Helen has been undertaking some research around engaging students in
research. She introduced her ladder around their engagement in research which
is just developing.
Student initiated consulting university
staff
Potential for students to become
experts
Students initiate research on their
own but no interaction with staff
Staff initiated research, discussions
with students
Students are informed and consulted
about a group project
Students are given research problems and
told what to do every step of the way
Students need to have a complete research experience and this does not
happen at present they submit their dissertation but there is no opportunity to
disseminate. Helen has worked with her students to do this through using
journals, a conference in the University, wikapedia pages, websites, blogs,
exhibitions, podcasts and videos.
Her principles for involving students in the process are:
- Build publication into degree programmes
- Use student research findings in the curriculum
- Student participation in the publication process
- Make use of digital technology
- Scaffold publication opportunities
Helen has included research in her degree programmes through first
years doing desktop research to answer questions given by her, the second years
then frame their own questions for them to work on in groups and collect data
and present at a student conference and get feedback they can use to
feedforward and then, third years write individual articles for a journal.
Helen also then encourages her students to look to presenting at the
BCUR conference http://www.bcur.org/
Helen concluded by saying it was important to personalise the
curriculum, to provide authentic research experiences, institutional research
cultures need to be inclusive, there has to be a commitment to student research
in the curriculum and the student becomes the teacher and the teacher the
learner.
This was another really great key note with lots to think about
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