Moving Forward Together Engaging Students through Research and

Moving Forward Together: Engaging Students through Research and Inquiry Mick Healey University 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)

Engaging students through research and inquiry at Brookes 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, p 2

Brief biography • 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

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 – p 4) • 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 teaching Information 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 scholarship Knowledge 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 Research-tutored Research-based EMPHASIS ON RESEARCH PROCESSES AND PROBLEMS EMPHASIS ON RESEARCH CONTENT Research-led Research-oriented STUDENTS AS AUDIENCE Curriculum design and the research-teaching nexus (based on Healey, 2005, 70)

Mainstreaming undergraduate research and inquiry: discipline and department strategies How 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

Students experience of learning in a research environment: Physics What is research? How visible is it? Where is it located? Who does it? Breaking new ground; moving forward; exploration and discovery Laboratories and machinery (ie tools) but often behind closed doors Out there; at a higher level Lecturers Source: Robertson and Blackler (2006)

Students experience of learning in a research environment: Geography What is research? Gathering information in the world; answering a question How visible is it? Most visible in the field Where is it located? Who does it? Out there in the field Lecturers and (increasingly over time) students Source: Robertson and Blackler (2006)

Students experience of learning in a research environment: English 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? Who does it? In the library; in the head Lecturers and students Source: Robertson and Blackler (2006)

Different views on undergraduate research Dimensions of undergraduate research Student, process centred Student initiated Honors students Curriculum based Collaborative Original to the student Multi-or interdisciplinary Campus/community audience Capstone/final year Pervades the curriculum Outcome, product centred Faculty initiated All students Co-curricular fellowships Individual Original to the discipline Discipline based Professional audience Starting year one Focussed (Source: Adapted from Beckham and Hensel, 2007)

Different views on undergraduate research and inquiry Our 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 communitybased problems and issues, including involvement in knowledge exchange activities” Childs et al. , 2007

Mainstreaming undergraduate research and inquiry: institutional perspectives How might undergraduate research and inquiry be ‘mainstreamed’ into universities In pairs each skim read at least ONE different institutional case study (pp 3341) 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 Can. RI; 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% 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% Undertaking undergraduate dissertations

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: conclusions If 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’

Moving Forward Together: Engaging Students through Research and Inquiry THE END Thank You