Developing institutional strategies to mainstream
undergraduate research and inquiry for all students
TASKS!
• Please pick up the session handout
• Sit in groups of 3-4 perhaps with people you
don’t know ….
• Discuss
“What experience, interests and
questions do you bring to this session?”
• For the moment these discussions are
private!
Transforming the student experience through
developing institutional strategies to mainstream
undergraduate research and inquiry for all students
Mick Healey
University of Gloucestershire
&
Alan Jenkins,
Consultant HE Academy
“… 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)
Session structure
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Exploring your views
Why value undergraduate research and
inquiry?
Some research evidence
Different ways of integrating teaching and
research
Case studies of mainstreaming
undergraduate research and inquiry in
institutions
Conclusion: your perspectives
Undergraduate research and inquiry:
Line-up
We want you to position yourselves on
a line according to the extent to which
you agree or disagree with the following
statement
Talk to the person next to you about
why you have positioned yourself where
you have and as a consequence you
may need to ‘move’
Undergraduate research and inquiry:
Line-up
‘Undergraduate research is for
ALL undergraduates’
Strongly ------------------------------ Strongly
Agree
Disagree
Undergraduate research and inquiry:
Line-up
It would be easy to ‘mainstream’
undergraduate research and inquiry for
all students at my institution
________________________________
Strongly agree
Strongly disagree
Why value undergraduate research
and inquiry
“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)
The Institutional Challenge
“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)
Some ‘difficult’ research evidence
In view of the central nature of teaching and research in
HE… it is surprising how relatively few institutions have …
policies to maximise these beneficial synergies. … Some
strategies may be having the unintended consequences of
driving teaching and research apart”
(JM Consulting 2000, 36)
“There is a policy gap between policy intention and student
perceptions at UEA. …While students value being close to
research ... there are many ways in which they feel
excluded”
(Zamorski 2000, 1)
“Undergraduates feel excluded from direct involvement in
research as stakeholders”
(Lindsay et al. 2002, 322)
Some ‘positive’ research evidence
“The strongest policy claim that derives from this
meta analysis is that universities need to set as a
mission goal the improvement of the nexus
between research and teaching. … Examples of
strategies to increase the relationship between
teaching and research include …. increase the
skills of staff to teach, emphasising the
construction of knowledge by students rather
than the imparting of knowledge by instructors
…. ensure that students experience the process
of artistic and scientific productivity”
Hattie and Marsh (1966, 533, 544)
Some ‘positive’ research evidence
“Students reported a varied experience of research
across the three approaches (learning about others’
research, learning to do research, and learning through
the research process) with no clear pattern emerging
between these experiences and the research-intensivity
of the institutions”
Turner et al. (in submission)
“Overwhelmingly, students define Undergraduate
Research as a powerful affective, behavioral, and
personal discovery experience whose dimensions have
profound significance for their emergent adult identity,
sense of career direction, and intellectual and
professional development”
Hunter et al. (2007, 69)
Different ways of linking teaching
and research
• Learning about others’ research
• Learning to do research – research
methods
• Learning in research mode – enquiry
based
• Pedagogic research – enquiring and
reflecting on learning
STUDENTS AS PARTICIPANTS
Research-tutored
Research-based
EMPHASIS
ON
RESEARCH
PROCESSES
AND
PROBLEMS
EMPHASIS ON
RESEARCH
CONTENT
Research-led
Research-oriented
STUDENTS AS AUDIENCE
Curriculum design and linking research and teaching
What is undergraduate research
and inquiry?
“An inquiry or investigation conducted by an
undergraduate student that makes an original
intellectual or creative contribution to the discipline”
Council for Undergraduate Research
Adopts a broad definition of the undergraduate as
researcher to describe student engagement at all levels
in research and inquiry into disciplinary, professional
and community-based problems and issues
University of Gloucestershire
What is undergraduate research
and inquiry?
“Programmes that seek to encourage or support
undergraduate research should:
– Encourage and enable students to learn in ways that parallel or reflect the
ways faculty/staff themselves research/learn in their
discipline/professional area.
– Build research opportunities into the formative processes and summative
outcomes of course assessment for students in ways that retrace and
register how faculty/staff develop and disseminate their own
research/learning in their own discipline/professional area, e.g. through
undergraduate research journals, student research conferences,
exhibitions ….
– Ensure that the programme is clearly visible and recognised as
‘undergraduate research’ by the university communities (in particular
students) and parents, the local community, and possible external
sponsors and stakeholders” (Jenkins 2008).
Dimensions of undergraduate
research and inquiry
Student, process centred
Student initiated
All students
Curriculum based
Collaborative
Original to the student
Multi-or interdisciplinary
Campus/community audience
Starting year one
Pervades the curriculum
Outcome, product centred
Faculty initiated
Honors students
Co-curricular fellowships
Individual
Original to the discipline
Discipline based
Professional audience
Capstone/final year
Focussed
(Source: Adapted from Beckham and Hensel, 2007)
Mainstreaming undergraduate research
and inquiry: disciplinary perspectives
In pairs each skim read at least ONE
different disciplinary case study (pp.10-25)
Discuss whether and how any of the ideas
may be amended for application in your
institutional contexts
8 minutes
Mainstreaming undergraduate
research and inquiry: your conclusions
What conclusions / observations do YOU now
make about the view that all undergraduate
students should:
“experience the process of artistic and scientific
productivity’ (Hattie and Marsh, 1966, 544)
and in particular that this should be achieved by
‘mainstreaming’ undergraduate research and
inquiry
YOUR observations are …
Mainstreaming undergraduate
research and inquiry: Our conclusions
‘Undergraduate Research’ clearly puts the focus on the
student as a researcher; but also challenges the institutional
firewalls between teaching and research; and opens up
research for all/many staff
Key institutional challenges include introducing inquiry
/research in year one; balancing opportunities for all and for
selected students; and holding onto / perhaps rethinking the
final year capstone / dissertation
National teaching policies, Academy initiatives that focus on
the student as scholar/researcher are important; and sane
national research policies would help. Again US experience
is important here.
Mainstreaming undergraduate
research and inquiry: Our conclusions
• Getting students to produce knowledge is a powerful 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
• For some people though this may dilute what is
undergraduate research
• Institutional and national research policies could more
effectively support undergraduate research and inquiry
Three web sites
Adapting US undergraduate research to the UK and
other international contexts
www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/sociology/research/cetl/
ugresearch/
Leading, promoting and supporting undergraduate
research in new universities (England)
www.glos.ac.uk/tli/prsi/current/ugresearch/index.cfm
Council for Undergraduate Research (North America)
www.cur.org