‘Research Makes Sense for Students’: Students Awareness of and Experiences with Research:

1. ‘Research Makes Sense for Students’: Students Awareness of and Experiences with Research: Brad Wuetherick University of Alberta brad.wuetherick@ualberta.ca

2. Introduction to the Session • What do we mean by research-based teaching and learning? • What are students’ perceptions of research and its impact on their learning? • What are some of the institutional lessons learned at the U of A in Canada?

3. Introduction to the Session “The time has come to move beyond the tired old teaching versus research debate.” Boyer (1990) “Our view is that university research often detracts from the quality of teaching. We regret the continuing elevation of research and the systematic neglect of the quality of instruction.” Pocklington and Tupper (2002) “I propose that colleges and universities provide an opportunity for all undergraduates to conduct research — to create knowledge.” Ellis (2006)

4. Why is this important? • Teaching has suffered from imbalance between R&T in status and rewards • In an age of ‘supercomplexity’ (Barnett 2000), and given the increased significance of the knowledge economy and the growth of interdisciplinarity, “teaching and research are becoming ever more intimately related … (and) all students – certainly all graduates – have to be researchers (Scott 2002, 13)

5. Why is this important? • Need to seek synergies between R&T to avoid unintended consequences of focussing on one or the other in isolation • To achieve an ‘inquiring university’ we need a balance between Compliance and Contestation (Rowland, 2007)

6. Research vs. Teaching • Common perception that the best researchers are also the best teachers • Hattie and Marsh (1996) – there was at best a very small positive correlation between the commonly used measures of good research and teaching • “It should cease to be surprising that the relationship between teaching and research is zero, and it would be more useful to investigate ways to increase the relationship”

7. Conceptions of Research-Based Teaching and Learning • There are different ways to conceptualize RBTL: • Presenting research to students, learning through research, teaching as research (Brew, 2003) • Research-led, research-oriented, research-based, research-informed (Griffiths, 2004)

8. Student-focused Students as participants Research-tutored Research-based Emphasis on Research content Emphasis on research Process & problems Research-led Research-oriented Teacher-focused Students as audience Healey, 2005 Conceptions of Research-Based Teaching and Learning

9. Teacher focused Transmissive Student focused Conceptual Change Research outcome transmitted Research process transmitted Students engage with outcomes or are provided issue to solve via process Students as researchers Presentation of Methods/approaches Projects Dissertations Publication or production of research outcome Artefacts &/or information brought into courses Class activity comes out of research Review of research article Inquiry based learning Problem based learning Conceptions of Research-Based Teaching and Learning (Wuetherick and Turner, 2006)

10. Variation between linking T and R • The ease and ways of linking research and teaching varies: • With definition of research e.g. Boyer’s four ‘scholarships’ and Hong Kong RAE • By institutional type e.g. Colbeck (1998) ‘Vantage’ University versus ‘Cosmopolitan’ University • By discipline e.g. ‘soft’ versus ‘hard’ disciplines

11. What are the Student Perceptions? There is research on student perceptions of these issues (Jenkins et al., 1998; Breen & Lindsay, 1999; Zamorski, 2002; Robertson & Blackler, 2006): • Benefits: staff enthusiasm, staff credibility, ‘reflected glory’ of being taught by internationally respected staff • Disadvantages: staff availability, little sense of ownership, and research taking priority • Most of the studies have been done with reasonably small samples, usually at a single institution

12. Student Comments “Helped me to understand that…there’s so much more out there that is left to be learned about.” U of A Final Year Arts Student

13. Student Comments “[research] would make your lecturers far more enthusiastic about what they’re doing … they can bring their own examples rather than making dry lectures [based on] what such-and-such said in 1989.” U of G Final Year Science Student

14. Student Comments “Some (lecturers) … are far more interested in their research and are clearly only teaching because their contract with the University requires them to. This comes through pretty plainly when it is the case, as the (lecturer) is often not prepared for class or interested in whether you truly understand the material.” U of A Final Year Science Student

15. Students Awareness of Research

16. Students Experiences with Research

17. I have little awareness of my instructors’ research interests

18. Instructors involved in research are more enthusiastic about their subject

19. The most effective teaching is when we are involved in aspects of the research process

20. Is research an important priority for your education?

21. What are the most important priorities for a quality education? Research-related items:

22. Overview of Key Results 1) Students reported a varied experience of research across the various approaches (learning about others’ research, learning about research methods, learning to do research, and learning through the research process) with a complex pattern emerging between these experiences and research-intensivity of institution

23. Overview of Key Results 2)No significant difference existed between the three institutions in the number of students reporting the development of research skills and the number reporting staff research having a positive impact on the development of these skills. In addition, at all three institutions the number reporting experiencing the development of research skills was less than a third of those surveyed

24. Overview of Key Results 3) Students at more research-intensive institutions reported significantly more positive and significantly more negative impacts of research on their learning; 4) A majority of students at all three institutions reported learning best when involved in their own projects or aspects of their instructors research (ie the third category of approach to linking research and teaching - learning through the research process).

25. Institutional Initiatives: U of A • “Research Makes Sense for Students” • Working Group (2004) • Made up of key staff from across the institution (including a Dean and Department Head), plus student representatives and staff union representatives

26. Student Inquiry and Discovery “We must integrate discovery into all aspects of learning. The “Great University” of the twenty-first century must involve students in exploring our grand challenges. … Our students, graduate and undergraduate, must acquire a capacity for creativity and social ingenuity by tackling questions like these. Indeed we have taken the first steps in making discovery central to learning by launching initiatives related to undergraduate research. For while it is true that intellectual mastery begins with the rigorous exploration of a subject in the classroom, it must be extended in the laboratories of life through research projects and internships throughout the world.” – President Indira Samarasekera, 2005

27. Conceptualizing the Link On campus we need to be able to conceptualize the link: • Culture shift • Values and Principles • Continue to Scan Practices and Evaluate Policies and Procedures

28. Developing the Link In our learning environment we should be addressing these areas: • Learning About Research • Developing Research Skills • Experiencing and Doing Research • Setting the Foundation for an Inquiry-based Career

29. Facilitating the Link The University community needs to facilitate the link effectively: • Professional Development • Adequate Resources • Administrative Structures • Celebrating • Evaluating Success

30. Key Implications • What should a graduate of an undergraduate degree program look like? (What is the purpose of higher education?) • Graduate Attributes framework that goes beyond the functional to the dispositional • Must provide opportunities for ALL undergraduates to engage in inquiry and discovery learning

31. Key Implications • Communication is critical – how do we communicate with our students about research and how they experience research? • How can we link this with existing frameworks for graduate attributes to get at the dispositional qualities we are trying to inculcate?

32. Key Implications • How can we create inclusive, scholarly knowledge-building communities that include undergraduate students? • How can we change our own academic practice to be more integrated? • What strengths and challenges exist that need to be maximized/minimized based on the institution?

33. For More Info www.ualberta.ca/researchandstudents www.ualberta.ca/summit brad.wuetherick@ualberta.ca