scaffolding research skills across the curriculum - · pdf filejenny shanahan, ph.d. director...
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![Page 1: Scaffolding Research Skills Across the Curriculum - · PDF fileJenny Shanahan, Ph.D. Director of Undergraduate Research Bridgewater State University, Massachusetts Scaffolding Research](https://reader031.vdocuments.mx/reader031/viewer/2022030406/5a82541c7f8b9a24668dac70/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Jenny Shanahan, Ph.D.
Director of Undergraduate Research
Bridgewater State University, Massachusetts
Scaffolding Research Skills Across the Curriculum
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Moving URSCA from the Periphery
to the Center
Engaged learning experiences are offered
predominantly in independent study courses,
honors programs, and “boutique” experiences
(Osborn)
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Moving URSCA from the Periphery
to the Center
URSCA experiences are too often
• Optional or Exclusive—for the few students who
have the time, self-confidence, or GPA to pursue
special projects
• Missing the very students who could benefit most
• Non-credit-bearing, at least in terms of faculty load
(Osborn)
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Integrating URSCA into coursework ensures that
all students have opportunities to reap the
benefits of engaged learning
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Building URSCA in the Curriculum
could mean…
1. Adding or revising inquiry-based assignments
2. Creating new research-intensive or inquiry-
based courses
3. Redesigning an entire program to create a
research-rich or inquiry-based curriculum
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1. Adding or Revising URSCA
assignments
• Usually short-term
research/creative projects that go beyond “research paper” assignment
• Inquiry-based learning
• Individual or small-group endeavors
• Any discipline and any level of the curriculum
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Inquiry-Based Learning
• approaches to learning based on students’ investigations of questions, scenarios or problems, with instructor as facilitator
• not merely “having students do projects,” but encouraging deep, discipline-based ways of thinking and doing
(Stephenson)
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“Undergraduate education should adopt the ‘Student
as Scholar’ Model throughout the curriculum, where
scholar is conceived in terms of an attitude, an
intellectual posture, and a frame of mind.
With this framework, not only each research project,
but also each course, is viewed as an integrated, and
integrating, part of the student experience.”
(Hodge, Pasquesi, Hirsh, and LePore)
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Discussion: Examples of Innovative
Research or Creative Assignments
You’ve Added to Your Courses?
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Examples of Inquiry-Based Learning
Assignments/Units
merlot.org
socrative.com
Journals on Inquiry-based Learning
(by discipline)
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The key is to provide varied
opportunities for URSC, in gateway
courses as well as senior projects…
allowing students to work with
library archives and online galleries,
to create wiki files and lead class
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2. Creating new research-intensive
or inquiry-based courses
Capstones:
• One- or two-semester
senior thesis or senior
project course
• Research/creative portfolio
• Research methods course
Although concentrated in
the last year, preparation
begins early
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First-Year URSCA projects:
• URSCA projects mentored
by upper-division students
• Research-Intensive First-
Year Writing
• Campus-based assignments
(e.g., Projects double as
orientation to campus; Call-
to-action on campus issue)
Introductory URSCA
skills intentionally developed
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Elements of Research-Intensive Courses
• Confronting novel & important ideas
• Collecting and analyzing original “data”
• Applying research to real contexts or
problems
• Working iteratively, with frequent and
meaningful feedback
• Working collaboratively with prof and peers
• Increasing student ownership over time
• Sharing work in writing and oral
presentations
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Bridgewater State University of MA
Sculpture 1 course
• Infused creative process with scholarly research
• Students research effective toy design &
development in the literature and through
interviews at Hasbro (RI headquarters)
• Research findings are applied to modeling and
creating toys
• Toys donated to orphanage in Tanzania where
professor leads an annual service-learning trip
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Literature of the Harlem Renaissance
“Flipped Classroom” course
• Some traditional lecture content accessed
online outside of class (podcast lectures,
documentary films)
• Most class time spent in active learning:
– teams of three working on collaborative
projects (e.g., wiki pages about authors)
– research, writing, professor and peer review
of drafts
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3. Redesigning an entire program to create
a research-rich, inquiry-based curriculum
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Components of a Research-Rich Curriculum
1. Early and frequent exposure to research opportunities
2. Searching, reading, evaluating primary and/or secondary
sources
3. Articulating appropriate research questions with an
understanding of context
4. Designing and executing various approaches to a research
question
5. Critically interpreting information and utilizing
data/texts/information in iterative ways to devise new
questions
(adapted from Karukstis and Wenzel)
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Components of a Research-Rich Curriculum
6. Solving problems as they arise during a study or
investigation
7. Collecting, assessing, and communicating complex
information
8. Communicating clearly the nature of the work and
its significance
(adapted from Karukstis and Wenzel)
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Scaffolding curricula
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Scaffolding is a metaphor borrowed from building
construction to indicate supports provided early in a
process—and gradually removed as progress is made
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St. Mary’s University of Minnesota
Department of English
• Required Senior Thesis for all majors had high rate
of DFWI grades & other problems
• Efforts to improve thesis course eventually led to
overhaul of entire curriculum
• “Backward Design” (Wiggins and McTighe) curriculum
revision created scaffolded research courses—from
introductory to content-rich courses, to seminars
and theory/methods, to thesis
• Added “gateway” course and graduated, varied
research assignments throughout curriculum
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An inquiry-based research process taught
throughout the curriculum results in
higher assessment scores
greater content knowledge
stronger research skills
than when students “learn” research in one or
two Methods courses
(Harkness)
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Along with goals for content, critical
thinking, writing, etc., develop goals for
research or creative inquiry for each course
in a program, graduating and interrelating
them from the 100 to 400 level
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Begin at the end
1. What do we want students to be
able to do, particularly in terms of
research or creative inquiry, by the time
they graduate from our programs?
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Begin at the end
2. If a capstone project, senior thesis, or
senior show represents students’ final stage of
undergraduate learning, what are the stages
that lead up to it?
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Begin at the end
3. How does the curriculum, from the first
year to the capstone project, constitute a
meaningful, consistent initiation into a
culture of inquiry in the discipline?
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Create curriculum maps to
determine at which stage
and in which courses
those URSCA objectives
are introduced,
developed, and
mastered
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Work with colleagues to figure out how
to build those URSCA skills, from the
first course in the program to a capstone
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Review URSCA Skills Scaffold (handout)
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Also scaffold URSCA
skills and writing tasks
within each significant
assignment—
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…outlining the steps
an inexperienced
scholar needs to take
to complete the
assignment
successfully
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Works Cited
Bolen, Mell C. and Pat Martin. “Undergraduate Research Abroad: Challenges and Rewards. Frontiers.12 (2005). xi-xvi. Web.
Deegan, M. M., Gambino, G., and Borick, C. P. “Connecting Students to their Community: A Public Research Model of Service.” CUR Quarterly. 29.4. 18-22. Print.
Harkness, S. Suzan. "Experiential Learning: Undergraduate Research Methodology Instruction Through Directed Research and Mentoring." Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, IL. Aug 30, 2007.
Hodge, David, Kira Pasquesi, Marissa Hirsh, and Paul LePore. “From Convocation to Capstone: Developing the Student as Scholar.” Keynote address at the AAC&U Network for Academic Renewal Conference, Long Beach, CA, 2007. Web.
Karukstis, Kerry K and Thomas J. Wenzel. “Enhancing Research in
the Chemical Sciences at Predominantly Undergraduate Institutions.”
Journal of Chemical Education. 81.4 (2004).
Osborn, Jeffrey M. “Developing an Institutional Infrastructure to Support Excellence in Undergraduate Research.” Presented at the Council on Undergraduate Research Workshop on Institutionalizing Undergraduate Research for State Systems and Consortia, September 28-30, 2012