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 HealeyUniversity 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. Exploring your views 2. Why value undergraduate research and

inquiry?3. Some research evidence4. Different ways of integrating teaching and

research5. Case studies of mainstreaming

undergraduate research and inquiry in institutions

6. Conclusion: your perspectives

Undergraduate research and inquiry:Line-upWe want you to position yourselves on a line according to the extent to which you agree or disagree with the following statementTalk 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-upIt 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

EMPHASIS ON RESEARCH CONTENT

EMPHASIS ON RESEARCH PROCESSES AND PROBLEMS

STUDENTS AS AUDIENCE

Research-tutored Research-based

Research-led Research-oriented

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 Outcome, product centredStudent initiated Faculty initiatedAll students Honors studentsCurriculum based Co-curricular fellowships Collaborative IndividualOriginal to the student Original to the disciplineMulti-or interdisciplinary Discipline basedCampus/community audience Professional audienceStarting year one Capstone/final year Pervades the curriculum Focussed(Source: Adapted from Beckham and Hensel, 2007)

Mainstreaming undergraduate research and inquiry: disciplinary perspectivesIn 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 conclusionsWhat 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