When academics integrate research skill development in the curriculum

Abstract

This study considered outcomes when 27 academics explicitly developed and assessed student research skills in 28 regular (non-research methods) semester-length courses. These courses ranged from small (n = 17) to medium-large (n = 222) and included those from first year to masters in business, engineering, health science, humanities and science, across five universities in three Australian cities. The two-year study used three data sets to determine the outcomes of development and assessment initiatives: student pre- (n = 779) and post-questionnaires (n = 601), interviews with students (n = 46) one year after completing a course that developed research skills and interviews with academics (n = 17) involved in developing and assessing student research skills. These multiple sources provided evidence that students developed a variety of discipline-specific research skills and that these skills were useful for subsequent studies and especially for employment. Academics indicated that the process of making explicit the development of student research skills led to enhancement of their teaching, helping the academics to clarify major course purposes as well as enabling them to provide more substantial feedback to students than in the past. Academics also indicated that this teaching process changed their understanding of disciplinary research and, for some, even suggested new directions in their research.

Keywords:

• curriculum renewal
• research skill assessment
• research skill development
• teaching research linkages
• undergraduate research

Acknowledgements

The research in this paper was supported by funding provided by an Australian Learning and Teaching Council Competitive Grant (Project Number CGC497). This paper is dedicated to the entire RSD team, whose wonderful work with students enabled this project to have such substantial outcomes. It is those who care in education who bring conceptual frameworks to life. Many thanks to two reviewers whose comments were invaluable, efforts were inspirational and whose care shone through.

Notes

The final report of this study and many discipline-specific examples of how academics modified assessments to facilitate research skill development are located at http://www.rsd.edu.au