Implementing research-based education at UCL
Professor Carmel McNaught
March 2014
The aim of this paper is to offer suggestions for
the implementation of research-based education
at UCL. The focus is on the intersection of three
terms research-based education, authentic
learning and communities of practice. There
has been a great deal written about each of these
terms (a quick Google will show this); but the
intersection of these three concepts is where UCL
staff might find most useful food for thought. In
essence, designing for research-based education
is best achieved by foregrounding the notion of
authentic learning in the design of student learning
experiences. In addition, recognizing and facilitating
the collaborative power of groups of people working
together in communities of practice can result in a
stronger pool of ideas for student learning activities,
and also sharing of the support that students might
need in working through complex and multi-faceted
‘authentic’ problems.
Research-based education (RBE) is a highly
appropriate priority for a research-intensive
university such as UCL. Indeed, a distinctively
research-based education (RBE) is seen as a key
strategy for achieving UCL’s priorities for teaching
and learning (T&L), which can be summarized
as having a broad, globally inclusive perspective,
and designing learning experiences that assist
graduates to be adaptable and successful.
UCL is rightly proud of its research prowess;
however, the processes of scholarly inquiry should
underpin all activities at UCL – in research, in
teaching, and also in community outreach. The
universality of scholarly inquiry is the ‘glue’ that
holds the complex community of UCL together.
Across the whole spectrum of domains of
inquiry (for example, from a literature study in
the humanities by a single academic to a large
collaborative empirical project in the sciences),
the same notions of clarity of purpose, rigourous
evidence-based decision-making, and clear
and unambiguous communication of results to
appropriate audiences apply.
My concern in this paper is with supporting good
teaching and effective student learning through
the use of RBE. In order to implement RBE, it is
essential to emphasize that universities are not
‘second-hand’ training institutions, and that the
integrity and value of scholarly inquiry needs to be
embedded in student learning experiences, at both
undergraduate and postgraduate levels. While there
are agreed conventions, definitions and processes
that are common to most degree programmes in
any university, the ‘art’ of facilitating each student’s
induction into, and growth within, a discipline area
lies in making the design of each module or group
of modules ‘fresh’ with some unique link to the
discipline under study. In thinking about how to do
this, a useful overarching principle is authentic
learning, which is usually described as students
learning fundamental concepts and knowledge
through engaging with situations and tasks that are
as close as feasible to the ‘real-world’ problems and
contexts they are likely to encounter on graduation.
Many authentic problems are multi-faceted and
have a number of possible solutions; obviously,
making decisions about how best to investigate
a given topic, and how to judge the value and
completeness of outcomes is not easy.
Team and project work are often cited as being
useful learning activities that allow students to
pool their ideas and, if well-designed, can provide
valuable practice for the world of work. However,
students need assistance in learning the skills and
gaining the confidence to work in less-defined and
more complex tasks. That assistance can come
from peer students and from a variety of staff, both
professional and academic. The term communities
of practice is a useful one when trying to articulate
and clarify how the various groupings of staff and
students can contribute to optimal learning designs.
Let us unpack the term a little.
Communities of practice (CoPs)
One of the keynote speakers at the UCL Teaching
and Learning Conference 2014, ‘Inspiring students
with research-based education’, is Etienne
Wenger-Trayner, whose work in defining and using
CoPs in a wide range of professional contexts
is internationally recognized. In essence, a CoP
is a group of people who recognize a shared
interest and purpose, and then consciously look for
strategies to sustain and enhance the work they
do together. It is the element of intentionality – of
conscious (and usually documented) planning and
monitoring – that distinguishes a CoP from the
myriad of professional and social groups that each
person belongs to.
The most obvious example of CoPs in higher
education is that of academics within discipline
areas, often under the structure of academic
departments, though, with a growing number of
interdisciplinary programmes and projects at UCL,
the real situation is much more complex. If you ask
most academics at UCL to describe themselves
in the context of being a member of UCL, then
mostly one hears a clear reference to a discipline
domain – “I am a historian”; “I work in environmental
studies”; etc. This identity within a discipline
domain, no matter whether defined in a broad or
narrow fashion, underpins the variety of structures
of departments, schools, faculties, etc. at UCL and
all other institutions of higher learning.
Each person in a CoP should bring a unique
strength to the group. The seriousness of the
selection process for posts at UCL highlights the
recognition that each member of a departmental
CoP is an important addition to the pool of expertise
that can be accessed for a variety of academic
purposes.
Members of a CoP recognize their shared
endeavours and regularly reflect on them. This
systematic reflection is essential to a functional CoP
and is built into many structures and processes at
UCL. The University as a whole can be considered
as a CoP, an example of which can be seen in the
collegial departmental reviews which take place
during Internal Quality Reviews (IQRs).
Subgroups within departments – research groups,
well-structured departmental committees – can also
be considered as CoPs with the larger departmental
CoP. These smaller, hopefully more flexible
and focused, groups of people are essential to
developing the exemplars that might be embedded
into the formal curriculum. Working out the details
for authentic, inquiry-oriented learning tasks is
non-trivial. In the left-hand side of the table in
the appendix I have listed a number of questions
that might be debated in cohesive small groups
in departmental CoPs, or in CoPs constituted as
committees associated with particular programmes.
In the right-hand column I have included some
examples of how colleagues at UCL have devised
strategies for RBE that address some aspects of
these questions. These examples were sourced
from the Teaching and Learning Portal in a section
titled ‘Research-based learning case studies’
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/teaching-learning/casestudies-news/research-based-learning. One of
the special things that comes through when one
reads these stories is that it is (largely) a winwin situation – the teachers are working with the
topics they love; the students are interested in the
‘genuineness’ of the experience and appreciate that
the complexity of the learning tasks assist them in
developing the skills and understandings that they
will need. Each example addresses only part of the
issues that can be explored through debate around
these questions. There are no ‘right’ answers but
the experience of these and other members of the
UCL community is that using the authenticity of
RBE as a guiding principle enriches the whole T&L
experience.
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My comments about each example are intentionally
brief. This is designed as a ‘taster’ paper with the
hope that readers will explore the URLs provided,
contact these colleagues and engage in discussion
about whether these ideas can be adopted or
adapted in their own teaching.
Most of the examples in the table are from what
I am broadly calling the sciences. This is simply
because these are the examples currently on
the Teaching and Learning Portal. One of the
benefits of a community repository is that it can
become enriched as others contribute stories and
examples. Useful authentic tasks often facilitate
students in developing their own CoPs within the
modules they study. Formal peer mentoring exists
in some departments and can result in student
CoPs that span a number of year levels of study.
Peer assessment is growing at UCL; it provides
a mechanism for students to gain skills in judging
the work of others, and in providing and receiving
constructive feedback. If peer assessment is
used appropriately, it can result in very strong
student CoPs. All of these student CoPs can add
a great deal to the student experience at UCL by
demonstrating that there are synergies across the
wide range of activities – academic and social – that
students have on offer at UCL.
One final example of a CoP, based on the
scholarship of T&L, and hence clearly in the field
of RBE, is UCL Arena. The UCL Arena (Advancing
Research-based Education in Academia) scheme
has been devised to enable all teachers at UCL to
gain professional recognition for the work they do in
T&L. The scheme relies on dialogue between peers
to explore, support and validate instances of RBE
at UCL. UCL Arena will be formally launched at the
April conference and is an excellent example of how
a CoP can be initiated across discipline boundaries,
and also emphasize the scholarly nature of all good
teaching activities. Earlier, I mentioned the need
to collect more stories and examples of RBE in
practice that can be shared across UCL; UCL Arena
will be one avenue by which this can be achieved.
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The notion of CoPs is thus a useful concept that
capitalizes on collegiality, and the strengths of a
variety of academic perspectives that can be utilized
when devising authentic learning experiences. If
CoPs are established on a sound basis, they can
provide a sustainable mechanism for departments
and programmes to continue to innovate and keep
curriculum experiences fresh and with a scholarly
focus. Indeed, implementing RBE is greatly assisted
within robust CoPs.
Appendix
Questions for debate
Examples of RBE in action at UCL
1.
Gazing at the sky and wondering what is out there is something that fascinates
most people. Undergraduate physics students are no exception and the
Astrophysics Group at UCL (part of the Physics & Astronomy Department) has
capitalized on this fascination with a project whereby students can be part of
an ongoing research project, ‘Observing extra-solar planets’. They have made
genuine publishable discoveries and experienced real research long before they
get to a final-year project.
What are the topics that have
sustained research interest in
the discipline area for a long
time and which are likely to
engage students and motivate
their interest?
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/teaching-learning/case-studies-news/research-basedlearning/observing-extra-solar-planets
2.
What are the most importance
research areas at present in the
discipline domain that students
should be aware of and gain
some experience in?
Often it is easy to list important research areas. However the logistics of having
sufficient equipment can hamper the realization of RBE. Dr Helene Burningham
from Geography has been able to obtain funds to buy 18 water-level recorders for
field work. This set of equipment has enabled much broader research questions
to be explored by students who can also generate a great deal of data, thus
enabling the development of appropriate analytic skills.
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/teaching-learning/case-studies-news/research-basedlearning/water-level-recorders
3.
4.
In setting out any authentic
task, what are the prerequisite
knowledge and skills students
will need in their investigations?
Will showing evidence of
foundation knowledge and skills
be part of formal assessment,
or will engaging with the
task in a satisfactory fashion
constitute sufficient evidence of
attainment?
The example I have chosen here is the work of Dr Kamna Patel from the
Development Planning Unit (DPU). Kamna and other DPU colleagues organize
a week-long real-life planning scenario for Master’s students based on Dar es
Salaam. The design of what is essentially a role-play exercise is that the materials
used to describe the context are as authentic as possible. Staff also see their role
as scaffolding students as they grapple with understanding complex problems in a
particular cultural context. The workshop is not formally assessed, but is used as
a basis for the overseas field trip that follows.
How many resources should
students be given? How much
should they find out themselves
what knowledge and skills they
need? How can design of tasks
avoid unproductive ‘re-inventing
of the wheel’? Indeed, how
authentic should a task be?
The UCL Centre for Clinical Microbiology, led by Professor Tim McHugh, has
a long-standing collaboration with health centres in Tanzania and Jamaica
which has enabled a number of research projects to be carried out involving
UCL higher-degree students. However, just putting students into the deep end
without adequate preparation is not productive. As Tim very clearly describes
it: “Working in resource-poor settings can be challenging; so, if a student does
express interest in working in such an environment, I set a series of tasks to make
sure they’re up to it. As well as making them responsible for obtaining their own
funding, I engage with them over several months, supporting them but setting
quite a high barrier to make sure that when they go there they will get something
out of it and not be too overwhelmed.”
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/teaching-learning/case-studies-news/internationalisation/dares-salaam-scenario
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/teaching-learning/case-studies-news/internationalisation/
tanzania
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5.
How much time will students
need to spend in a particular
authentic task? What
suggestions might they be given
about how to spend the time?
The tyranny of time and the pressure to ‘cover’ the content are often cited as
reasons why RBE is attractive but unrealistic. Dr Chiara Ambrosio, from the
Department of Science and Technology Studies, is involved with her students
in an ongoing collaborative research project on the history of electricity. As
she describes it: “Each year, a new cohort of students take an existing body of
work that has been built up by previous year’s students and, through individual
projects, they develop it in a bid to create a publishable piece of collaborative
research.” By building on previous work, students are able to get launched into
productive work quite quickly. A rich smorgasbord of options for specific research
angles has been built up; this is an excellent example of showing students how
efficient and productive research can be a community endeavour.
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/teaching-learning/case-studies-news/research-basedlearning/history-of-electricity
6.
Is there still a role for traditional
lectures in RBE? Or should
students spend the majority of
their time working on researchinspired authentic tasks? How
will a balance be achieved
between all the possible ways
in which students’ time might be
allocated?
Within a quite structured curriculum, there is still a role for RBE. It is a
misconception to believe that there is no role for formal classes (‘flipped’ or
otherwise). Here is an example of how RBE about which software should be used
has added an important element to Engineering students’ development. Liz Jones
from the Department of Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering (CEGE) has
integrated RBE around the question of whether to use open-source Geographic
Information Systems (GIS). The role of GIS in the undergraduate curriculum
is important and there are elements in each year which are clearly specified.
Involving students in trialing GIS software has enabled them to explore important
professional questions about how best data can be obtained.
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/teaching-learning/case-studies-news/e-learning/gis
7.
What are the implications of
RBE for the design of whole
programmes? Should there
be longer modules where indepth investigation becomes
possible? Should some modules
be designed to support other
modules that have a stronger
research-based focus?
UCL has a well-articulated process for approving and reviewing programmes
and modules. This evolutionary approach where new ideas are progressively
tried, evaluated and implemented is what one expects in an institution where
T&L quality really matters. In the example that can be explored through the
URL below, Dr Benn Thomsen from the Department of Electronic & Electrical
Engineering describes how research scenarios are embedded into the first two
years of the degree as an integrated part of the programme structure. The use of
scenario-based learning is important preparation for students doing individual and
group research projects in years 3 and 4.
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/teaching-learning/case-studies-news/research-basedlearning/scenario-based-learning-electronic-electrical-engineering
8.
In a diverse student cohort,
how should additional support
(e.g. for language, IT skills,
mathematics) be provided?
Dr Helen Chatterjee holds a dual role in UCL; she is a biologist and also Deputy
Director of Museums. She has developed the ‘Mystery specimen’ project where
students receive an unknown animal part from the Grant Museum of Zoology,
have to identify it, and then write a scientific journal article about the experience.
The integration of taxonomic research with academic writing ensures that
students engage in developing several important research skills. One additional
aspect of this module is that students come from a wide range of discipline areas
– Biology, Geography, Anthropology, Human Sciences, etc. – and this means that
support and scaffolding are an important aspect of the teaching.
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/teaching-learning/case-studies-news/object-based-learning/
mystery-specimen
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