it's surprising what they don't know
  • Help them see how research really works
  • Use some short inputs like an OHT or video clip to change the pace (and relieve the intensity!) for a few moments during class discussions
  • Be sure to know the paper so you can justify the decisions that were made
  • This approach has worked well for HND students, undergraduates and Masters students in York, Natal and Chichester comprising classes of 10-35 students working in groups of 3-4 during a 2-3 hour slot - it's flexible

Student and tutor feedback

  • Students say that the practical nature of the activity and the group work add to their enjoyment, and that the lively discussions among students make it valuable as a learning tool.
  • Tutors might cover a smaller volume of material in two hours of this activity, but students have a better understanding of the smaller amount covered.
  • The approach allows the tutor to differentiate among students, not only helping students fill gaps in their understanding but paying attention to needs of competent students
  • The activity shifts the tutor's role from authority to facilitator of learning. Students appreciate this.
  • Students gain extra confidence in use of journal articles.

Do it yourself

There are many published papers that could be treated in this way. If you develop your own

  • For this kind of activity it is important to select "good" problems - ones that encourage students to talk to each other and stimulate each other to reflect on their answers.
  • It works especially well if you use a paper you wrote yourself, because you will know better than anyone the context of the work and the real reasons behind the methodological decisions that were taken. However, don't tell your students it was your paper until the task is over, if ever.
  • Why not share them by offering them to be included on the list here on the Escalate web site?

Similar tasks for environmental science and adventure education undergraduates

Similar activities have been developed for adventure education undergraduates and environmental science undergraduates. Please spread the word.

Downloading and modifying the activities for your own use

Downloading of the activities (extracts from published articles, plus my accompanying tasks) is possible in the form of Word documents so you can modify the tasks to suit your needs. I thank publishers and authors for permission to make extracts available to the academic community from www.escalate.ac.uk in this way.

Finally, thanks to those who had the good idea in the first place

The approach is based on one developed originally by John Garratt and colleagues at University of York for use by chemistry undergraduates. Many thanks!

A worthwhile link

Garratt J (1997) Virtual investigations: ways to accelerate experience University Chemistry Education 1:19-27 http://www.rsc.org/pdf/uchemed/papers/1997/article5.pdf
(You don't need to be a chemist to appreciate the points made here - relevant to all in university teaching)