university teaching research project

Research project topics and process

Your research project should focus on a higher education teaching and/or learning issue of interest or concern to you, and should cite no more than 10 scholarly references, with the majority being from academic journals. Broad sample topic areas for the research project include the following:

• Academic integrity
• Classroom feedback techniques
• Cooperative learning
• Course design principles
• Course outlines
• Developing writing skills
• Course evaluations
• Classroom disruptions
• Interactive lecturing
• Learning styles
• Lecture design
• Discussion-based teaching
• Motivating students
• Problem-based learning
• Teaching higher-order thinking skills
• Using instructional technologies
• Visual displays of quantitative information
• Experiential learning
• Inquiry-based teaching
• Service learning

You will need to identify a specific issue within your topic area; these are only broad categories. Projects may focus on a review of the theory from the current literature plus your ideas about how to apply the theory. You may also wish to conduct a small-scale study via interviews or questionnaires for discussion in your paper. If you do a study, you will likely need approval from the Office of Research Ethics (ORE). Centre for Teaching Excellence staff can serve as the faculty supervisor for such a study, in which case you will be required to meet with the Associate Director to review your project content and ORE application.

Research project process

You start by attending a workshop where you will learn about research and referencing skills specific to higher education. Once you have attended this workshop you need to choose the type of project you will do.

There are two options to choose from for your research project. Both options include a written and oral component, but vary in the requirements for those components.

• Option 1 involves a 10-minute oral presentation followed by a 10-minute discussion period with the audience, and a 20-page (including cover page, table of contents, references, and appendices), double-spaced (12-point font), written research paper, which incorporates feedback from the oral presentation.
• Option 2 involves the delivery of a 45-minute mini-workshop that includes a 15-minute discussion (or alternate active learning activity) with the audience, and the submission of a 20-page, double-spaced (12-point font) annotated workshop-plan that must be accepted before the workshop delivery.

Following is a brief description of the process for each option. For more details, click on the heading to follow the link. Please read them carefully before deciding which option to choose.

Course details:            Research project                Option 1 : Research presentation and paper                                   Option 2 : Mini-workshop and supporting documentation               Scheduling and format of oral components            Teaching dossier

/images/cornell/logo35pt_cornell_white.svg" alt="university teaching research project"> Cornell University --> Graduate School

Cirtl at cornell, future faculty program, teaching as research support.

Teaching as Research is the deliberate, systematic, and reflective use of research methods by instructors to develop and implement teaching practices that advance the learning experiences and outcomes of both students and teachers. ( As defined by the CIRTL Network ).

Workshops and experience with Teaching as Research programming can be a great capstone experience for graduate students and postdocs interested in learning more about teaching and learning, enhancing their CVs, and moving closer to an academic career. Cornell and the CIRTL Network offer several options for learning more about and engaging in Teaching as Research projects.

1. To learn more, start with the Teaching as Research section of the CIRTL Network website, or explore these videos:

• Recorded Panel (58 minutes): Introducing Teaching as Research: A Systematic Approach to Improving Your Teaching – CIRTL Network faculty and staff, Fall 2020
• Recorded Research Presentation (7 min): Impact of Modality and Camera Usage on Student Performance in a Microbiology Classroom – Janani Hariharan (PhD, Soil and Crop Sciences), Cornell University, Spring 2021 CIRTL All-Network Teaching as Research Presentations.

2. See examples of what other Cornell graduate students and postdocs have done in terms of TAR projects at these links:

• Peer-reviewed Articles and  Conference Presentations
• Cornell University’s Classroom Research Working Paper Series (6 volumes starting in 2011-2012)
• Cornell University TAR Project Titles and Practitioners

3. Explore the professional development opportunities below.

Additionally, an increasing number of Cornell faculty and postdocs are conducting cutting-edge education research within STEM disciplines (biology, physics, chemistry, etc.), in some cases associated with the university-wide Active Learning Initiative at Cornell supported by the Center for Teaching Innovation .

How to Get Involved

Through participation in the CIRTL Network and a  there are an increasing number of options available for graduate students and postdocs to pursue formal training in planning and implementing Teaching as Research projects, described in more detail below.

CIRTL Network Training

Take an online cirtl course: planning your teaching as research project.

Participants will work on refining their research question, conducting a literature review, defining student outcomes for their project, and identifying appropriate learning activities and assessments that align with those outcomes. Throughout the course, participants will draft components of their project plan and provide feedback on each other’s work; they will have a completed TAR project plan by the end of the course. Sessions will be highly interactive and require active engagement and participation. A letter of completion will be provided.

Course details:

• Instructors: Colleen McLinn, Cornell University, and Brian Smentkowski, University of Idaho
• Format and Frequency: This flipped course meets synchronously online over 6 weeks with assignments in advance of attending class. Offered at least annually.
• Information on Summer 2023 course

Participate in online workshops and seminars from the CIRTL Network

The CIRTL Network has Teaching as Research (TAR) programming to support those interested in or currently carrying out work in this area, including all-Network online presentations, panel discussions with alumni who have done TAR projects, and other workshops on how to use TAR experience as an asset in the job search. Cornell participants who have done Teaching as Research projects may be able to sign up to present their work at the all-Network symposia.

Video resources about Teaching as Research created for a prior massive open online course on evidence-based STEM Teaching are also available for self-study.

Cornell University Training

Research groups, seminars and discussions.

The Teaching and Learning Reading Group meets semi-monthly in association with the Active Learning Initiative supported by the Center for Teaching Innovation (CTI). Contact: Carolyn Aslan, Center for Teaching Innovation (crc1), and Natasha Holmes, Assistant Professor of Physics (ngholmes). See past readings and listserv info

Additionally, Discipline-Based Education Research (DBER) faculty in Arts and Sciences have formed a new Cornell Discipline-based Education Research (CDER) group that are offering other journal clubs and graduate-level courses about Education Research on a periodic basis.

Attend the Connecting Research and Teaching Conference

This conference (co-hosted by the Graduate School and Center for Teaching Innovation from 2012-2020) highlights and supports the research of graduate students and postdocs, faculty and staff into effective teaching. Hear oral and poster presentations, participate in roundtables, and network with others interested in collecting evidence to inform their teaching practice and build their skills for careers in academia. Learn more about the Connecting Research and Teaching Conference

Participate in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Program

This workshop program is an individualized and group-mentored opportunity for graduate students and postdocs to design a first Teaching as Research project in their disciplines. P articipants  usually  begin to plan project methods in the fall, investigate human subjects requirements, and carry out and present  the project in spring semester, although some have been able to conduct a pilot-scale study within a single semester. There are no pre-requisites to participation, but a brief application and meeting with the program instructor is required.

As well as participating in approximately four cohort meetings, participants summarize and present their findings for their findings for a Teaching as Research  conference  as a poster (oral presentations may also be possible) . Participants also have the o ption to write up their study question, methods and findings as a manusc ript for a  Working Paper Series . Participants selected for the program are eligible to receive up to  $500  in support  to defray project expenses and subsidize additional training or conference travel.

SoTL Program details:

• Contacts: Colleen McLinn ( [email protected] ), Graduate School Future Faculty and Academic Careers
• Not credit-bearing
• Frequency: Meets 4-6 times for 2 hours during the year. Offered annually, typically with a fall-semester start.

Learn more about the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning program

Dissertation Research

With special committee approval and faculty partnership, some graduate students have been able to expand upon efforts from an early Teaching as Research project into a dissertation or chapters of a dissertation in their field of study.

Recent examples:

• Jessica Rose Abel (Ph.D., 2018), English Language and Literature, Teaching Joyce’s Ulysses
• Allison Truhlar (Ph.D., 2017), Biological and Environmental Engineering, Survival of Escherichia coli  in Agricultural Soils and Student Engagement in Online Discussions

With the recent addition of tenure-stream faculty specializing in Discipline-Based Education Research (DBER) as part of Active Learning Initiatives at Cornell, some graduate students are now pursuing dissertations advised by these faculty.

Pursuing a graduate minor in education at Cornell is also an option that may be a good fit in some cases.

Reading List

Here are some recent readings we recommend for practitioners interested in Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) and Teaching as Research.

• Chick, Nancy. (2019). Strategies for Ethical SoTL Practice . National Teaching and Learning Forum 28 (6), 7-10.

What is Teaching as Research?

Teaching as Research (TAR)

The improvement of teaching and learning is a dynamic and ongoing process, just as is research in any discipline. At the core of improving teaching and learning is the need to accurately determine what students have learned as a result of teaching practices. This is a research problem, to which instructors can effectively apply their research skills and ways of knowing. In so doing, instructors themselves become the agents for change in teaching and learning.

Teaching-as-Research involves the deliberate, systematic, and reflective use of research methods to develop and implement teaching practices that advance the learning experiences and outcomes of students and teachers. The process  of completing a TAR project includes identifying a research question and designing an intervention to assess the effectiveness of your teaching. However, a TAR project is not necessarily a Discipline Based Research Project, in the sense that it is meant to be a relatively small intervention, and not a publishable research study (although some TAR students design projects with the intent to publish). The goal is to learn how to become a reflective teacher so that wherever you end up working, you will be able to apply these methods to assess your own teaching.

For examples of TAR projects, visit our TAR Scholars page .

• CIRTL Scholars have added to community knowledge about teaching and learning. They have designed and implemented a Teaching-as-Research investigation, and defended the findings to CIRTL learning-community peers. The significance of CIRTL Scholar Teaching-as-Research work is established through presentation and/or publication of the findings to all-university, regional, national, or international audiences.

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Researching your teaching practice: an introduction to pedagogic research

What is pedagogic research, why should you do it and what effect can it have on your academic career? 

1 August 2019

The Academic Careers Framework at UCL recognises that education activities which support students to learn can strengthen an application for promotion. This includes contributing to pedagogic research.

When applying for UCL Arena Fellowships (nationally recognised teaching awards accredited by the Higher Education Academy), contributing to pedagogic research is recognised in the UK Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF) as an area of activity [A5] and as a professional value [V3].

At the heart of both the UKPSF and pedagogic research is a philosophy of reflective practice, dissemination of research, engagement of students, and attention to disciplinary specificity.

• The Academic Careers Framework at UCL 
• The UK Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF) 

What pedagogic research means

Also known as the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), or education enquiry, pedagogic research is an established field of academic discourse involving carefully investigating your teaching practice and in turn developing the curriculum.

It requires a systematic and evidence-based study of student learning, often through a small-scale research projects engaging students.

Pedagogic research is a form of self-study, and/or action research involving critical reflection and reflexivity on current practice, which gives way to new knowledge. It encourages investigating learning, including what works and what does not.

As with any rigorous research endeavour, you will need to be well-informed and critically reflective.

Pedagogic research has the goal of improving the quality of education locally and further afield, through dissemination of best practice to colleagues at UCL and beyond, in conferences and in either discipline-specific education journals or education-focused journals.

Pedagogic research brings together key objectives in UCL’s Education Strategy , by encouraging:

• active connections between education and research
• reflection on and development of our education provision
• connections between staff and students in partnership to improve education.

Pedagogic research allows educators to examine their own practice, reflect on successes and challenges, and share experiences so others can learn from this, improving education more widely.

Consider aligning your research to UCL’s education strategy

A number of pedagogic research projects focus on research-based education , specifically through uncovering answers to the following:

“What kinds of impact, if any, does UCL’s research-based education strategy (Connected Curriculum) have on changing real practice within and across the disciplines, at UCL and beyond?”

• Contact [email protected] to find out more and get involved in this research.  

Pedagogic research will support a community of scholars

Making transparent how learning is possible and developing practice may well involve collaboration with students in research activities and data collection. Students are well-suited to be co-researchers on pedagogic research projects.

Engaging with the existing body of scholarship will position your work in a larger field and allow you to contribute to the community while learning from others.

Finally, sharing your findings in public forums to help others develop practice will support community-based and shared knowledge construction.

Pedagogic research resembles rigorous disciplinary research

“ “You spend some time looking at different approaches to teaching and learning within a specific field of knowledge and about learning in general in that area. You research how the knowledge is known and practised and applied within the discipline and you consider what others have done and then you plan your program and you monitor the results and improve it. It is also about writing about it and communicating it to others in the larger arena. You communicate what you do locally so other students within the discipline or profession can be helped to learn and more can be known about how the learning is achieved and how thinking and knowledge is structured in the areas. It’s about reflective practice and it’s about active dissemination of that practice for the benefit of learning and teaching.” (Trigwell et al. 2000: 167)

Subject disciplines have distinctive approaches to conducting research into education.

• More on paradigmatic approaches to pedagogic research: Russell, N. (2014). Approaching Educational Enquiry  (pdf), The University of Sheffield.

6 key steps to develop your own pedagogic research project

1. identify the problem and set clear goals.

Identify the focused problem you wish to consider. You may already know the intervention or practice you would like to improve, but it is important to have clear goals in mind.

You may focus on overcoming a challenge you face in your education practice. Taking a problem-based approach will make connection between pedagogic research and discipline-specific issues. For example, you could focus on massification and large class teaching, or developing cross-cultural understanding in diverse political science courses.

A helpful place to start is to identify a gap in the existing pedagogic research.

It’s also useful at this early stage to begin thinking about potential audiences for disseminating your work. This will allow you to strategically frame the project in line with what stakeholders need to know; demonstrating the initiative has value will make the work more publishable and relevant to your career development.

• What do I want to know about student learning in my discipline and/or how do I want to develop it?
• What do I want to do to develop my practice?
• Who will I communicate my findings to?
• How will this goal advance the work of other scholars?

2. Prepare adequately and begin to implement your development

You’ll want to be as prepared as possible.

Conducting a literature review relevant to your discipline and education context will help ensure your project has not already been done and help you refine the study and methodology.

Begin to implement your enhancement activity, for example through revising rubrics, assessment criteria or learning activities.

Avoid conducting a controlled experiment, where only some students receive the benefit of development.

Set a research question that allows you to explore, understand and improve student learning in specific contexts.

Discuss your plans with colleagues and students. Consider engaging collaborators.

Find out if an ethics application is required. At UCL, education research is generally considered ‘low-risk’, involving completing a simple ‘low risk’ ethics application form for Chair’s review. Allow on average two weeks for review.

As part of the application process a participant information sheet and consent form need to be produced if you are recruiting participants to your study. Data protection registration is required only if you are using ‘personal data’.

• What will my students learn and why is it worth learning?
• Who are my students and how do students learn effectively?
• What can I do to support students to learn effectively?
• What does the literature tell me about this issue?
• What activities will I design to improve education?
• What ethical implications are there?
• How will I measure and evaluate the impact of my practice on student learning?

Ethics and guidance : The British Educational Research Association (BERA) offers a wealth of information on ethics in their online guide.

3. Establish and employ appropriate methods of enquiry

In order to investigate changes to education practice, a range of methods could be employed, including:

• reflection and analysis
• focus groups
• questionnaires and surveys
• content analysis of text
• Ethnography
• Phenomenography
• observational research and speculation.

Capturing students’ views are important; they will value the opportunity to be involved in improving education at UCL.

Treat your programme as a source of data to answer interesting questions about learning: collect data available at your fingertips.

Your colleagues may also be able to contribute to the research.

Be sure to gain participants’ consent.

• What methods do I need to employ to measure my practice?
• Who will I engage?
• What are my students doing as a result of my practice?

For more on methods:

• Cohen, L., Manion, L., and Morrison, K. (2007). Research Methods in Educatio n. London: Routledge.
• Stierer, B. and Antoniou, M. (2004). Are there distinctive methodologies for pedagogic research in higher education? Teaching in Higher Education 9, no. 3: 275–285.

4. Evaluate results

Analyse your data using appropriate strategies.

Draw appropriate conclusions and critically reflect on your findings and intervention.

Return to earlier stages if further development or data collection is needed, before continuing with the project.

How has student learning changed as a result of my practice and what evidence do I have?

• What lessons have I learned?
• What adjustments have been made to my teaching?

5. Prepare your presentation

Begin to write up your work, presenting the evidence and results of your intervention.

Use the evidence you gathered to design and refine new activities, assignments and assessments for further iterations. Be critically reflective.

• What worked and what did not go according to plan?
• What can others learn from my project?
• How has enhancement developed student learning?
• What makes my intervention worth implementing?

6. Share your project with others

Go public with your project and communicate your findings (whether work-in-progress or complete) with peers, who can comment, critique and build on this work.

Engage your students in the work and invite feedback.

Share results internally (at teaching committees, or in reports), across UCL (at the UCL Education Conference , or a UCL Arena event ), or internationally (in open-access publications, and through conference presentations).

More dissemination ideas can be found below.

• What can engaging others tell me about this development?
• What impact does my work actually have on others interested in developing their practice?

This may lead to you examining the medium and long-term impact of the education development project.

Engaging multiple stakeholders over a long period of time may result in returning to step 1, through another iteration of development.

How to disseminate your pedagogic research

Sharing your findings and intervention is an important part of pedagogic research.

Look to disseminate through the following forums.

With the UCL community

• Local teaching committees.
• Faculty education events.
• Write a case study for the UCL Teaching & Learning Portal .
• Propose to deliver an Arena event . Submit a proposal if you'd like to run an event by completing the form (word document) or emailing [email protected] . 
• Present at the annual UCL Education Conference .

At a higher education conference

Within the uk.

• Assessment in Higher Education 
• British Educational Research Association 
• Higher Education Academy Annual Conference  
• Higher Education Conference & Exhibition
• Society for Research into Higher Education
• Staff and Education Development Association
• Universities UK

Wonkhe  has a calendar of many major UK events and conferences.

Outside the UK 

• Educause (Information Technology in Higher Education, USA)
• Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australia
• International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
• Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (Canada)

Through publication

In a pedagogy-based book series:

• Palgrave’s Critical University Studies Series

In a higher education journal, cross-disciplinary or discipline-specific:

• Active Learning in Higher Education
• Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education
• Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education
• Studies in Higher Education
• Teaching & Learning Enquiry

The  IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society website  has an updated long list of journals, both cross-disciplinary and discipline-specific.

Successful pedagogic research

Projects with maximum impact:

• investigate learning processes
• partner with students in the research and education development
• engage the body of pedagogic research
• critically reflect on changes
• are relevant to a wide audience
• communicate through open-access forums.

“ Teaching is the most impactful thing we do as academics in higher education. The sheer number of students we encounter and influence over our careers is incredible.     Pedagogic research (SoTL) offers an opportunity for us as academics to refine our practice and to generate understanding through evidence of what works and doesn’t in student learning.     In a research intensive institution, like UCL, pedagogic research offers us the chance to link the teaching and learning space more clearly with our research agendas, whilst at the same time contributing to opening up new opportunities to foster student learning.” David J. Hornsby, Deputy Head of Department (Education), UCL STEAPP 

An example of pedagogic research at UCL

“Recognising that students could better engage with core writing concepts through acting like a teacher, I designed peer review exercises to follow draft submissions of work, as part of a module I coordinate in The Bartlett School of Architecture. After consulting the literature, I realised that there was very little by way of guidance on how to set this up. 

Following the implementation phase, I held a focus group with students to find out their views, which were overwhelmingly positive. This enhancement project also improved students’ marks. I published this work and placed it on the module reading list, which helps underscore the value of this pedagogic tool and makes transparent the learning process.”  Brent Carnell, UCL Arena Centre for Research-based Education and The Bartlett School of Architecture  

• Carnell, B. (2016). Aiming for autonomy: Formative peer assessment in a final-year undergraduate course . Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 41, no. 8: 1269–1283. 

Case studies of interest on the Teaching & Learning Portal:

• A hybrid teaching approach transforms the functional anatomy module
• Novel assessment on anatomy module inspires reconfiguration of assessment on entire programme
• Peer instruction transforms the medical science classroom

Where to find help and support

The following initiatives and opportunities are available to colleagues to support research:

• Meet with colleagues experienced in pedagogic research, including from the IOE or the Arena Centre for Research-based Education.
• Funding from UCL ChangeMakers to work in partnership with students to develop education.  
• Funding from the Arena Centre for Research-based Education. Sign up to the monthly newsletter to hear about the latest funding opportunities.
• A Guide to Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL), Vanderbilt University  
• International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning resources 
• Early-career researcher information and resources from the British Educational Research Association (BERA) 
• Bass, R. (1999). “ The scholarship of teaching: What’s the problem? ” Inventio: Creative Thinking about Learning and Teaching 1 (February), no. 1. 
• Boyer, E. (1990). Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate . Princeton, New Jersey: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. 
• Cleaver, E., Lintern, M. and McLinden, M. (2014). Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: Disciplinary Approaches to Educational Enquiry . London: Sage. 
• Fanghanel, J., McGowan, S., Parker, P., McConnell, C., Potter, J., Locke, W., Healey, M. (2015). “ Defining and supporting the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL): A sector wide study .” York, UK: Higher Education Academy. 
• Felten, P. (2013). “ Principles of good practice in SoTL .” Teaching & Learning Inquiry 1, no. 1: 121–125. 
• Fung, D. (2017). “ Strength-based scholarship and good education: The scholarship circle. ” Innovations in Education and Training 54, no. 2: 101–110. 
• Greene, M. J. (2014). “ On the inside looking in: Methodological insights and challenges in conducting qualitative insider research .” The Qualitative Report 19, no. 29: 1–13. 
• Healey, M. (2000). “ Developing the scholarship of teaching in higher education: A disciplinebased approach .” Higher Education Research & Development 19, no. 2: 169–189. 
• Healey, M. Resources from Professor Mick Healey  (Higher Education Consultant and Researcher) - a range of resources including bibliographies and handouts. 
• Healey, M., Matthews, K. E., & Cook-Sather, A. (2019). Writing Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Articles for Peer-Reviewed Journals .  Teaching & Learning Inquiry ,  7 (2), 28-50.
• Hutchings, P. (2000). “ Approaching the scholarship of teaching and learning .” In Opening Lines: Approaches to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, by P. Hutchings, 1–10. Mento Park: The Carnegie Foundation.
• Hutchings, P., Huber, M. and Ciccone, A. (2011). The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Reconsidered . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 
• Koster, B. and van den Berg, B. (2014). “ Increasing professional self-understanding: Self-study research by teachers with the help of biography, core reflection and dialogue. ” Studying Teacher Education 10, no. 1: 86–100. 
• O’Brien, M. (2008). “ Navigating the SoTL landscape: A compass, map and some tools for getting started .” International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 2 (July), no. 2: 1–20.  
• Rowland, S. and Myatt, P. (2014). “ Getting started in the scholarship of teaching and learning: A “how to” guide for science academics .” Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education 42, no. 1: 6–14. 
• Tight, M. (2012). Researching Higher Education. Milton Keynes, UK: Open University Press. 
• Trigwell, K., Martin, E. Benjamin, J. and Prosser, M. (2000). “ Scholarship of teaching: A model .” Higher Education Research & Development 19, no. 2: 155–168.

This guide has been produced by the UCL Arena Centre for Research-based Education . You are welcome to use this guide if you are from another educational facility, but you must credit the UCL Arena Centre. 

Further information

More teaching toolkits  - back to the toolkits menu

[email protected] : contact the UCL Arena Centre 

UCL Education Strategy 2016–21  

Learning and Development at UCL  

Academic Careers Framework  

Download a printable copy of this guide

Gain recognition for your role in education at UCL. There are pathways for teaching staff, researchers, postgraduate teaching assistantsand professional services staff: 

Arena one: for postgraduate teaching assistants (PGTAs)  - enables you to apply to become an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA). 

Arena two: for Lecturers and Teaching Fellows on probation  - enables you to apply to become a UCL Arena Fellow and Fellow of the HEA. 

Arena open: for all other staff who teach, supervise, assess or support students’ learning  at UCL - accredited by the HEA. 

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Research-Informed Teaching

What is Research-Informed Teaching?

Research mission.

Research-informed teaching means the university’s research mission infuses into its educational program. This can be as simple as faculty leading with questions and modeling expert thought by “thinking aloud” when encountering problems. It can be as significant as partnering with students to create new knowledge.

Evidence-Based

Research-informed teaching also means that it’s evidence-based or informed by what we know about how students learn: actively, in contexts of high challenge and support, through collaborative work across differences of identity and viewpoint in response to frequent feedback, and with deliberate reflection on and integration of ideas across contexts.

Research-Informed teaching practices include:  

Instruction that models a process or culture of inquiry characteristic of disciplinary or professional expertise. 

Evaluation of student performance linked to explicit goals for student learning established by faculty member, unit, and, for core education, university; these goals and criteria for meeting them are made clear to students. 

Timely, useful feedback on activities and assignments, including indicating students' progress in course. 

Instruction that engages, challenges, and supports students. 

 Research-Informed Teaching Practices

There are many ways instructors involve students in learning about scholarly research or in learning how to do the work of research. Approximately 73% of UO students are engaged in research activities across campus, and most courses include key elements of scholarly research, from peer-reviewed articles that students read and discuss to term-long research projects that students prepare and communicate in some fashion. Most faculty also include a variety of pedagogical approaches or learning techniques that bolster student learning, based on evidence from learning science and the scholarship of teaching and learning. The following strategies indicate a variety of practices instructors can infuse in their courses to help students learn the value and significance of scholarly research and help students learn in ways supported by evidence about how people learn best.

Engage students in learning the scholarship of one’s discipline or field

Students can learn about the scholarship of a discipline or specific field in a variety of ways. These can include reading important scholarly texts, timely case studies, or cutting edge research findings. Students can also practice the work of research using scholarly methods or research protocols to investigate problems, generate hypotheses, solve issues, or predict trends. Instructors can also organize class discussions or group work using specific inquiry practices or ways of thinking based on how experts approach problems or issues, which allows students opportunities to practice thinking like an expert in a discipline or field. Specific strategies include the following: 

• Develop learning objectives focused on disciplinary scholarship. Writing learning objectives related to scholarship will help you clarify for yourself what important aspects of disciplinary research results and methods you want your students to learn. Clearly communicating these learning objectives to your students will help them understand what you are working toward.  
• Showcase the latest developments and debates. You might do this by simply mentioning them in class, or by having students read original research publications, summaries/commentaries, or articles from the popular press; listen to podcasts featuring relevant scholars; or watch recordings of research talks posted on YouTube.
• Invite guest presenters. Create opportunities for your students to engage with researchers: invite UO colleagues whose work is relevant to your course material, have students attend colloquia in your department, or arrange for researchers to discuss their work with your class through a Zoom visit. Where possible, prepare your students for the interaction, perhaps by together reading a paper about the visitor’s work, analyzing the abstract provided for their colloquium, developing questions to ask of the visitor, or doing other activities related to the topic of the research. Similarly, plan to debrief the experience through small group or whole class discussion, written reflection, or summarizing the main points of the visitor’s presentation.
• Discuss your own research. When it is relevant, tell students about the research you do. Students are frequently unaware that many of their instructors also do cutting-edge research, so take the opportunity to expand the students’ sense of what happens at the university. Do you have a research lab or studio? Host student tours if the class isn’t too large, showing the equipment you use, and discussing how research is structured in your field: do you work with a team, or mostly by yourself? What skills do you use?
• Use Open Educational Resources . UO Libraries offers access to numerous Open Educational Resources (OER), including free textbooks, consultation support , and a platform to host your own course-specific text.  Such options allow you to customize course content and foreground the specific scholarship you want students to engage.
• Think aloud. Introduce a problem or issue and narrate how you, the expert, approach and solve the problem, placing special emphasis on the process you follow. What kinds of questions do you ask? How do you identify what’s important? Do you organize the material in a particular way? Notice patterns? Draw on prior knowledge and make connections? What do you pay particular attention to? You could do this live in class or record a video for the students to watch.
• Inquiry process worksheets. Create worksheets that guide students to solve a problem or analyze a situation by walking them step by step through the process an expert might use. An important part of inquiry-based learning is reflection on what one has learned and how one learned it; use the reflection to highlight the fact that the worksheet helps students develop not just content knowledge, but also disciplinary skills they can apply to new problems and analyses.
• Strip sequence. In a strip sequence activity, students take a random-order list of the steps in a process (traditionally printed onto small strips of paper) and then put the steps in the correct sequence. One could ask students to put into the correct order the steps involved in developing and investigating a specific research question, followed by an analysis of why they chose that order and its relationship to problem solving in the discipline.  
• Case studies. Present students with a case study and guide them through analyzing it using a process and methods consistent with your discipline. Certain case studies themselves might serve as models of how experts in your field approach problems. Emphasize the process by asking students to reflect on it.
• Annotate a research paper. Have students use Hypothesis or Perusall to read and collaboratively annotate a current article or excerpt from the research literature, perhaps identifying the elements of the process the authors used to carry out the research. You can also make your own annotations that model the process you use to read papers and the questions you ask yourself, and ask people to identify the elements common to such works in the discipline.
• Read primary literature. Have students read current research and/or seminal texts, then have group discussions about them. Note that beginning students may need guidance on reading primary literature. Also, provide background information about the disciplinary norms for the structure of such works. Guide students to develop questions about the research to begin imagining themselves as researchers.
• Interpret key portions of primary texts. Divide the class into groups and charge each group with interpreting a figure, table, or particular section of the paper, then explaining it to the class.
• Course-based research projects. Have students carry out their own research projects, individually or in groups. These projects might be unrelated to each other or be parts that come together into a larger whole. The research results could be presented to the class, written up for submission to a journal, or presented at the UO Undergraduate Research Symposium . In STEM fields, structured, course-based undergraduate research projects are known as CUREs, and an extensive literature describes them. (Dolan, 2016; Waterman & Heemstra, 2018) UO librarians offers an extensive list of research guides and databases to support student research, and you can work with your  UO subject librarian to customize resources for your class.
• Research project proposals. Have students develop an original research idea and write it up as a formal proposal, following the format of a funding agency in your field. Be sure to scaffold the process by breaking it up into smaller parts: identifying a general area of interest, doing background research, identifying and refining the research question, writing a rough draft, etc.

Align course content, assignments, and activities with relevant learning objectives

Whether designing a new course from scratch or revising an old or inherited course, it can be challenging to ensure that the content and activities of the class actually match the stated goals and objectives. The gold standard for course design is to begin the process by articulating goals for student learning (learning objectives) and then align the activities, tone, and assignments of the class with them. Educational developers call this process of articulation and alignment “backward design” — you start with where you want your students to end up, then work backward.

Learn more about aligned course design and how to write learning objectives on the Aligned Course Design page. 

Engage students in constructing their own knowledge through active learning

Research indicates that students who engage actively with course content – by asking and answering questions, discussing issues and presenting ideas, applying and synthesizing their knowledge, etc. – perform better and retain their knowledge longer than those who passively listen to lectures or videos, memorize content for quizzes or exams, or simply repeat back in discussion or writing what instructors or texts say.  As Chickering and Gamson put it in their classic essay on key principles in undergraduate education, "Learning is not a spectator sport. Students...must talk about what they are learning, write about it, relate it to past experiences and apply it to their daily lives. They must make what they learn part of themselves."

Learn more about active learning and find specific ideas for including more active learning opportunities in your course on the Active Learning & Metacognition page.

Ask a variety of types of questions and allot time for students to engage questions in class or in postings such as discussion boards

Asking students questions engages them actively and opens the door to curiosity, inquiry, and reflection. It also provides students with opportunities to practice with new or complex material and demonstrate what and how they are learning, which can take many forms, from discussion to writing down thoughts to engaging in group work to recording videos, etc. Teaching effectively with questions requires posing a variety of questions, providing sufficient time for student engagement, and involving all students in the answering of questions.

• Vary question types . There are many types of questions you can ask students and have them ask each other, including questions that help identify assumptions, seek evidence to support claims or ideas, generate multiple perspectives for consideration, or elicit more nuance or complexity. TEP's handout on " Discussion Moves that Foster Critical Inquiry, Curious Exploration, and Collaboration " includes many specific examples. 
• What assumptions do we hold about the topic, issue, or situation under examination – particularly concerning what counts as legitimate knowledge as we have defined it?
• How can we check these assumptions out for accuracy and validity?
• What alternative perspectives, explanations, or interpretations can we bring to bear on this topic, issue, or situation?
• What conclusions can we draw, or action should we take informed by our critical analysis?

In-class examples:

• Individual.  Have students reflect on questions and write their thoughts or prepare to share aloud or as part of a small group. You can also elicit student responses using a physical polling strategy such as raised hands or colored cards, or an electronic audience participation tool such as iClickers or Poll Everywhere.  
• Think-pair-share.  Have students take a minute to gather their thoughts individually, then turn to a neighbor to discuss and refine their ideas, and finally share with the class.  Share-outs can be oral or on whiteboards.
• Small groups. Similar to the think-pair-share, but with 3-5 students. To keep students focused and on track, pose the question both orally and in writing, and be sure to ask for a specific product. The latter might be as simple as groups recording their ideas physically or electronically where others can see them.
• Take a position. Pose a question and ask students to answer it from a particular point of view, perhaps that of a specific stakeholder in the problem under discussion, or simply one different from the student’s own inclination.
• Narrative Listening and Questioning . Have students form pairs or trios, with one student sharing thoughts in response to a question you pose, while the other student(s) listens, uses prompting questions to elicit more detail, and then summarizes what they heard. Then reverse roles with a new question. TEP's  "Discussion Moves" handout includes a list of questions student can use to elicit more from each other.
• Gallery walk . Post around the room questions on pieces of paper with plenty of blank space. Students can circulate individually or in small groups, discussing their thoughts about the question at each station and recording their thoughts on the sheet. Subsequent visitors to the station can incorporate the recorded comments as part of their responses.  

Online examples:

• Discussion Boards .  You can adapt most of the ideas listed above for online classes by organizing the activities in Canvas Discussions , for example posing questions for students to ponder and then submit responses. In addition, use  Canvas Groups  to form smaller groups of students and help make online discussions more manageable.  Both tools allow students to post attachments or links to online content that might inform answers to questions.  
• Images and Annotations . Students can engage question prompts by connecting their responses to images, texts, or other relevant course content  that lives in a virtual space. This helps students "ground" their replies, deepen their exploration, and connect asynchronously.  Tools such as Perusall and Hypothesis allow for student collaboration with various content forms and both integrate well with Canvas.
• Videos and Infographics .  Students can also submit more creative, elaborate forms of expression such as infographics or videos that explore particular questions or issues. Such options might be best as assignments given the work involved in their creation.

Implement a variety of assessments that promote learning and offer a variety of ways for students to demonstrate their understanding  

To assess student learning is to obtain and analyze evidence of students' development of the knowledge, skills, etc. that indicate the extent to which students are meeting learning objectives. That is, students must demonstrate their learning in some tangible way, which can be either formative or summative. 

Summative assessment  involves an evaluation of student learning at the end of a unit or course, a "summing up" of the content or substance of what students know, can do, etc. Summative assessment is often formal and associated with grades. Examples of summative assessment include comprehensive exams, research papers, projects, reports, presentations, etc.

Formative assessment  refers to an evaluation of student learning during an intermediate moment of the learning process, which provides an opportunity to give students feedback and to allow them to reflect on their progress, ongoing challenges, strategies they might pursue moving forward, etc. Formative assessment is often informal and not graded - at least, not for the content or substance of student learning.  Examples of formative assessment can include a range of options, such as:

• Prior Knowledge Probe:  Use a short survey at the beginning of a course or unit to uncover student misconceptions or what they may already know or have experience doing, etc.
• Minute Paper:  Ask student at the end of a class session or video lecture to write down what was the most important thing they learned or what questions they have.
• Muddiest Point:  Have students indicate what point or idea in a lecture, discussion, reading, film, lab procedure, etc. was most confusing or unclear.
• Peer Review:  Have students offer each other feedback - using a rubric or handout guide - about work such as papers, assignments, etc.
• Self-Reflection:  Have students comment on their own work and their process for doing it, indicating for instance what is challenging, which strategies they are using, what they ought to do differently moving forward, and so forth.

Find many more examples of assessment techniques for both in-person and online courses in  Learning Assessment Techniques  (Barkley and Major, 2016)

As instructors, we seek to help our students develop the knowledge and skills associated with the course in question. The methods we use to develop that knowledge are often independent of the content, and in fact might require skills otherwise unrelated to the course. For example, we frequently ask students to write in courses for which developing writing skills is not an explicit learning objective; some students in these courses might be able to demonstrate their learning better – and be more motivated – by giving an oral presentation, creating a video, or recording a podcast. Similarly, students who suffer from test anxiety may be better able to demonstrate their learning if they don’t have to sit down to a high-stakes exam but rather have more frequent, lower-stakes assessments.  

Different faculty design for multiple means of expression in different ways. Some create assignments that ask all students to use the same mode of expression in a given assignment, then vary the mode from assignment to assignment. Others offer a choice of modes of expression within a given assignment. 

Design universal rubrics . If students will submit work in a variety of modalities for a given assignment, you will need to develop a rubric that allows you to assess students’ progress toward the learning objectives, independent of a submission’s modality. The key is to strip away any evaluation criteria not associated with specific learning objectives. For more information, visit this University of Saskatchewan page on  Designing Rubrics with Transparent Criteria , an excerpt from their OER resource,  Universal Design for Learning: One Small Step . The page contains a link to a helpful example universal rubric. 

Resources for supporting students creating: 

• Videos . UO students can  use Panopto to record videos ,  edit them , then  upload them to Canvas as an assignment submission .  
• Audio recordings/podcasts . Student audio recordings can be simple efforts  recorded using the tools in Canvas , or they can be more elaborately done and include the option of making them publicly available. The  New York Times  has a  resource  designed to support middle and high school students creating podcasts for their student podcast contest. This  podcast planning sheet  from the state of West Virginia can help get students started. 
• Infographics . Students can make infographics with a variety of platforms provided by the University, such as PowerPoint or Adobe Creative Cloud Apps (available on university-owned lab computers), or others  available online for free . To get students started, you might have them read an excellent guide from Visme,  A Beginner’s Guide to Creating Shareable Infographics . 

Provide prompt, constructive, and criteria-based feedback on activities and assignments

Students can only improve their knowledge and skills through practice and receiving feedback about what they’ve done and what to work on for next time. This might be as simple as providing the answer to a poll question you ask in class, or as complicated as writing a response to the rough draft of a student’s paper. To contribute to learning, such feedback must be (1) well crafted to act as “feedforward” and (2) students must engage with it to modify their thinking and practices. (Wiggins 2012; Fink 2013; Leibold & Schwarz 2015)

To maximize the utility of your feedback, strive to make it:

• Criteria-based. Be transparent about the task and the criteria you will use to evaluate student work, then be sure to align your feedback with the criteria. If possible, provide a detailed rubric when you assign the work so students know ahead of time what you’ll be looking for and understand the different levels of achievement possible for the various criteria.
• Balanced. Provide positive reinforcement of things the student has done well in addition to corrective advice about things they need to work on.
• Constructive. Point to particular errors or areas to improve on or things done well and provide feedforward: comments that will help the student improve their work in a way that is applicable to the next draft or next assignment.
• Audience-appropriate. Your students are novices, so minimize use of unnecessary jargon or notation they will have difficulty understanding. Also, avoid giving too much or excessively detailed feedback (Basey, Mains, & Francis, 2014), which can take a long time to read and interpret and make students feel overwhelmed and hopeless.
• Prompt. As much as possible, minimize the amount of time students must wait before receiving feedback on their work. Short time gaps – days rather than multiple weeks – mean that they remember the work better, and have more time before the next assignment to absorb your comments and use them to improve. [Note, however, that slight delays are preferable to truly instantaneous feedback. For example, if possible, provide answers to computerized test questions after the test is complete, rather than after each question. (Butler, Karpicke & Roediger, 2007)]
• Frequent & Ongoing. Provide feedback to each learner as often as you can. This affords the student many opportunities to learn what they are doing well and what they can improve on. It can also help build the instructor-student relationship. Ongoing feedback about similar assignments, e.g. different lab reports over the course of a term, or on multiple drafts of the same assignment is also helpful in promoting growth.
• Encouraging. Use positive language that supports students’ growth mindset- the idea that if they keep at it, they will learn and succeed at the task. Also, explain that you give constructive criticism not because you are being mean or to point out that you think they are incapable. To the contrary, you give constructive criticism precisely because you think the student can succeed and that they need to know what they have done wrong in order to improve the next time. (Yeager, 2014)
• Canvas Media Recorder .  Canvas has a feature that allows you to record audio or video feedback for students to replay. Some faculty find that recording their comments in this way saves time. View a recording of Using Video for Assignments and Feedback , a workshop in which Dr. Philip Matern of the Department of Human Physiology discusses how he uses video feedback in his courses.
• Canvas document viewer. If students submit a file viewable on Canvas’ Document Viewer, you have the ability to add comments in a variety of formats directly to the document.

Providing feedback can be very time consuming, but these strategies can help you use your time efficiently.

• Be selective. Comment on errors originating from lack of understanding rather than careless mistakes.
• Identify patterns. If you notice global errors – many students making similar mistakes – address them with whole-class feedback, rather than saying the same thing to each student.
• Develop a comment library. If you give electronic feedback, consider using Canvas Speedgrader’s Comment Library , to reduce the need to type the same thing many times. Alternatively, cut and paste from a master document of common praise and critical comments.

To make sure the time you spend providing feedback is well spent, require students to engage with the feedback in some way. Some strategies:

• Talk about it. Take some class time to discuss why feedback is important and useful. Explain that it’s necessary for improvement and that you provide it to promote learning.
• Summarize feedback in their own words, highlighting how it aligns with the learning objectives for the assignment.
• Identify positive and corrective feedback.
• Develop an action plan for using the feedback to improve the next assignment.
• Come up with questions the feedback raises for them
•  Describe how they used it. When they hand in the next draft or the next similar assignment, have students include a paragraph detailing how they used the feedback from the previous assignment to improve their work this time.

Promote metacognition and facilitate practice of efficient learning strategies

Metacognition  is the process of thinking about one’s own thinking and learning. It is an important part of self-regulated learning, which involves planning and implementing strategies for study, monitoring progress, and assessing results. Students who engage in metacognitive exercises improve their exam performance, written or designed products, and problem-solving ability. Moreover, metacognition helps students improve their sense of self-efficacy and independent agency, which in turn increases their motivation to learn.

Students who practice metacognition and self-regulated learning need a variety of efficient learning strategies in their toolboxes. Many common practices are inefficient, such as highlighting text, using notes or the text as a crutch when working problems, rereading texts multiple times, and re-working already-solved problems. Such strategies tend to produce an illusion of learning rather than developing skills and storing information for the long term. Research points to more effective learning strategies, which you can design into your course. Discussing the strategies and the reasons why you have incorporated them can help students apply them elsewhere in addition to improving their grasp of your course material.

The strategies described here are shown by research to improve skill development and retention of information for the long term. For an in-depth discussion of their utility in different contexts, refer to the comprehensive meta-analysis by Dunlosky, et al.

• Retrieval. The more often we recall information and practice ways of thinking without referring to notes or texts, the firmer their placement into long term memory. Ask students to answer questions and work problems about things they’ve already been exposed to by trying to recall the information or process from memory, referring to notes later to check their work. At the beginning of a class session, you might ask students to write down the main points of the previous class session without referring to notes, or give low-stakes, no-notes quizzes.
• Spaced practice. Dividing practice into multiple sessions spread over time leads to better long-term retention of information than spending the same cumulative amount of time in one or two sessions. In other words, cramming is not effective for long-term learning. Build this principle into your course by asking students to apply knowledge and skills from past weeks in new assignments. For example, include questions about “old” material in new problem sets or quizzes, or ask students to compare and contrast new ideas with ones from earlier in the term.
• Interleaving. It is more effective to mix up material when studying than to study obviously similar concepts together or do the same type of problem multiple times in a row. Interleaving content in this way makes it easier to see relationships between concepts and prevents the illusion of knowledge that comes with repeated practice without interspersing other material. Facilitate interleaving by writing problem sets, quizzes, and practice exams that skip around in the material, or by designing activities that require application of a variety of skills.
• Elaborative interrogation. Having students develop questions and then attempt to answer them facilitates deeper engagement and understanding of the material. The questions might be overarching ones about a whole text or finer-grained ones about smaller sections. While such questioning is often inherent in the lessons faculty develop, students might not realize this unless faculty draw attention to it. Try explicitly modeling the process when you guide discussion of a text, or use Perusall or Hypothesis to create an assignment asking students to annotate the text with their questions and answers.
• Self-explanation. People understand concepts and processes more deeply if they take time to explain the content out loud or in writing. Build in opportunities for students to answer questions like: “What does this sentence mean?” “What is the main idea of this paragraph?” “How do we know?” “Why take this step when solving a problem?” You might require students to write down the reasoning they use when solving problems on a quiz, answer questions you pose about a reading, or make a video explaining in their own words how one piece of knowledge follows from the prior knowledge base.
• Wrappers . "Wrappers" are short reflective exercises that students complete before and after assignments or exams. For instance, before starting an assignment or taking an exam, students can be asked how well they think they can describe an important concept or solve a specific kind of problem or answer a specific kind of question and why.  After students then complete the assignment or exam, see their actual results, and receive feedback , they can be asked to the same reflection questions, albeit looking back at their actual work.  Then they can compare their prior perceptions/assumptions with their actual performance and identify what was accurate or inaccurate, what worked or didn't work, what they should do again or do differently to prepare for next time, etc. In this way, the assignment or exam (or any other kind of activity) is "wrapped" with self-reflection so that students are thinking not just about content or results but also about their learning process. Wrapper exercises can be "graded" for completion only as a way to incentivize them.
• Learning Logs . After completing an assignment or activity, students can take time to reflect on what they found interesting about the assignment/activity, what they found challenging, what strategies they used to complete it, and what other strategies they might choose next time.  Maintaining a log of interests, challenges, and strategies over time can help students identify effective patterns to maintain or enhance, or ineffective patterns that need changed or replaced.  These insights can be the basis of classroom discussion or inform a "strategies for class success" document housed in Canvas.  Having students complete short minute papers at the end of class or periodic surveys are other ways to engage them in regular metacognitive work.
• Big Picture Reflection s. Students can write a "Dear New Student Letter,"  in which they reflect on what they have learned about how to succeed in the class - including what they did that was effective or wish they had done differently - and then write this up as advice to future students in the class. Another example is a reflection essay in which students describe what they found most interesting or surprising about the class and why; what was most challenging, why, and how they addressed this challenge; and what is at least one thing they learned in the class they plan to apply or engage further in the future.  See other ideas from TEP and UO Faculty for creating  powerful endings involving reflection .

Barkley, E. F., & Major, C. H. (2015). Learning assessment techniques: A handbook for college faculty . Jossey-Bass

Basey, J. M., Maines, A. P., & Francis, C. D. (2014). Time Efficiency, Written Feedback, and Student Achievement in Inquiry-Oriented Biology Labs. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning , 8 (2), n2.

Brookfield, S. D. (2012). Teaching for critical thinking: Tools and techniques to help students question their assumptions . Jossey-Bass.

Butler, A. C., Karpicke, J. D., & Roediger III, H. L. (2007). The effect of type and timing of feedback on learning from multiple-choice tests. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied , 13 (4), 273.

Dolan, E. L. (2016). Course-based undergraduate research experiences: current knowledge and future directions. Natl Res Counc Comm Pap , 1 , 1-34.

Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students’ learning with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychological Science in the public interest , 14 (1), 4-58.

Fink, L. D. (2013). Creating significant learning experiences: An integrated approach to designing college courses . Jossey Bass.

Leibold, N., & Schwarz, L. M. (2015). The art of giving online feedback. Journal of Effective Teaching , 15 (1), 34-46.

Waterman, R., & Heemstra, J. (Eds.). (2018). Expanding the CURE model: course-based undergraduate research experience . Research corporation for science advancement.

Wiggins, G. (2012). Seven keys to effective feedback. Educational Leadership , 70, 10-16.

Yeager, D. S., Purdie-Vaughns, V., Garcia, J., Apfel, N., Brzustoski, P., Master, A., ... & Cohen, G. L. (2014). Breaking the cycle of mistrust: Wise interventions to provide critical feedback across the racial divide. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General , 143 (2), 804.

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Teaching as research program.

Teaching as Research (TAR) projects give graduate students, professional students, and postdocs the opportunity to develop curriculum and assessment strategies that address challenges in teaching and improve learning outcomes for students. Projects are implemented through instructor partnerships at Yale. The Poorvu Center will create a network for those interested in doing a TAR project with faculty members who welcome these partnerships or experience specific challenges in their courses. Alternatively, teaching fellows or scholars may wish to implement TAR projects in their own courses or discussion sections.

Please contact Assistant Director of Graduate and Postdoctoral Teaching Development, Gina M. Hurley , with questions.

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Reserve a Room

The Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning partners with departments and groups on-campus throughout the year to share its space. Please review the reservation form and submit a request.

Teaching Innovation Project (TIP) Grants

During the spring semester, grants in the amount of $1,000 are awarded to Yale GSAS students or Postdoctoral Fellows to support the creation of new and innovative educational opportunities for prommoting learning. Teaching Innovation Project (TIP) grants are made possible by generous contributions from the Rosenkranz Fund. Contact Gina Marie Hurley, Associate Director of Graduate and Postdoctoral Teaching Development, for more information.

Helmsley Postdoctoral Scholars innovate undergraduate STEM courses at Yale and at our partner institutions, the University of Bridgeport and Housatonic Community College.

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CUREs: Bringing Research into the Classroom

Are you looking for ways to invigorate your research and teaching? Consider the following quotes from higher ed instructors who participated alongside their students in  course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs).

“You have a synergy between your teaching and your research…” “It’s refreshing. It’s new. It’s novel. It’s engaging.” “My teaching, my research, and service are all done at the same time.”                                                          (Shortlidge et al., 2016)

CUREs actively engage students (and researcher/educators) in an original research or creative contribution project that leads to a meaningful deliverable for external stakeholders. They are a unique teaching practice that provide many benefits for students and instructors alike.

This topic will help you understand the defining characteristics of a successful CURE and walk you through key considerations for planning a CURE project for your course.

Undergraduate research is a high-impact practice (HIP)   with proven results. But what makes an undergraduate research activity a CURE? The primary characteristic of a CURE is that it involves all students in a course, and they are largely working on the research project during class time.

The research:

• Is relevant beyond your course (i.e., meaningful to external community stakeholders and/or your broader discipline) and provides opportunities for action.
• Has an unknown outcome and the findings are novel.
• Has an inherent risk of generating “messy” data.
• Is often iterative in process, requiring students to problem solve, reimagine, and redo.

The students:

• Collaborate with each other, as well as with you, your teaching assistants, and potentially other stakeholders.
• Engage with multiple and varied research practices throughout the course.

The instructor:

• Conducts scholarly research that is connected to the purpose of the CURE.
• Guides and mentors students throughout the research experience.

CUREs differ from traditional course projects because of the explicit relevance of the research to the scholarly community and integration with your own research program (or a national research program) that guides the direction of the project. CUREs have predominantly been used in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) courses, particularly in the biological sciences. But there are instances in other disciplines, including discipline-based education research, music psychology, anthropology, business, criminal justice, and writing and composition. CUREs can be used in introductory, upper division, and non-major courses.

CUREs Promote Equity

By opening research opportunities to all students as part of an undergraduate degree program, CUREs help level the playing field of HIPs. They give everyone the opportunity to participate in research, potentially sparking students’ interest in research careers and changing the demographic makeup of the research community. 

Research experiences are one predictor of the persistence of underrepresented students in the sciences (Daniels et al., 2016; Genet, 2021; Lopatto, 2007; Malotky et al., 2020). CUREs can be a more accessible research experience for students because they are integrated with their regular course load and the work is guided, collaborative, and concentrated during class time (rather than done independently outside of class). This serves to increase and focus students’ engagement with research and combat many of the obstacles present in other research activities, such as internships. Through CUREs, all students can benefit from research experiences and become aware of research opportunities, without being limited by personal barriers, financial constraints, or social bias.

CUREs Benefit Students

Student gains in CUREs meet or exceed those observed in summer internship and mentored student research experience models and are higher than those experienced by students in traditional labs (Frantz et al., 2006; Hanauer et al., 2012; Jordan et al., 2014; Lopatto et al., 2008; Overath et al., 2016; Shaffer et al., 2010; Shapiro et al., 2015).  Explore the many benefits of CUREs for students below.

One of the strongest gains experienced by students participating in CUREs is improved content knowledge. This is observed across disciplines and can translate to improved grades as well as increased student retention. Several assessments of CUREs across disciplines have also found strong gains in learners’ technical skills including computer modeling, statistics, and laboratory techniques. CUREs also improve students’ ability and confidence to design experiments and interpret data. Notably, students' content knowledge gains in CUREs have been shown to be equal to or greater than gains in traditional lab settings. Brownell et al., 2012; Genet, 2021; Kloser et al., 2013; Martin et al., 2021; Pavlova et al., 2021; Shaffer et al., 2014

Students widely report growth in academic and professional skills such as written and oral communication, time management and organization, problem solving, graphical representation of data, and information literacy skills such as the ability to engage with primary literature.

Drew & Triplett, 2008; Jordan et al., 2014; Martin et al., 2021; Shelby, 2019; Genet, 2021; Jordan et al., 2014; Makarevitch et al., 2015; Shaffer et al., 2014; Shelby, 2019; Stoeckman et al., 2019; Ward et al., 2014; Wiley & Stover, 2014; Williams & Reddish, 2018; Kortz & van der Hoeven Kraft, 2016; Olimpo et al., 2016

CUREs develop students’ willingness and capacity to engage in conversations and collaborations, as well as promote the ability to work independently.

For many students, CUREs help clarify academic and professional goals. CUREs can increase matriculation in the majors, graduation rates, and student interest in conducting further research. This may translate to new career paths and increased interest in graduate and professional schools.

Harrison et al., 2011; Rodenbusch et al., 2016; Waynant et al., 2022; Bascom-Slack et al., 2012; Brownell et al., 2012; Carr et al., 2018; Harvey et al., 2014; Overath et al., 2016; Shaffer et al., 2014; Ward et al., 2014

CUREs Benefit Educators

CUREs positively impact you as well as your students. Explore t he many benefits of CUREs for educators below.

CUREs are a great opportunity to train postdoctoral scientists and graduate students in the instructor role, beyond assisting with grading and content delivery. CUREs provide the opportunity to learn how to develop instructional materials, incorporate and practice active learning and other teaching strategies, and build an identity and practice as an educator. CUREs also provide a platform for trainees to become familiar with the management and operations of large research projects that involve personnel, deadlines, and budgets. 

CUREs provide the opportunity for you to integrate your research and teaching missions, opening new avenues for your research program. You might evolve your pedagogical practice or develop an interest in the formal assessment of your own teaching. You can also incorporate a CURE as a component of a broader grant proposal or project. Some instructors even report that CUREs improve their relationships with students and their job satisfaction (Shortlidge et al., 2016).

CUREs are often useful in generating data for research and leading to publications. They also offer the chance to identify and recruit motivated students for mentored research internships. Leveraging CUREs for your research and teaching may even further your reputation within the institution or enhance opportunities for promotion and tenure.

In Practice

If you’re interested in incorporating a CURE into your course, there are three possible paths to consider.

• Implement a researcher-independent CURE for which there is a pre-existing model available through national programs.
• Develop a new researcher-independent CURE that could be implemented at multiple institutions.
• Design a unique researcher-driven CURE.  

If you’re designing a new CURE, you should adopt a backwards design approach, which requires you to first identify the outcomes desired from the CURE, then determine the acceptable evidence that those outcomes have been met, and finally to plan the learning activities and instruction (Cooper et al., 2017).  Consider also how to use the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework to facilitate the engagement of all students in the experience.

Read more about Universal Design for Learning .

Planning Considerations 

Designing and implementing your first CURE can be an immensely rewarding experience, but it also poses some challenges for planning your course. Some key issues to consider when embarking upon this process are outlined below.

As you are planning a CURE, it is critical to determine answers to the following questions:

• Who is the student audience for your course?
• What level of preparation and prior knowledge can you expect from them?
• What is the intent and scope of the research?
• What program requirements will you need to integrate in your course?
• What will be the duration of the CURE?
• What will be the roles of the postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduate students you work with, and how will the CURE benefit them?

Keep in mind that you will need to:

• Identify the expected learning outcomes (ELOs) of the relevant department, program, major, minor, or certificate and plan how your course outcomes will align to them.
• If proposing a new course, know the guidelines and requirements of the course approval process. Contact the chair of the undergraduate curriculum committee of your department or unit for guidance.
• If revising an existing course, engage colleagues (staff and faculty) that have been involved in its implementation.
• Engage external research stakeholders in your planning, as needed.

Research shows  that student  ownership  of the research project undertaken in a CURE positively impacts their  experience  of the course ( Hanauer et al., 2012; Harrison et al., 2011; Hatfull et al., 2006).  Promote  ownership of learning by involving students meaningfully in the design and implementation of the research project at all stages. For example, your students should tackle questions and test hypotheses relevant to the broader research community. Give them multiple opportunities to develop their own claims and to defend them with evidence from the literature or their own work. Encourage students to make judgments and decisions throughout your research protocols, and to redirect and iterate on the process when needed. 

The scientific method requires identification of an appropriate scientific question, collection of data, analysis of that data, interpretation of outputs, and communication of the knowledge gained from research. Identify which of these elements you will include in the CURE, how you will teach them, and how students will be involved in their execution.

The approach to research undertaken in a CURE should follow the standard process of scholarly pursuit in your field of study. No matter the approach, you should introduce students to all stages of the research process, iterating whenever it is called for along the way.

Make observations > Develop a research question or hypothesis > Review literature > Design methods and protocols > Collect data > Analyze data > Prepare deliverable(s) > Determine future directions > Present research findings

An effective CURE will empower students to think for themselves while enabling them to make mistakes in a safe and supportive environment. Encourage students to embrace the joy of discovery as well as the uncertainty of investigating a question with unknown outcomes. The research process often comes with surprises. Assuring students this does not equate failure but is rather a natural part of investigation and learning can help to alleviate some academic stress. Set up checks and balances for student-collected data and build ample room into the course for redirection, feedback, and iteration.

The power of CUREs resides in the combination of research and teaching to create a unique pedagogical experience for both students and researcher-instructors. But achieving balance between your research and teaching goals can pose challenges. The time constraints associated with a traditional course structure may place limits on your ability to repeat experiments, increase your sample size, or simply to fully explore a particular question or dataset.

How will you train students in the whole of the research process if they cannot fully engage in all stages? Present the trajectory of a research project from inception to publication, including the role of formal and informal peer-review of ideas, conference presentations, and manuscripts. You might incorporate mini-workshops and whole-class or small-group activities that use already analyzed or published datasets to help students understand critical concepts that cannot be authentically explored on your timeline.

CURE students benefit from intellectual exchanges with other members of the research team, including graduate students, postdocs, and undergraduates in mentored research experiences. Consider how collaboration across your team will help you accomplish research tasks and goals while providing new knowledge and practice opportunities for students.

Many undergraduate students are not well-versed in research activities. Your course activities should incorporate intentional scaffolding to help them navigate new information and unfamiliar or challenging tasks. Plan a series of assignments or steps that guide students through the entire project, support them to practice important skills, and provide opportunities for feedback and improvement. Students’ prior knowledge should inform the first rungs of your scaffolding, while your course learning outcomes provide the endpoint. Read more about scaffolding assignments.

It's crucial that you provide the supports needed for students to learn. Present all necessary background information to help students understand and complete research tasks. Coach them through challenging tasks, include opportunities for reflection, and encourage them to repeat or expand upon their work when needed.

• Articulate the purpose and criteria for important research steps, activities, assignments, and evaluations. Transparency in teaching can promote metacognition and help students reflect upon and meet learning goals.
• Teach best practices for responsible and ethical research conduct. Formally train students in the reading and analysis of primary literature and in the use of published data, online databases, citizen-science projects, and/or data collected by previous CUREs or collaborators.
• Provide ancillary resources,   such as those created by University Libraries,  to support the research process and promote information literacy.
• Consider incorporating writing-to-learn activities to facilitate reflection. Writing-to-learn promotes students learning and helps them develop as writers.
• Design and supervise group work to foster accountability and collaboration among students, as well as to help students meet their personal learning goals.

Find more ideas in Supporting Student Learning and Metacognition,   Designing Research or Inquiry-Based Assignments,  and Helping Students Write Across the Disciplines.

Ongoing assessment of students’ work in a CURE enables you and your class to stay up to date on research progress, including any setbacks to address. Well-designed assessments help students reflect on their learning and identify challenges so they can find tools to overcome those obstacles.

• Align your assessments with the expected learning outcomes for the CURE.
• Provide rubrics and clear criteria for success so students understand the level of mastery that is expected of them.
• Ensure that formative assessments are helping students practice key skills and prepare for any summative assessments in the course.
• Include frequent low-stakes assignments—with opportunities for feedback—to help reduce the equity gap.
• Promote accountability in group work by incorporating peer review and self-review in your grading.
• Consider ways you might use contract grading, specifications grading, peer-grading, and self-assessment instead of traditional grading.

Read more about Designing Assessments of Student Learning  and Designing Research or Inquiry-Based Assignments.

Communicating research findings is a critical component of any student-led research project. Presenting at conferences,  publishing findings in a research database, and submitting to peer-reviewed publications have all been shown to benefit undergraduate students ( Kloser et al. 2013; Spronken-Smith et al., 2013; Little, 2020; Wiley and Stover, 2014; Turner et al., 2021) . Student-authored manuscripts and presentations serve to motivate learners, provide accountability for their work, and enhance their belief in themselves as researchers and scholars.

How you communicate the results of your CURE should reflect authentic scholarly communication in your field. You may choose one method of communication or prepare multiple deliverables in different formats. Once you determine the ideal mode(s) for disseminating findings, it’s important to consider how this work will be divided among students and to establish clear guidelines for authorship. With your support, students can gain confidence in their research skills and engage meaningfully with real-world audiences.

Your role in a CURE involves  shaping a positive learning environment,  mentoring students  in the research process, assisting them in practicing and acquiring key knowledge and skills, and explaining the purpose and significance of the research work. As such, a successful CURE is easier to implement with help.

Identify collaborators that will support and enhance your project and consider how you will define their roles. Assistance may come from fellow investigators, lab personnel, graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, instructional support staff, or colleagues across campus. As an authentic research experience, your CURE will introduce students to the importance of collaboration in research. 

Keep in mind that every member of a CURE has goals, needs, and expectations. This is true of students and instructor(s), but also applies to any other team members involved in the project. Carefully consider your shared purpose and how your CURE will help all stakeholders accomplish their goals.

The implementation of a CURE requires students to access the tools of the research trade. These tools will be dependent on your discipline but may include the following: lab space; specific equipment, materials, and technologies; library and archive resources; research specimens; and software or computing facilities. Perhaps you will even need to plan research activities in the field. Advance planning is critical to the success of your CURE. Failing to anticipate and plan for needs and potential roadblocks could limit the types of research questions and activities you pursue with students.

You can overcome obstacles to data collection by using existing research databases, citizen science data, online archives, and museum databases. Consider how you might integrate CUREs with mentored student research projects and collaborate with other researchers to facilitate funding, data collection, and data analysis. Leverage campus resources such as IT services  and University Libraries  collections and subject librarians when troubleshooting technology issues or solving research problems.

Designing a Successful CURE

The guidelines in the table below* will support you as you choose the topic of your CURE, design your course activities, and make plans for communication, feedback, and reflection activities.

* Elements modified from Dolan, 2016; Kortz & van der Hoeven Kraft, 2016; Wiley & Stover, 2014; Turner et al., 2021; Kloser et al., 2011; Hatfull et al. 2006.

If you need guidance or support as you are planning your CURE, browse our Teaching Support Forms to contact the unit most aligned to your consultation needs.

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) integrate your research and teaching through an inclusive high-impact practice that enhances the student experience and your professional development.

CUREs support students to:

Engage in original research significant to others.

Design and implement authentic research protocols.

Communicate their research findings.

CUREs require you to:

Encourage student ownership.

Scaffold research activities.

Provide frequent feedback and mentorship to support students.

CUREs enable you and your students to:

• Reflect often on the research process, your learning, and personal gains.
• Connect and collaborate meaningfully within and beyond the classroom.
• Enjoy an exciting and engaging—if sometimes demanding—mode of teaching and learning.
• Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences: Current knowledge and future d…

Learning Opportunities

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Brownell, S. E., Kloser, M. J., Fukami, T., & Shavelson, R. (2012). Undergraduate biology lab authentic research-based courses traditionally based “cookbook” and courses: Comparing the impact on student lab experiences. Journal of College Science Teaching , 41 (4), 36–45.

Carr, A. J., Felix, R. J., & Gould, S. L. (2018). Transforming second semester organic chemistry laboratory into a semester long undergraduate research experience [Chapter]. Best Practices for Supporting and Expanding Undergraduate Research in Chemistry, Part 4 - Transforming Second Semester Organic Chemistry Laboratory into a Semester Long Undergraduate Research Experience , 47–64. https://doi.org/10.1021/bk-2018-1275.ch004

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Harrison, M., Dunbar, D., Ratmansky, L., Boyd, K., & Lopatto, D. (2011). Classroom-based science research at the introductory level: Changes in career choices and attitude.  CBE Life Sciences Education ,  10 (3), 279–286.  https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.10-12-0151

Harvey, P. A., Wall, C., Luckey, S. W., Langer, S., & Leinwand, L. A. (2014). The Python project: A unique model for extending research opportunities to undergraduate students. CBE Life Sciences Education , 13 (4), 698–710. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.14-05-0089

Hatfull, G. F., Pedulla, M. L., Jacobs-Sera, D., Cichon, P. M., Foley, A., Ford, M. E., Gonda, R. M., Houtz, J. M., Hryckowian, A. J., Kelchner, V. A., Namburi, S., Pajcini, K. V., Popovich, M. G., Schleicher, D. T., Simanek, B. Z., Smith, A. L., Zdanowicz, G. M., Kumar, V., Peebles, C. L., … Hendrix, R. W. (2006). Exploring the mycobacteriophage metaproteome: Phage genomics as an educational platform. PLoS Genetics , 2 (6), 0835–0847. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.0020092

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Kloser, M., Brownell, S., Shavelson, R., & Fukami, T. (2013). Effects of a research-based ecology lab course: A study of nonvolunteer achievement, self-confidence, and perception of lab course purpose. Journal of College Science Teaching , 42 (3), 90–99.

Little, C. (2020). Undergraduate research as a student engagement springboard: Exploring the longer-term reported benefits of participation in a research conference.  Educational Research ,  62 (2), 229–245.  https://doi.org/10.1080/00131881.2020.1747360

Lopatto, David. (2007). Undergraduate research experiences support science career decisions and active learning. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 6(4), 297–306. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.07-06-0039

Lopatto, D., Alvarez, C., Barnard, D., Chandrasekaran, C., Chung, H.-M., Du, C., Eckdahl, T., Goodman, A. L., Hauser, C., Jones, C. J., Kopp, O. R., Kuleck, G. A., McNeil, G., Morris, R., Myka, J. L., Nagengast, A., Overvoorde, P. J., Poet, J. L., Reed, K., … Elgin, S. C. R. (2008). UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH: Genomics Education Partnership. Science , 322 (5902), 684–685. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1165351

Martin, B. A., Rechs, A., Landerholm, T., & Mcdonald, K. (2021). Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences spanning two semesters of biology impact student self-efficacy but not future goals. Journal of College Science Teaching , 50 (4), 33–47.

Matyas, C. J., Stofer, K. A., Lannon, H. J. L., Judge, J., Hom, B., & Lanman, B. A. (2022). Despite challenges, 2-year college students benefit from faculty-mentored geoscience research at a 4-year university during an extracurricular program. Journal of Geoscience Education , 0 (0), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/10899995.2022.2037403

Overath, R. D., Zhang, D., & Hatherill, J. R. (2016). Implementing course-based research increases student aspirations for STEM degrees. Council on Undergraduate Research Quarterly , 37 (2), 4–10. https://doi.org/10.18833/curq/37/2/2

Pavlova, I. V., Remington, D. L., Horton, M., Tomlin, E., Hens, M. D., Chen, D., Willse, J., & Schug, M. D. (2021). An introductory biology research-rich laboratory course shows improvements in students’ research skills, confidence, and attitudes. PLOS ONE , 16 (12), e0261278. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0261278

Rodenbusch, S. E., Hernandez, P. R., Simmons, S. L., & Dolan, E. L. (2016). Early engagement in course-based research increases graduation rates and completion of science, engineering, and mathematics degrees. CBE Life Sciences Education , 15 (2), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.16-03-0117

Shaffer, C. D., Alvarez, C., Bailey, C., Barnard, D., Bhalla, S., Chandrasekaran, C., Chandrasekaran, V., Chung, H. M., Dorer, D. R., Du, C., Eckdahl, T. T., Poet, J. L., Frohlich, D., Goodman, A. L., Gosser, Y., Hauser, C., Hoopes, L. L. M., Johnson, D., Jones, C. J., … Elgin, S. C. R. (2010). The genomics education partnership: Successful integration of research into laboratory classes at a diverse group of undergraduate institutions. CBE Life Sciences Education , 9 (1), 55–69. https://doi.org/10.1187/09-11-0087

Shaffer, C. D., Alvarez, C. J., Bednarski, A. E., Dunbar, D., Goodman, A. L., Reinke, C., Rosenwald, A. G., Wolyniak, M. J., Bailey, C., Barnard, D., Bazinet, C., Beach, D. L., Bedard, J. E. J., Bhalla, S., Braverman, J., Burg, M., Chandrasekaran, V., Chung, H. M., Clase, K., … Elgin, S. C. R. (2014). A course-based research experience: How benefits change with increased investment in instructional time. CBE Life Sciences Education , 13 (1), 111–130. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe-13-08-0152

Shapiro, C., Moberg-Parker, J., Toma, S., Ayon, C., Zimmerman, H., Roth-Johnson, E. A., Hancock, S. P., Levis-Fitzgerald, M., & Sanders, E. R. (2015). Comparing the impact of course-based and apprentice-based research experiences in a life science laboratory curriculum.  Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education ,  16 (2), 186–197.  https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.v16i2.1045

Shuster, M. I., Curtiss, J., Wright, T. F., Champion, C., Sharifi, M., & Bosland, J. (2019). Implementing and evaluating a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) at a hispanic-serving institution. Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning , 13 (2). https://doi.org/10.7771/1541-5015.1806

Spronken-Smith, R. A., Brodeur, J. J., Kajaks, T., Luck, M., Myatt, P., Verburgh, A., Walkington, H., & Wuetherick, B. (2013). Completing the research cycle: A framework for promoting dissemination of undergraduate research and inquiry. Teaching & Learning Inquiry: The ISSOTL Journal , 1 (2), 105–118. https://doi.org/10.2979/teachlearninqu.1.2.105

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Wiley, E. A., & Stover, N. A. (2014). Immediate dissemination of student discoveries to amodel organism database enhances classroom-based research experiences. CBE Life Sciences Education , 13 (1), 131–138. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.13-07-0140

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Purpose and goals of tar:.

Teaching as Research is the “deliberate, systematic, and reflective use of research methods to develop and implement teaching practices that advance the learning experiences and outcomes of students and teachers.”

What is Teaching-as-Research?

Detailed Examples of other TAR Projects:

• Teaching-as-Research video collection  (CIRTL.net login required)

Engagement with the TAR process provides opportunities for participants to gain a research-based perspective on teaching and learning. Participants will identify a problem/challenge within the context of teaching and learning in their discipline, design a project that will clarify why that challenge occurs or design a teaching intervention to address the challenge, apply appropriate methods, implement, collect data, analyze and interpret the data to draw conclusions.

A long-term goal is to have participants use their TAR experience as a substantial example of their reflective, professional practice applicable to a range of career outcomes.

Benefits and Transferable Skill Development:

• Develop project management and research proposal development skills in a teaching and learning context related to evidence-based pedagogies.
• Gather and analyze data from classroom studies to make more informed decisions about evidence-based teaching approaches.
• Enhance collaboration skills with peers and mentors to promote higher quality undergraduate student engagement and educational experiences.
• Apply critical thinking skills in the context of teaching and learning in one’s discipline.
• Demonstrate research competence in an area outside of one’s discipline.

TAR Project Timeline

Prepare (summer).

• Get Inspired. Brainstorm ideas or see what others have done.
• Complete application and enroll in TAR via the CIRTL network
• Identify possible projects and faculty partner

Plan (Fall)

• Perform a literature review. What have others published that can inform your proposal?
• Engage in TAR course to develop project. Engage in TAR learning community cohort meetings and submit TAR proposal.
• Implement project: collect and analyze data

Do (Spring)

• Report and reflect
• Engage in TAR learning community cohort meetings
• Refine data analysis
• Generate report and present findings

Steps to completing a Teaching-as-Research (TAR) Project

• Complete Associate’s Level of Accomplishment
• Get Oriented & Inspired – The TAR experience is focused on process not a product. Explore what others have done at other institutions, search education research literature for ideas of interest. Consider what challenges students’ learning within your discipline to get started.
• Identify a project and mentor.  Many participants enter into the TAR experience with a project in mind. This could be based on a course or topics you’re interested in, an identified course you’re working with in your department, or based on a faculty member or instructor you’d like to work with. As the TAR program evolves, we will have a list of past projects and previous mentors.
• Proposal development.  You will begin to define your TAR project, develop your project plan, explore available resources, and learn more about the university’s institutional review board (IRB) process that facilitates responsible research. Proposal development includes a literature review, defining your learning and project goals, assessments and activities and research methods. Enrolling in a TAR course offered through the CIRTL Network may assist with this development or get support through local TAR trainings and cohort meetings.
• In-person cohort meetings will occur to support this process and will continue during the implementation phase.
• Complete the Human Research Protection Program training . Prior to the start of your project, all participants are required to complete a brief (1-2 hours) online certification in human subjects research, and if necessary, submit an IRB request. The program director will help you navigate these processes by providing more information during the TAR course and TAR cohort meetings.
• Implement your TAR project  with the guidance of your mentor and with support from your internship cohort, and CIRTL staff. We estimate that students will typically spend 2-3 hours per week on their projects during the term, including meetings with mentors and cohort meeting sessions. This time commitment is highly variable depending on your project goals and stage of progress. Cohort meetings will involve peer presentation, feedback, and progress updates during this implementation phase.
• Submitting a Reflective Statement : This one-page statement should detail how your TAR experience influenced your understanding of the three CIRTL learning goals (teaching-as-research, learning communities, and learning-through-diversity).
• Submitting a Final Summative Report : This report is essentially a record of your TAR project. Suggested format will be provided. Sections to include Background/literature review, Question and Significance of project, hypothesis, Methods, Results, Critical Analysis of data (why null results, explanation of other variables, limitations of design and outcomes), Discussion, References.

Teaching Research

Main navigation.

As part of PWR’s charge related to the WR 1 and WR 2 requirements, PWR 1 and PWR 2 classes (in collaboration with the library) teach first and second-year students research strategies that provide an introduction to important research practices that they will likely use in their coursework at Stanford and then in future academic and professional work.

This charge accepts as a premise that student research at Stanford still focuses in many disciplines on scholarly texts (journal articles and books), though given the evolving communication landscapes, many student research projects might draw on additional sources, such as websites, podcasts, born-digital texts, etc. 

More specifically, in PWR 1, the learning objectives related to research are:

• Students will develop research skills, including the ability to craft a focused research question and to locate, analyze, and evaluate relevant sources, including both print-based and digital sources.
• Students will develop the ability, in research and in writing, to engage a range of sources and perspectives that illuminate a wider conversation about the topic
• (see the complete list of PWR 1 learning objectives here)

In PWR 2, the learning objectives related to research are:

• Students will continue to develop their ability to construct research-based arguments, including collecting, analyzing, and synthesizing data and scholarly and public articles and texts.
• (see the complete list of PWR 2 learning objectives here)

PWR 2, in particular, with its more advanced conversation about research-based arguments, is an appropriate site for inviting students to explore a range of research methods and sources.

In incorporating these research-focused objectives into the foundations of our PWR 1 and PWR 2 curricula, we intend to help students develop an understanding of and experience with research as a means of accessing and analyzing a wide range of sources that will orient them to scholarly and public conversations and ultimately help them create knowledge and contribute to those conversations.  In short, we are helping to guide students to conducting research effectively in the context of an R1 university.

That said, PWR classes are not “sources and methods” classes, such as you might find in other departments and programs across campus that foreground specific disciplinary modes of research.  As PWR courses teach students from across the disciplines, our goal is not to teach discipline-specific research methodologies.  We can certainly encourage students to explore different methodologies and provide context for disciplinary conventions that they will encounter in greater depth later in their studies, but PWR courses are not charged with doing the work of Writing in the Major courses.  Our charge is to provide them with an introduction to college-level research and to the ethics of research practice as well as a rhetorical perspective that will help them analyze a wide range of texts.

In keeping with this approach, PWR instructors should be mindful of how they scaffold and encourage research methods in their classrooms.  As a program, we are committed to fostering student curiosity, intellectual growth, and purposeful agency in their research process. However, at times students might want to incorporate research methods into their PWR 1 or PWR 2 projects that either do not actually align with the type of project or question under consideration or that present ethical challenges.  In most cases, the more problematic methods are associated with research on human subjects.   For this reason, we ask instructors to adhere to certain guidelines in teaching research methodologies:

• Teaching strategy: if a student is interested in a topic related to vulnerable populations, steer them toward data sets or interviews conducted by others.  That way they can still have access to some of the primary research on these individuals without conducting it themselves.
• Teaching strategy: Ask your students what they would gain from this sort of method that wouldn’t be gained from finding similar information – probably from a longer-term study with a larger sample size – in secondary research. Ask them to carefully consider and revise their research question to ensure that this methodology best supports generating a productive answer for that question.
• Teaching strategy: You might have students who want to conduct interviews or surveys complete the CITI training tutorial . 
• Teaching strategy: Review drafts of all surveys and interview questions; if not everyone in your class is engaged in this sort of primary research, set up peer consultation groups or special out-of-class group conferences to promote feedback and revision, asking students in these groups to serve as beta-testers/focus groups about the survey and interview questions.
• Teaching strategy:  Work with students to identify the target demographic and a sample size goal that is appropriate to the scope of the research, the research process timeline, and the resources available.

If you have any questions about a proposed student research topic or methods, please set up an appointment to talk with the Associate Director or one of the Directors for guidance as early in the research process as possible.

Additional resources to help students who are interested in conducting this sort of primary research will be available on Teaching Writing soon.  

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9 Teaching, Training, and Mentoring Students in Research Practices Inside and Outside the Classroom

Anne M. Brown

Introduction

Graduate students and faculty often engage in supporting, training, teaching, and mentoring undergraduate researchers in order to achieve research project milestones and to contribute to university experiential learning initiatives, much as you may be doing now [1] . However, as you may have found, little training or guidance exists on how to successfully engage and train students in the research environment of an R1 university setting. Undergraduate research is identified by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) as a high-impact practice (HIP) (AAC&U, 2020). These undergraduate research experiences can be very valuable in enhancing workforce development skills for undergraduates, but lack of planning, project scope, training, acknowledgment of skill level, and consideration for how to best train and teach students can be challenges for both graduate students and faculty. This chapter outlines an organizational teaching structure that can be used to engage students in undergraduate research in a traditional (e.g., classroom) and a non-traditional (e.g., research lab) environment. Additionally, this chapter offers best practices to ensure a successful experience in teaching, training, and mentoring undergraduate research students in a research-intensive university setting.

This chapter will discuss…

• Strategies for structuring research experiences in a classroom or lab environment.
• Practices to incorporate in the mentorship of students in undergraduate research

The role of experiential learning in higher education is expanding as new initiatives and strategic plans incorporate and support the practice in the undergraduate career of all students (Eyler, 2009). Pioneered by David Kolb in the 1980s, experiential learning can be cyclic and moves students from “concrete experiences” to “active experimentation/application”, with reflection and conceptualization components integrated into the cycle (Kolb, 1984). As a collective whole in higher education, “experiential learning” is frequently used synonymously with the term “experiential education.” Experiential education is often viewed as the broader philosophy of the complete educational pathway of a student, whereas experiential learning applies to an individual learning experience. This experiential learning process benefits students by grounding the theoretical core domain knowledge in an applied setting, where it harnesses the creativity of students to promote deeper levels of critical thinking, and it can incorporate a “trial-by-error” level of confidence and engagement with the material (Kolb & Kolb, 2018). Experiential learning can take many forms, including field work, internships, service-learning, and, in the context of this chapter, undergraduate research.

Undergraduate research experiences (UREs) can be a pivotal experience for students, regardless of major and anticipated career routes (NASEM, 2019). Undergraduate research is considered one of the high-impact practices (HIPs) defined by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and can benefit students by its integration in a classroom setting or in an applied learning setting (e.g., in a lab, in the field, etc.) (AAC&U, 2020). Often, undergraduate research is not a well-understood activity for undergraduate students in their first and second year, especially at a research-intensive (R1) university. Students often hear about undergraduate research opportunities, but are rarely exposed to what that represents for both the institution and for them in their own personal career journeys. As faculty members in the university, we can fill this knowledge gap by improving the communication systems to emphasize the utility and impact of undergraduate research, alongside training in research and data literacy, on our students’ durable skills.

Research as a broad conceptualization can engage students in thinking about questions they have about the world or an area of personal topic interest, promote a route for them to explore these questions, and ultimately collect necessary information (data!) to make decisions. Students develop a variety of skills such as information management, data management, data ethics, and problem solving during a URE. Importantly, students can leverage these UREs in their future careers—the major skills of critical thinking/problem solving, communication (oral, written, digital), and teamwork/collaboration that are developed during a URE influence the abilities of individuals in every sector of the workforce (McClure-Brenchley et al., 2020). Conveying the broad skillsets learned in an URE, in addition to the domain-specific technical aspects, can be incredibly useful in promoting these experiences for students and often enhance engagement as well (Brown et al., 2016). Describing these topics to the students as both skills learned and marketable features as they enter the next steps of their careers can further clarify the role of the university research enterprise to students.

As faculty members and graduate students, we can recognize the importance of UREs for undergraduates, but how do we creatively, strategically, and equitably engage students in these skills without overtaxing our own capacities? We must structure an unstructured experience, frame skill development, and focus on both research theory and domain specific training to provide an exceptional experience for students and the instructors (Brown et al., 2016). This chapter will discuss these practices in the classroom and in the research lab, where each setting has different goals and outcomes, but can benefit from commonalities in approach to engaging students in research.

Teaching and Mentoring Students in Research in the Classroom

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are becoming increasingly more common as a means to consistently engage a larger group of students in active-learning of research skills (Bangera & Brownell, 2014; Dolan, 2016). CUREs can be framed as a repeated, tested implementation or a certain research methodology that still maintains authentic inquiry by the student or as a research project related to the research interests of the instructor. Specifically for the latter example, individuals have implemented CUREs in a biology curriculum to have multiple student groups participate in a stepwise test of mutations of certain protein structures, using the student human power as a means to more widely scan for impact of mutation. Regardless of the intention and implementation, students are able to participate in this experience for course credit, easily integrate the experience into their schedule, and in some cases get required course credit for degree completion.

CUREs are not without challenges. For example, the time to instruct or serve as a teaching assistant (TA) in a CURE is much more time intensive than other courses, such that students often have issues in motivation and ownership of projects, and TAs lack the expertise to mentor students in a CURE environment (Heim & Holt, 2019). Having implemented a CURE for a first-year, 1 credit, P/F environment in the field of biochemistry, personal experience indicates these challenges are justified.

There are some strategies that have aided in the mitigation and improved experience (of both the instructor and the TA):

• Outline requirements up front. On the first day of class, we provide the rubrics, instructions, and expectations for the final deliverables of the CURE. Students are grouped either naturally at the start of class (using a SCALE-UP classroom, students naturally join tables) or in virtual teaching—via randomized assignment to smaller “breakout rooms” wherein small groups of students can synchronously collaborate until allocated group time ends. Students remain in these groups for the entire semester. Originally, we did not define group roles (i.e., everybody had an equal role). However, in more recent iterations of the course each person/group fills a specific role (project manager, lead data collection, lead writer, lead presentation design, etc.) so that there are more tangible responsibilities up front and students can conceptualize the process throughout the entire semester on the first day. Second, framing the project in terms of specific roles helped students properly conceptualize the complexity of collaborative research. As instructors, we also created all sign-up sheets for these roles (via Google Sheets) and shared notes documents (via Google Docs) and have these linked on the homepage of the course learning management system (LMS). These specific tools were chosen because they had the lowest barriers to access, requiring only a browser and limited processing power. The clarity of expectations and routes to move forward have improved student engagement and diminished confusion.
• Explicitly discuss the impact on their skills and careers. In the first-day materials, there is an explicit slide that details the skills to be taught and the objectives that will be experienced/performed by the student. These include basic research and data literacy skills (file management, file naming, data ethics, consumption of credible information, teamwork, writing and presentation skills) and domain specific, technical skills (for our course – command line interface, bash scripting, molecular visualization, summary statistics, etc.). After polling the class for general career interests, we then use at least one of those skills as an example in a career case the student might encounter. While the actual topic of the CURE implemented in the course might not be a direct interest of the student, the students can now conceptualize how this process can be beneficial for them. This has helped with the issues of ownership and follow-through of students.
• Offer incentives. While not possible in all situations, many universities offer an end-of-semester research symposium. Students have indicated that a final poster presentation that is attended by non-class faculty and students is an incentive. Additionally, students can add this presentation and/or symposium to their resume. Participating in a symposium hosted outside of the class might be extra work for a graduate teaching assistant (GTA) or instructor, so other opportunities include inviting faculty of the discipline to attend an in-class digital poster session (using screens in a large classroom or meeting room) at the end of the year. This then creates networking opportunities, which is a big attraction for students. Additionally, some of the research training modules in the course (e.g., data management, data ethics, etc.) have all been designed to be a digital credential (sometimes referred to as badge) so students will have records of completion as they explore internships or other on-campus research opportunities.
• Don’t forget to be a mentor. We have all struggled in the process of research in a variety of ways. Convey that to your students and humanize yourself and the process of research. Sometimes we focus solely on completing the in-class activities of the day and reaching the final deliverables of a course. With a CURE, however, there will be down time for the instructor to be circulating the room. One strategy that was very helpful was making sure each group had a regular check-in. How was their project going? What questions did they have? Did they know why they were doing today’s task? Finally, and what might be most important, how were they doing in general? How was their semester going? Were they excited about something coming up? Those questions greatly influenced the collegiality of the course and made the entire class, not just an individual group, feel like a team. These questions additionally opened the door for students to ask the questions they might be hesitant to ask out of lack of confidence, and even comment “I learned about things I didn’t know I needed to learn about.”

These four strategies have been helpful in finding balance and having clear expectations for both the student and instructor during a CURE. For a GTA, it can be useful to have all of the planning and expectations of the student deliverables completed at the start of the semester so that both the student and GTA know the final goal. Instructing or acting as a TA for a course that includes a CURE can be a rewarding experience and will be quite different from a lecture experience. Working with students in this capacity can also be a fantastic experience for GTAs earlier in their career, as mentoring students in the completion of a research task can develop their own mentorship and research skills.

Teaching and Mentoring Students in Research in the Lab

More structured undergraduate research experiences in the lab setting can be beneficial in supporting inclusivity and STEM retention (NASEM, 2019; Hernandez et al., 2018). While it might seem oxymoronic since undergraduate research is about exploration and discovery, students need structure when learning many of the technical and procedural aspects of undergraduate research. Students are accustomed to being in a defined learning environment and classroom. Expectations are highlighted on the first day and there is a pretty standard procedure of events. However, often it is solely up to the principal investigator (PI) to determine how a research experience is structured. This structure varies greatly even among instructors within the same department. While that freedom for the PI is warranted, we need to consider how that can affect the student and the GRA (graduate research assistant) that might become the central point of contact with the student. Implementing structure and training in both domain specific techniques and research methodology is necessary in order to provide a comprehensive training and experience for undergraduate research students and best utilize graduate student and faculty time and resources. Structuring the “standard” parts of the research process, like end of semester goals and deliverables, highlighting the timetable in which certain major milestones should be reached (which should not be tied to actual research results obtained), developing a grading/accountability scale, and presenting expectations in a way that students are used to will alleviate a lot of repetitive questions and provide a sandbox for the student to develop. This structured approach has been studied (Brown, Lewis, & Bevan, 2016) by examining the pre- and post-implementation of a structured undergraduate research experience, and the value and utilization of a structure in undergraduate research experiences, and highlights the impact of continuous iterations and lessons learned implemented since deployment. Tips for implementing structure but allowing sandbox creativity are as follows:

• Use a syllabus. While it might seem confining or unnecessary to have a syllabus for a URE, most students are receiving credit for their time in the research lab. This credit is counted equally to any other course credit they receive, so why not have the same standardization that students are used to? We have found that having a syllabus greatly streamlines the process and semester expectations that already exist in other UREs as well as in other courses (e.g., paper, weekly participation, documentation, etc.) and defines expectations in a way that makes clear the grade the students will receive for credit. This has greatly enhanced our ability to host more undergraduate research students and has provided equitable settings for all students—from those starting in their first semester to those that have been in the lab for years.While the syllabus is a useful tool for setting student expectations, it is also highly valuable for the instructor and GRA. There are times when students might vanish, becoming unresponsive to emails and not heard from again. Perhaps the student is overwhelmed, overcommitted, or other issues have arisen; it therefore becomes more difficult for the instructor to assign a grade if there is no track-record of accountability and no route to prove that assignment of the given grade was warranted. This can also ease the stress of a GRA who has a student who is not showing up and provides easy documentation to show the PI the issues occurring without feeling responsible for them.
• Create structured training protocols. Students starting in the research lab will likely have minimal training both in the concepts of the research process and in the specific techniques utilized in the research group. Therefor we have found it useful to implement a standardized training process that all students must complete regardless of skill level. This provides equitable scaffolding for all students to join the group and requires output of the student so skill level and interest in research can be assessed and students can be more appropriately matched to projects based on these skills and interests. While some labs might not be able to afford that level or time commitment of training, it has paid off in the outputs after the first semester.
• Use an online platform for protocols and training. All aforementioned training is hosted on an LMS, which makes new students joining the group much easier to handle once the initial time investment in module/training material creation has occurred. Having all tutorials for the specific lab and training in one place, be it be on an LMS, an Open Science Framework, or an internal website, the central location and focus of a purposeful training can ease the burden of students integrating into the lab and developing the skills need to work on research projects.
• Implement several indicators of “success.” Often, GRAs or PIs expect students will produce stellar research results right out of the gate. In reality, this will not often be the case. Developing the skills to revise and re-do experiments in order to grow is a core component of the research process and it is our responsibility to develop the acceptance of and need for iteration in students. It is important for students to experience that the first time we do something, especially in research, it will often not result in a final product. Iteration and the normalness of this process of improvement needs to be both communicated and embraced. The little wins—the connection of two pieces of information, forward movement even if small, or having a good student discussion—need to be acknowledged. PIs should be gracious with their GRAs and praise their overall interaction and work with a student, especially when the student grasps a difficult topic or continually improves at their presentations in group meetings. Looking at the process holistically, not solely based on the research outputs, will improve morale and motivation in the undergraduate research student and the team as a whole. There are occasions when GRAs may become stressed that it will reflect poorly on them as the GRA that a student is not performing—and you should remind them of the overall goals and various measures of success. We are all in different places in our life and we must be kind and observant of this with our students. We are here to perform high-quality research and to mentor the next generation in research and data literacy, and prepare them for their next steps in their careers. This approach and attitude can greatly improve team morale, relieve stress, and indirectly, improve the research outputs.

Imposing a structured framework on the research process a student partakes in during a lab-based URE can benefit the student, GRA, and instructor. The general structure, grading scheme, expectations, and routes to find information related to the URE should be easy to access and find (e.g., one central location). Standardization across all students enhances community and can help with students lacking confidence in an URE.. Openly and easily accessible trainings (e.g., publicly available and easy to find) and protocols can improve the transparency of research performed as well as teach best practices for both open research and open science. While there is some up-front time required to create the structure—specifically the syllabus and training materials—that time is recouped in the future with a system that makes it easy to bring new students on board. In the end, this structure and planning contributes to both the research and teaching enterprises of the university.

Lessons Learned from Teaching and Mentoring Students in Undergraduate Research

UREs are a fantastic experience that allow students to engage more deeply in a topic, experience success and failure in safe environments, and propel their curiosity and skills to the next level (Petrella & Jung, 2008). That is not to say that these experiences are not time-consuming for instructors and GRA/GTAs, but the interactions, excitement, and outcomes that result can greatly outweigh the challenges. This chapter has highlighted the importance and role of experiential learning, specifically undergraduate research, in the education and development of the student in multiple settings. Routes and advice to deal with challenges of UREs in both the classroom environment and in the research lab setting are discussed, as well as highlighting the commonalities between them. Preparing and thinking about the kind of environment and setting you want to create in an URE is an important starting place. As instructors, we must continually consider how we frame and present to students the process of research, enhance their data literacy, and introduce domain-specific techniques and knowledge. Given the proliferation of misinformation, how we approach research and data literacy training via UREs is critical.

In retrospect as an instructor/PI in who both teaches an URE in a course and leads a large undergraduate research lab, these roles as a research instructor and research mentor are one of the most important, if not the most important, aspect of my position at the university. Mentorship has the ability to propagate long-lasting, far-reaching effects. The excitement that we demonstrate and the environment that we create in class and in the research lab has an ability to etch into the life experience of the student given the nature of UREs. UREs provide us the chance to be a mentor for both our students and our GRAs/GTAs. I have had and currently have exceptional mentors and I challenge myself to give back in the same way that I have benefited, propagating that cycle further. Just like framing of benefits is discussed in how to work with challenges of CUREs, it is important to conceptualize how important being a good mentor is at the onset of working with students in UREs.

A piece of advice when conceptualizing mentorship in UREs: one cannot “blanket mentor.” That is, each student needs an individualized approach to their particular mentoring relationship. Start those conversations early, and know that while it is a time investment, it benefits both the mentee and the mentor in the long run. Mentorship is a learning process, and I encourage you to follow Slack channels, Twitter threads, and scholarship on the matter for advice and solutions. As academics, we all are continually refining our craft. Participate and challenge yourself in these mentorship conversations as well as in your approach to deploying UREs in the classroom and lab environments. The tips and techniques discussed in this chapter will hopefully improve your experience in engaging with students in research environments. If you are a GRA/GTA beginning your journey in mentoring undergraduates, do not hesitate to ask your PI/instructor/mentor questions about these topics and challenge yourselves to grow in this area; it will benefit you throughout your career, no matter the path you take.

Reflection Questions

• What is one technique that was discussed that can be implemented in an undergraduate research experience that you work with?
• What is a technique or strategy that you have implemented that might mirror those discussed here? Have they been successful in alleviating challenging experiences in the classroom or the lab?
• Have you thought reflectively about your current and  past mentorship of students? What is working or not working and how might you adjust?
• As a GRA/GTA working with students in an URE, what is something you will utilize from this chapter in your current class or research lab?

Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). (2020, May 1). High-impact educational practices. https://www.aacu.org/node/4084 .

Bangera, G., & Brownell, S. E. (2014). Course-based undergraduate research experiences can make scientific research more inclusive. CBE—Life Sciences Education , 13(4), 602-606.

Brown, A. M., Lewis, S. N., & Bevan, D. R. (2016). Development of a structured undergraduate research experience: Framework and implications. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education , 44(5), 463-474. doi: 10.1002/bmb.20975

Dolan, E. L. (2016). Course-based undergraduate research experiences: current knowledge and future directions. National Research Council Communication Paper , 1, 1-34.

Eyler, J. (2009) The power of experiential education. Liberal Education , 95(4). https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ871318 .

Heim, A. B., & Holt, E. A. (2019). Benefits and challenges of instructing introductory biology course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) as perceived by graduate teaching assistants. CBE Life Sciences Education , 18(3), ar43. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.18-09-0193 .

Hernandez, P. R., Woodcock, A., Estrada, M., & Schultz, P. W. (2018). Undergraduate research experiences broaden diversity in the scientific workforce. Bioscience , 68(3), 204-211. doi: 10.1093/biosci/bix163

Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development . Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Kolb, A., & Kolb, D. (2018). Eight important things to know about the experiential learning cycle. Australian Educational Leader , 40(3), 8.

McClure-Brenchley, K. J., Picardo, K., & Overton-Healy, J. (2020). Beyond learning: Leveraging undergraduate research into marketable workforce skills. Scholarship and Practice of Undergraduate Research , 3(3), 28-35.

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM). (2019). 5 promising strategies that contribute to STEM student success, in Minority Serving Institutions: America’s Underutilized Resource for Strengthening the STEM Workforce . Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25257 .

Petrella, J. K., & Jung, A. P. (2008). Undergraduate Research: Importance, Benefits, and Challenges. International Journal of Exercise Science , 1(3), 91–95.

• How to cite this book chapter: Brown, A.M. 2022. Teaching, Training, and Mentoring Students in Research Practices Inside and Outside the Classroom. In: Westfall-Rudd, D., Vengrin, C., and Elliott-Engel, J. (eds.) Teaching in the University: Learning from Graduate Students and Early-Career Faculty . Blacksburg: Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences . https://doi.org/10.21061/universityteaching License: CC BY-NC 4.0. ↵

Teaching in the University Copyright © 2022 by Anne M. Brown is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Teaching Research Practices

Library research.

Students who are early in their academic careers are often unfamiliar with and intimidated by the large holdings of our library collections; yet, to succeed at the University of Washington, they need to learn basic research skills. One great advantage of the CIC classroom is the immediate access to research materials it makes possible. It is easy to conduct a very effective library orientation from the computer classroom and to create integrated assignments that help students to develop these skills.

Below is an image of the  library homepage  navigation bar. Notice the "ask us" service, which links to a librarian ready to chat live with students about all of their research questions.

Planning a Library Orientation

• Invite a research librarian to your class  to conduct a general library orientation or a library research session connected to a particular assignment. Not only can the librarian help your students develop effective search strategies, but he or she can also discuss how to evaluate both print and Web resources. To arrange for a librarian to visit your course, visit the library's page for  Teaching Support for Faculty and Instructors .
• Prepare your students for orientation day  by using the library's online research tutorial called  Research 101 . This tutorial is a basic introduction to the research process. It is not customized for the UW library system in particular. It is modular, so you can choose the pieces of it you would like your students to experience. Some of the modules include worksheets and quizzes. The tutorial can be completed in class or out of class.
• Direct your students to the library's extensive set of web tutorials , some of them videos, on searching for the various kinds of resources available in the library, as well as the for the basic steps of the research process.  These tutorials  can be watched from home as preparation for a research orientation and also incorporated into a Go-Post freewrite about previous research experiences.
• Conduct your own orientation  to stay closer to the assignments and outcomes of your course. Instructors who are more experienced with the UW library system often opt to conduct their own library orientation session because they can more fully integrate the session with a course assignment, topic area and the outcomes. To get students started, consider doing a  Library Assessment  or  Library Search  exercise. These in-class activities are dynamic ways to get students engaged with the library's resources in a general way.

Incorporating Library Research into Assignments and In-class Activities

Scholars don't do scholarly research in general, they do disciplinary research within often a very narrow field. Rarely will scholars enter high level search terms, such as "women" and "education" into a search engine such as WordCat to turn up sources from across many disciplines and hundreds of journals and other publications--a practice that beginning researchers might consider the natural first step to academic research. In fact, scholars are more likely to search only a few journals within a field, or, to search using highly specialized search terms such as an author's name or disciplinary jargon. This kind of more effective, but also advanced, research practice is out of reach to beginning students,  unless we scaffold assignments and in-class activities to direct them  through the process and that provide the disciplinary knowledge that they need to be an effective researcher within the content area of our course.

Students will get a better sense of how scholars really do research and will find doing research a more relevant and satisfying practice if your research assignments and other assignments are fully integrated. For example, this  Integrated Library Research  assignment is in two parts to prepare students for the final researched essay. First, students are asked to find sources on a particular film from the course and to answer annotated bibliography-type questions. Secondly, students are asked to select one source that is particularly relevant to their research essay to analyse more carefully. Finally, students are ready to continue with a focused research process for the research essay.

Internet Research

Teaching a CIC course is an excellent opportunity to spend time teaching students better research practices for online research.

We are in a strange time when it comes to incorporating use of the internet into teaching academic research skills. Long gone are the days when categorical statements such as "Wikipedia is not appropriate for academic research" made any sense to students. In fact, such statements are more likely to reduce the credibility of the instructor, as anyone can see that a resource like Wikipedia has a great deal of use in both academic and non-academic contexts. Yet, Wikipedia, and the web at large, remains a minefield of partial and mis-information that researchers lacking deep domain knowledge in their area of research remain vulnerable to.

Research also shows (Kvavik 2005) that undergraduate students tend to overrate their ability to be critical users of the web. Teaching online research practices, an aspect of information literacy, is no longer about setting up boundaries around what is and is not considered "academic," but about teaching students the capacity to critically evaluate sources and information they find on the web.

The approach for teaching online research explained below is the outcome of a multi-disciplinary research project at the University of Washington from 2007-2009. The "Q6C Solution" can be used as a heuristic for planning lessons on research practices and/or writing research assignments, or it can be used as a tool to guide students through a process of critically evaluating sources and information they find on the web. The materials presented below can be adopted "as is" for use in a lesson or assignment about research practices in a CIC course.

Evaluating Internet Sources: The Q6C Solution

Where did the q6c solution come from.

The "Q6C Solution" grew out of the growing dissatisfaction of the researchers with the source evaluation checklists common to most writing handbooks. In general, the checklist approach to source evaluation encourages students to consider only superficial characteristics of an online source. Below is an image of a checklist from a popular writing handbook and an explanation of the limitations of this checklist (the blue bubbles).

In response to their dissatisfaction with this checklist, the researchers began to conceptualize a more realistic model for how researchers, in both academic and non-academic contexts, go about deciding whether a source is both  credible  and  useful  for a given research scenario. This "cloud" of "C" elements (see image below) models the complex and recursive process of critically evaluating a source. The relative importance of any given element, say "Characterize Authorship" or "Contextualize," will vary with the value a particular discipline or field of knowledge places on it. The value placed on a particular element for a particular field of knowledge is part of what a researcher new to that field needs to learn. Often these values are tacit knowledge for experienced researchers in a field, which makes them hard to articulate and teach.

What teaching problem does Q6C help me solve?

It can be frustrating for instructors when students settle too easily for the first source that seems to provide an answer to their research question. Often this "settling" is an outcome of not knowing what makes one source better than another. Beginning researchers in a field need to be taught explicity what counts as a "best" source in a given field of knowledge. The Q6C model can function as an heuristic for an instructor to raise his or her awareness of the most valuabe "C" elements for identifying a "best" source in a given research scenario, or it can function as a tool for students to guide their process of evaluating sources. Either way, the goal is to make the researcher, experienced or newcomer, more aware of the elements of a critical evaluation process. With a greater awareness of what it is required to know to adequately evaluate a source, instructors can include this knowledge in a lesson, and students can better know what questions to ask before rushing to assume that a source is in fact a credible and useful one.

An example of Q6C at work

The image below illustrates a Q6C critical evaluation process for a research question and research scenario in a fictional college-level geology course. This scenario was used as part of a lesson on the critical evaluation of online sources in an intermediate composition course. The "first hit" source, a government website, contained most of the information needed to answer the research question. However, when the research scenario is taken into account, it is not appropriate as the citable source for this information. A novice researcher, however, may not have the knowledge that a government website likely contains secondary information that may be subject to bias and/or incomplete, and that in a scientific context such a source would not be considered the most credible source for this information. During this lesson, most students did not continue to search for the primary, scientific source of this information because they originally saw no need to. In this case, teaching students to look for primary corroborating sources in the reference section of the online document was the key to prompting them to find the "best" source.

The evaluation process visualized below begins at the green arrow with the "1st hit" and ends with the conclusion that the "3rd hit" is the most relevant and credible source given this research scenario.

Using Q6C as a Tool for Research Lesson and Assignment Design

When assigning research assignments, it is important that the instructor is aware of what students need to know about the research scenario and the field of research in order to avoid setting them up to "settle" on a source prematurely. This knowledge can then be scaffolded into the course via explicit lessons or assignments.

The heuristic illustrated below prompts an instructor through the process of designing a lesson or assignment requiring students to do research. Most importantly, it prompts instructors to use the Q6C model to identify their own tacit knowledge and practices for doing research in their field so that these can then be explicitly taught in the course.

Questions for Instructors to Consider When Planning Research Lessons and Assignments

• How do experienced researchers in a field know when they have found a "best" source?
• What do experienced researchers in a field know about what makes a source a "best" source that newcomers don't know?
• How can newcomers to a field be supported to do research with the savvy of experienced researchers?

Things to Consider When Using Q6C to Plan a Lesson or an Assignment

• Will you prepare an archive of relevant sources for the given research scenario for students to search within, or will you set students loose on the open web (or the library)?
• How will you weight the student's research process in the evaluation of an assignment?
• Will you explicitly teach the "C" elements, or will you prompt students to deduce them by guiding them through a research process in class. Having a prepared archive can be helpful for this approach.

Teaching Q6C as an Explicit Tool for Evaluating Online Sources

Q6C can also be taught explicitly to students as a tool for supporting them through a more critical evaluation of online sources. As with the instructor's heuristic approach above, the outcome of this approach is to make students more aware of what they need to know to evaluate the credibility and usefulness of a source for a given research scenario. It is very important that the emphasis of a lesson or an assignment incorporating the Q6C model avoids being a lesson on the abstract elements of the model itself, and thus just another, albeit more complex, checklist approach. Another way to think of the Q6C model is as a model of a way of thinking, or a habit of mind. Students can use the Q6C model as a crutch for helping them maintain a critical stance towards a source, but the model must be used to complement instruction in the research practices of the field within which the research is being done.

Sample assignments that have successfully improved the quality of student source evaluation by teaching the Q6C model explicitly are included in the Sample Assignment section below.

Suggestions for Teaching with Q6C

• Identify which components of Q6C you want to emphasize and scaffold the assignment’s research process so that students learn new skills incrementally.
• Teach that research is about a process, not about a product.
• Construct assignments that engage your students in authentic research practices for your target discipline.
• Make explicit the outcomes of the assignment and encourage reflection to help move students to the meta-cognitive level.
• Consider choosing research topics that you are not an expert in so that you can share the discovery process with the students.
• Perform the assignment yourself or with a colleague prior to class in order to anticipate student responses.
• for more information contact...

Sample Assignments and Student Work

Sample assignments.

• Website Analysis Assignment This assignment was developed using the Q6C model. It was developed for a history course, but it can be adapted to an English or writing course.
• Q6C Student Handout This handout was developed to summarize the elements of Q6C for students. It was developed for a history course, but can be adapted to an English or writing course.
• Library Search Exercise This is a version of a library “scavenger hunt” exercise. It allows students to become comfortable with the library’s catalogue and information system. It simulates some of the typical problems that students encounter when doing library work and shows the strategies for resolving these problems by themselves.
• Library Assessment Exercise The assessment can be projected onto the screen. Students answer a series of specific questions and exchange knowledge about the libraries with each other. It provides the instructor with a sense of their familiarity with research skills.
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Department of Education

Research projects, project status, research area, research category, research group, evaluation of the pupil premium plus post-16 programme.

Evaluating the role out of the Department for Education’s Pupil Premium Plus Post-16 programme supporting looked after children and care leavers in further education.

OUCEA’s wider engagement

Engaging with the assessment community

Neurodivergent Education for Students, Teaching & Learning (NESTL)

This project supports neurodivergence-inclusive learning and teaching at the University of Oxford.

LangQuest-EY: A self-report educator questionnaire to assess confidence in language supporting practices in early years settings

Developing and piloting a self-administered questionnaire that captures early years educators’ confidence in supporting children’s communication and language development (LangQuest-EY).

Effectiveness Trial for the Evaluation of the Mathematical Reasoning Programme for Year 2 Pupils Using an Online Professional Development Training Model

Evaluating the effectiveness of the Mathematical Reasoning Programme for Year 2 pupils when rolled out to around 200 schools using an online professional development training model.

What Matters to Students: Embedding Student Voices in Evaluations to Improve Student Outcomes

The project appraises the role of student voices in access and participation, focusing on how providers engage with students, and their role in improving outcomes.

Oxford Education Deanery Sustainability Team

Project aimed at integrating nature, climate and sustainability teaching in all aspects of school, teacher and professional education.

Analysis of Costs in Traditional and Early Permanence Adoption Routes

Project report exploring the costs of adoption in early permanence and traditional adoption routes

Assessment Materials Online

Key concepts in educational assessment

UK secondary school students’ motivations for learning Chinese as a Foreign Language

This study aims to better understand the factors which impact positively and negatively on students’ motivation for learning Mandarin and European Languages in secondary schools.

Online Professional Development for Delivering the Mathematical Reasoning Programme in Year 2

This project aims to assess the effectiveness of delivering training online to teachers and their supporting TAs to deliver the Mathematical Reasoning Programme for Year 2.

Understanding and responding to the needs of kinship families from Black and Asian communities

A study focused on understanding the experiences and needs of kinship carers from Black and Asian communities to provide recommendations for practice and policy

Empowering students to develop research skills

February 8, 2021

This post is republished from   Into Practice ,  a biweekly communication of Harvard’s  Office of the Vice Provost for Advances in Learning

Terence D. Capellini, Richard B Wolf Associate Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology, empowers students to grow as researchers in his Building the Human Body course through a comprehensive, course-long collaborative project that works to understand the changes in the genome that make the human skeleton unique. For instance, of the many types of projects, some focus on the genetic basis of why human beings walk on two legs. This integrative “Evo-Devo” project demands high levels of understanding of biology and genetics that students gain in the first half of class, which is then applied hands-on in the second half of class. Students work in teams of 2-3 to collect their own morphology data by measuring skeletons at the Harvard Museum of Natural History and leverage statistics to understand patterns in their data. They then collect and analyze DNA sequences from humans and other animals to identify the DNA changes that may encode morphology. Throughout this course, students go from sometimes having “limited experience in genetics and/or morphology” to conducting their own independent research. This project culminates in a team presentation and a final research paper.

The benefits: Students develop the methodological skills required to collect and analyze morphological data. Using the UCSC Genome browser  and other tools, students sharpen their analytical skills to visualize genomics data and pinpoint meaningful genetic changes. Conducting this work in teams means students develop collaborative skills that model academic biology labs outside class, and some student projects have contributed to published papers in the field. “Every year, I have one student, if not two, join my lab to work on projects developed from class to try to get them published.”

“The beauty of this class is that the students are asking a question that’s never been asked before and they’re actually collecting data to get at an answer.”

The challenges:  Capellini observes that the most common challenge faced by students in the course is when “they have a really terrific question they want to explore, but the necessary background information is simply lacking. It is simply amazing how little we do know about human development, despite its hundreds of years of study.” Sometimes, for instance, students want to learn about the evolution, development, and genetics of a certain body part, but it is still somewhat a mystery to the field. In these cases, the teaching team (including co-instructor Dr. Neil Roach) tries to find datasets that are maximally relevant to the questions the students want to explore. Capellini also notes that the work in his class is demanding and hard, just by the nature of the work, but students “always step up and perform” and the teaching team does their best to “make it fun” and ensure they nurture students’ curiosities and questions.

Takeaways and best practices

• Incorporate previous students’ work into the course. Capellini intentionally discusses findings from previous student groups in lectures. “They’re developing real findings and we share that when we explain the project for the next groups.” Capellini also invites students to share their own progress and findings as part of class discussion, which helps them participate as independent researchers and receive feedback from their peers.
• Assign groups intentionally.  Maintaining flexibility allows the teaching team to be more responsive to students’ various needs and interests. Capellini will often place graduate students by themselves to enhance their workload and give them training directly relevant to their future thesis work. Undergraduates are able to self-select into groups or can be assigned based on shared interests. “If two people are enthusiastic about examining the knee, for instance, we’ll match them together.”
• Consider using multiple types of assessments.  Capellini notes that exams and quizzes are administered in the first half of the course and scaffolded so that students can practice the skills they need to successfully apply course material in the final project. “Lots of the initial examples are hypothetical,” he explains, even grounded in fiction and pop culture references, “but [students] have to eventually apply the skills they learned in addressing the hypothetical example to their own real example and the data they generate” for the Evo-Devo project. This is coupled with a paper and a presentation treated like a conference talk.

Bottom line:  Capellini’s top advice for professors looking to help their own students grow as researchers is to ensure research projects are designed with intentionality and fully integrated into the syllabus. “You can’t simply tack it on at the end,” he underscores. “If you want this research project to be a substantive learning opportunity, it has to happen from Day 1.” That includes carving out time in class for students to work on it and make the connections they need to conduct research. “Listen to your students and learn about them personally” so you can tap into what they’re excited about. Have some fun in the course, and they’ll be motivated to do the work.

Graduate College

Teaching-as-research.

A TAR project is an opportunity to use your disciplinary research skills to develop a research question relating to teaching and propose a project that would allow you to investigate this question with a class you are teaching or a TA for, or a data set available through your department or other university offices or departments. These projects can be small or large scale and can help you develop your reflective teaching skills. A project also is a great talking point on a resume or CV and in a job interview. If you are close to graduating and will not be able to implement a project, the work of designing and proposing a project is by itself a worthwhile endeavor.

Examples of Recent Projects:

• Assessing Workshop Models in the Undergraduate Creative Writing Classroom
• Which Group Work Methods Lead to Better Participation in the Classroom?
• The Efficacy of Open-Ended Questions for the College Classroom

The workshop schedule is listed below. Participants need to attend all sessions. If you are interested in joining the cohort, please submit an application as soon as possible.

Prerequisites:  Graduate students and post-docs from any academic discipline who have taken a graduate-level teaching-related course (at UI or elsewhere) or 5 teaching-related workshops (from the Center for Teaching, your department, the Graduate College, another academic department, etc.) are eligible to participate. Previous experience as a TA or instructor is also helpful.  If you have questions about whether a course or workshops you have taken fit, please email [email protected] with information about the course or workshops.    

Fall 2023 Teaching as Research Project Cohort:

Wednesday 9/6 3:00-4:30 pm  Introduction to Teaching as Research and CIRTL Wednesday 9/13 3:00-4:30 pm -  Evidence-Based Teaching Wednesday 9/20 3:00-4:30 pm - Methods and Assessment Wednesday  9/27 3:00-4:30 pm - Library Resources and Databases Wednesday 10/4  3:00-4:30 pm - Proposal workshop Wednesday 10/11 3:00-4:30 pm - IRB Overview

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Searle Teaching-as-Research (STAR)

Searle Teaching-As-Research (STAR) is a classroom-based research program designed to improve learning and teaching in STEM and social science disciplines.  This is part of the broader CIRTL at Northwestern efforts.

PROGRAM DETAILS

Location Online

Size & Format In-person: <10 participants

Dates & Times STAR is a two quarter-long program which runs in both winter and spring quarters.

Audience Graduate Students, Postdoctoral Trainees

STAR participants identify a research question focused on improving student learning prior to applying to the program. The classroom context for the research question may include a full course, a laboratory section of a course, or a module of an online course . Projects should take place at Northwestern University and can address any IRB-approved question about student learning that supports a participant's pedagogical and future career goals. Ideally, program participants will be teaching as a teaching assistant or instructor of record, co-teaching, or otherwise involved in a course concurrently with program participation.  This program has been re-imagined to guide participants through an IRB-approved TAR project.

Watch these videos to learn more about introducing Teaching-As-Research and the Teaching-As-Research inquiry cycle . A great place to start is reviewing examples of past participants' STAR projects .

Eligibility

STAR will run in the 24-25 academic year. 

The STAR program is open to any graduate student or postdoctoral fellow who has a project context and is a current or past participant of any one of the following programs:

• Reflective and Effective Teaching (RET) or its former iteration, the Teaching Certificate Program (TCP)
• Mentored Discussions of Teaching (MDT)
• The STEM MOOC-Centered Learning Community (MCLC)

Application

The STAR program online application includes:

• Identification and description of the project context (e.g., classroom) in which your STAR project will take place; traditionally participants implement their projects in the spring quarter
• Preliminary description of STAR project research question(s) that will be addressed
• Indication of faculty member with whom the participant will work, if known or applicable 

A faculty mentor is not required but suggested if you are implementing your project in their class. 

Participants will:

• Develop research questions in a classroom context
• Build awareness of human subject research
• Review literature to inform the project design
• Select and implement appropriate research methods
• Collect, analyze, and interpret research data
• Reflect and present on research findings and implications

Those planning to disseminate their project findings will also:

• Engage with Human Subjects Research training content
• Discuss the importance of Human Subjects Research ethics in the context of a classroom-based research project
• Submit an IRB protocol 

Participant Expectations

• During winter quarter, participants attend monthly seminars with Searle Center staff to design their research projects and to iteratively work through their projects both synchronously and asynchronously.
• During spring quarter, participants implement their projects, attend monthly STAR meetings, and present findings at a poster/presentation session in June (see examples of past participants’ STAR projects below.)

Faculty Mentors

Expectations.

Hold at least one mentor-mentee meeting in the Winter and Spring quarters. If you are on the IRB*, we suggest meeting more frequently. 

• Attend Meeting 1 to discuss project as well as the teaching context for the project, and planned involvement of Faculty Mentor (e.g., will you be on the IRB?)  
• Attend Meeting 2 to discuss components of IRB application (i.e., IRB protocol) prior to submission; IRB must be approved before project implementation  
• Attend Meeting 3 to discuss data collection
• Attend Meeting 4 to discuss findings and final presentation 

Interested in a consultation for your Searle Teaching-as-Research project? Please contact:

Erika Nadile, Assistant Director of Interdisciplinary Connections [email protected]

This year, the STAR program is newly re-imagined with an emphasis on flexibility and research ethics. We are provided with abundant resources and are encouraged to tailor the research project based on our own pace and goal. Moreover, the frequent group and individual meetings facilitate collaboration and provide invaluable support and efficient feedback from mentors and peers, greatly enhancing the overall quality of our projects.”

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Areas of research and research project ideas

Your study requires you to write a research proposal which builds on your own areas of interest from higher education or professional experience. The most important thing is that you are interested in your own research project, and that you find a supervisor whose interests and expertise align with yours.

Prospective applications should look at the research expertise of potential supervisors and contact them directly to check their capacity to supervise your PhD.

Examples of research project ideas

Some of our members of staff have also written short overviews of research projects ideas, aligned with their own interests, to provide examples of potential PhD projects to applicants. 

These projects are not funded places. They are examples of what a PhD project could look like.

Those examples are quite specific, and aligned with specific researchers' interests, but there are many other fields of research covered in the department, so have a look at our Research Centre pages , staff pages and the Education Department PURE page to see what kind of research is being done here. This should help you get a sense of whether your research interests would be a good fit for our department or not.

In any case, look closely at the research expertise of your potential supervisors before applying . The most common reason for an application being rejected outright (basic requirements being fulfilled) is that the project is not aligned with anyone's research expertise here.

Before applying, you may email prospective supervisors in the department directly. Please note that they are not obliged to reply to you until you have formally applied for the PhD programme .

Centre for Advanced Studies in Language and Education (CASLE)

Prediction in language learning: can we teach it and what sort of knowledge is generated.

Supervisor: Professor Emma Marsden

When we hear or read language in real time, we constantly, and extremely rapidly, anticipate which sounds, words and grammar might come up next. It is not clear whether this phenomenon is the result of having already learned language - that is, after multiple experiences we become adept at predicting what will come next - or whether, in fact, “prediction” is a key mechanism by which we actually learn language- that is: if our predictions are met by what we subsequently hear, this establishes or consolidates knowledge of the language; if our predictions are not met, we learn from our error and tally the likelihood of particular combinations in language (not) occurring. To date, there is strong evidence of prediction in native speakers, but evidence is much less clear in second language (L2) learners. Also, L2 research to date has (a) focused on a narrow domain of grammar in the noun phrase (gender, animacy, case) and (b) not yet investigated whether explicitly teaching and practising prediction can help learning. This research project would make a cutting-edge contribution to both learning theory and teaching practice by investigating these issues in a classroom experiment, focusing on hitherto neglected syntax.

Read more about this ' Prediction in language learning: Can we teach it and what sort of knowledge is generated? ' research project.

Open science and a collaborative ethic in research: Motivations, barriers, and benefits

Open science practices involve making the processes and products of research freely available for scrutiny by all. Open science can include making available the materials and procedures used to collect, code, and analyse data, as well as the data and final reports themselves. Across many disciplines, including within social sciences, such practices are increasingly encouraged via incentives from governments, funders, universities, journals and publishers. Open science is considered desirable for reasons relating to (a) social equity (publicly paid research should be available to the public), (b) the quality of research (rigour, validity and reliability), and (c) the rate of progress (allowing more and better replication). However, despite many calls over several decades, research communities are slow to react, in part due to a lack of data. This PhD would be among the first studies to provide hard data about attitudes towards and benefits of open science.

Read more about this ' Open science and a collaborative ethic in research: Motivations, barriers, and benefits ' research project.

Improving motivation and language knowledge and proficiency in second language learning in low exposure contexts

A great deal of research into second language learning focuses on the most effective ways of teaching. A range of interesting questions can be asked related to, for example, the kind of feedback given, intentional versus incidental learning, deductive versus inductive learning, different distributions of practice, different curriculum design principles (such as topic- versus language-driven), the role of rich, engaging texts. Generally, to date, effects on learning are measured—a few days or weeks after the intervention—on linguistic outcome measures (oral or written production, comprehension, grammaticality judgement, gapfill, or sentence matching tests). That is, studies are a) relatively short term and b) focused on linguistic outcomes. However, of major interest to educators is whether interventions that aim to help achievement (language knowledge and proficiency) actually also help motivation, such as a desire to ‘stick with it’ in the longer term (see Erler & Macaro, 2011 for a relevant example) or learners' belief in their own ability when faced with a task (e.g., their self-efficacy). A parallel problem is that surprisingly little motivation research to date has examined progress in language learning over time, focusing on the relationship between achievement and motivation. In Anglophone contexts, where drop out from language studies is a major concern, better understanding about the nature of the relationship between progress and motivation is critical.

Read more about this ' Improving motivation and language knowledge and proficiency in second language learning in low exposure contexts ' research project.

Designing texts for learning and motivation among socially disadvantaged pupils in low-exposure language classrooms

It continues to be frequently claimed that '(adapted-)authentic' texts are more engaging and more helpful for learning than texts that have been created for pedagogic purposes with a pre-defined (i.e., constrained) linguistic content (Graham et al., 2020a). Such claims have been extended to populations who tend not to choose to study a GCSE in a foreign language or tend not to enjoy literature- or text-based subjects, including socially-disadvantaged populations in England (Porter et al., 2022).  The causes for any benefits of specific text-types for motivation and learning could be related to (1) the texts themselves, (2) the teaching approaches used, and/or (3) the learners' individual characteristics. There is a need to explore the validity of such claims for these specific populations, whose motivation and exposure to the language can often be low. 

Read more about this ' Designing texts for learning and motivation among socially disadvantaged pupils in low-exposure language classrooms ' research project.

Language and literacy skills of international students, home students and home students with dyslexia in UK higher education: How different are they, and does it matter?

Supervisor: Dr Danijela Trenkic

Recent research shows that international students who speak English as a foreign language pursue their university education with a systematic disadvantage: despite arriving with required language qualifications, they know fewer words, are much slower readers and understand less of what they read than home students. They also experience lower academic success. Yet few UK universities make any assessment adjustments for students who speak English as a foreign language (EFL). In contrast, language comprehension and writing difficulties of home students disadvantaged by dyslexia are normally accommodated for, eg by extra time in exams. Should similar provision be in place for EFL students? This study aims to investigate whether language-related difficulties experienced by international EFL students are bigger or smaller than those experienced by home students with dyslexia.

Read more about this ' Language and literacy skills of international students, home students and home students with dyslexia in UK higher education: How different are they, and does it matter? ' research project.

Language and literacy skills of international and home students in UK higher education: How different are they, and does it matter?

International students in UK higher education often experience lower academic success compared to British home students. One of the contributing factors to the differential attainment appears to be language: despite arriving with required language qualifications, EFL students know significantly fewer words, are much slower readers and understand less of what they read than British home students. Language difficulties, however, have been predominantly demonstrated on Chinese students, and it is unclear to what extent the language and academic difficulties of this population are representative of other international students, especially of those who come from typologically closer languages to English or who study with fewer fellow speakers of the same language. Understanding language difficulties of international students and what factors contribute to them is critical for developing appropriate support.

Read more about this ' Language and literacy skills of international and home students in UK higher education: How different are they, and does it matter? ' research project.

Language development through games

International students now play an important part in many UK universities but many struggle with the linguistic demands of their programmes and fail to achieve their full potential. Previous research has shown that reading for pleasure improves broad language skills and leads to improved educational outcomes. This project considers whether text-oriented games such as Disco Elysium, Heaven's vault or 80 Days could be used to motivate international students to read more English text, and how playing such games could improve their language skills and educational outcomes.

Read more about this ' Language development through games ' research project.

Language learning in the age of Global English

Supervisor: Dr Ursula Lanvers

Currently welcoming projects in three areas:

Focus A: As the world is learning English, how is English dominance shaping the conditions, experiences and opportunities for the learning of languages other than English? What is the effect on learners with English as (part of their) L1? What is the effect for learners learning several languages?

Focus B: As the domain of Education gets increasingly englishized, what is the effect, on both learners and teachers, of learning via the medium of English (EMI)?

Focus C: Multimodal approaches in the foreign language classroom.

Read more about each focus within this ' Language learning in the age of Global English ' research project.

Literary translation in education

Supervisor: Dr Clémentine Beauvais

There is currently little empirical or theoretical research on literary translation in education, despite a recent surge of interest in the practice of translation in foreign-language learning. The practice of literary translation for purposes other than language-learning – for instance, for literary education, intercultural competence or metalinguistic skills – is especially under researched. I am interested in supervising doctoral projects on literary translation at all levels of education, UK-focused or internationally.

Read more about this ' Literary translation in education ' research project.

Language contact and language learning in the digital age

Supervisor: Dr Zöe Handley

Technological innovations have changed the way in which we communicate opening up the possibility for students studying a foreign language to engage with speakers of the target language from their home country without visiting the target country via a range of technologies from discussion boards and social media to text chat and video conferencing. At the same time the availability of these same technologies has made it easier for language learners to maintain contact with friends and family in their home country while studying abroad. Study abroad has long been assumed to be beneficial to language learners because it provides ample opportunities to practice the target language. The possibilities that new communications technologies offer students studying at home to engage in the target language, it has been argued, have the potential to reduce the advantage of studying abroad in terms in terms of levels of language use, often referred to as language contact, and at the same time increase the extent to which students use their first language during that time. Some research has started to explore the question of the impact of new communications technologies on study abroad and study at home.

This research is, however, limited and, as is true of the broader literature on study abroad, few studies have looked at these questions from the perspective of students studying for a degree abroad, as opposed to intensively studying the target language. In this project, you will explore students’ use of these new communications technologies to engage in the target language and their first language in a context of your choice and look at the relationship with language development.

Read more about this ' Language contact and language learning in the digital age ' research project.

Computer-mediated task-based language learning and teaching: Exploring the impact of novel tasks on language production

Selecting and grading tasks is one of the most significant challenges in implementing task-based language learning. In response to this challenge, a large body of research has examined the impact of task design variables and implementation factors on learner interaction and the quality of the language they produce. As new communication technologies have emerged, researchers have also begun to investigate the unique features of these modes of communication on task-based interaction and learner language production. New communication technologies also bring about new real world tasks and new ways of designing and implementing language learning tasks. For example, within the literature on business communication, a number of in-box simulations, ie email tasks, have been proposed. In this project you will explore the impact of some of these new ways of designing and implementing language learning tasks on the quality of the language they produce.

Read more about this ' Computer-mediated task-based language learning and teaching: Exploring the impact of novel tasks  on language production ' research project.

Teacher cognition for technology in language teaching

Supervisor: Dr Zöe Handley

As a result of the current pandemic, teachers all over the world have been forced to move their teaching online. Through this experience teachers have gained valuable insights into how technology can be harnessed to facilitate language learning and teaching. Understanding these insights or teacher cognition (teachers’ thoughts, knowledge, and beliefs) about the use of technology to support language learning and teaching is important because teachers are active decision-makers who develop their own personal contextualised theories of learning and have a significant influence on the implementation of pedagogical innovations. Moreover, studies of teacher cognition provide valuable evidence about how novel approaches and methods of language teaching work in real learning contexts and the factors that influence their success and as such are an important complement to observational and experimental studies of such approaches and methods. With a view to contributing to the development of guidelines for best practice in the use of technology in language learning and teaching, you will interview and/or survey language teachers about their experiences of the use of technology to support and facilitate language learning.

Read more about this ' Teacher cognition for technology in language teaching ' research project.

Grammatical development and real-time processing in the L2

Supervisor: Professor Leah Roberts

There is a large amount of research on L2 grammatical development but very little relating this to real time processing of the input in the target language, but it is clear that processing language with developing knowledge must somehow push forward linguistic knowledge. The project would take a range of grammatical phenomena (eg tense-aspect, pronominals, gender and number agreement), and using a mix of traditional SLA methods (judgement tasks) and psycholinguistic methods (eye-tracking, EEG), chart developing linguistic knowledge with different participant groups (beginning learners/less-literate learners, for instance) in a longitudinal design.

Read more about this ' Grammatical development and real-time processing in the L2 ' research project.

The development of present perfect in L2 learners: Diachronic and synchronic approaches

The present perfect (eg, John has written a book) differs in a number of interesting ways across the Germanic languages (eg, English, Dutch, German). The current usage of the present perfect vs. the past simple in English arguably reflects change due to language contact over time. In this project, the historical change in the English present perfect/simple past will be studied and linked to the grammatical knowledge of second language learners (eg, English learners of Dutch, German learners of English, etc). Such research can push forward theories in both historical linguistic and SLA.

Read more about ' The development of present perfect in L2 learners: Diachronic and synchronic approaches ' research project.

Investigating second language comprehension within the conceptual framework of Cognition Hypothesis

Supervisor: Dr Nadia Mifka-Profozic

Much of the research into task-based language teaching has been conducted within the framework of Robinson’s Cognition hypothesis (2003, 2007, 2011) which predicts that more complex tasks in terms of cognitive demands will promote second language development by increasing accuracy and complexity of L2 learner production. In this regard Robinson’s hypothesis is contrasted to Skehan’s Limited Capacity hypothesis (1996). The construct of cognitive complexity has been further elaborated and tested in the Triadic Componential framework for task design and classification in which cognitive complexity of tasks is argued to increase either along resource-dispersing or resource-directing dimensions. This claim has been supported by evidence obtained in a number of studies that measured language development in terms of accuracy and complexity via production in a pretest-posttest experimental design. Language comprehension has remained an unexplored area within the Triadic Componential Framework of task design. The aim of the proposed study is to examine whether Robinson’s Cognition hypothesis can be confirmed in tasks involving second language comprehension (via reading or listening). Will the Triadic Componential framework and the proposed sequencing of tasks promote language development in tasks in which the primary focus is on comprehension? To objectively measure the level of task complexity, a dual-mode task methodology and eye-tracking will be used along with the participants’ self-rating.

The design of less cognitively demanding and more cognitively demanding pedagogic tasks will involve both explicit measures of comprehension and more implicit measures of processing during comprehension. For this purpose either eye-tracking or self-paced reading can be used.

Read more about ' Investigating second language comprehension within the conceptual framework of Cognition Hypothesis ' research project.

Centre for Research on Education & Social Justice  (CRESJ)

Education and post-development: challenging dominant narratives.

Supervisor: Dr Eleanor J. Brown

The role of education in international development has a long history and there is extensive research that investigates how these relationships work and how education can best be used to improve quality of life, particularly in so-called ‘developing’ countries. However, much of this work uses the development theories of modernisation and/or human capital as a starting point, and the assumptions built into these approaches affect the nature of the research, and as such, the findings tend to reproduce Western thinking about development that some argue is neo-colonial in its impact. Education can provide opportunities to challenge these narratives and search for appropriate and powerful alternatives in a range of different contexts. This will mean examining carefully how we understand development and what we should be aiming for in our attempts to improve living standards. The following step will be to explore the innovative ways that education may facilitate these aims. Education can be explored in a range of context(s) and at different stages, both formal and non-formal. The key aspect of the proposal will be the way the candidate engages with post-development literature and applies this to education in the chosen context of their research.

Read more about this ' Education and post-development: challenging dominant narratives ' research project.

Mapping postdoctoral pathways

Supervisor: Dr Sally Hancock

This project will track the early to mid-careers of PhD graduates.  Over the past decade, there has been a substantial growth in the number of PhD graduates internationally, and with this a shift in careers doctoral graduates go on to do. Indeed, in many national contexts, the vast majority of doctoral graduates will forge so-called ‘alternative’ careers outside of the academy. This trend has been met with two opposing reactions from commentators - there are those who characterise this as a necessary step in the development of the global knowledge economy, while others question the extent to which the PhD sufficiently prepares  ‘disillusioned and directionless’ PhD graduates for work beyond the academy. Despite the political and economic importance of this debate, there is relatively little robust empirical data tracking the careers of PhD graduates, and of the particular variables and decision processes which shape individual trajectories. 

Read more about this ' Mapping postdoctoral pathways ' research project.

Manifestations of gender-based harassment and violence in education

Supervisor: Professor Vanita Sundaram

Evidence suggests that forms of sexualised harassment and physical violence occur in educational contexts across the life course, including in early years settings, primary, secondary and tertiary education. These forms of harassment take place in different forms, through varying media and between different groups in education. Gender intersects with other characteristics in some forms of harassment and abuse. Our understanding about the multiple ways in which gender-based harassment and violence may be experienced by different stakeholders in education should be furthered.

Read more about this ' Manifestations of gender-based harassment and violence in education ' research project.

Institutional responses to gender-based harassment and violence

Under the Equality Act and Public Sector Equality Duty in the UK public institutions, such as schools, further education colleges and universities have a legal duty to ensure that they do not discriminate against people working and studying within these institutions. Discrimination might occur on the basis of characteristics defined as ‘protected’ under the Equality Act, including gender reassignment, sexual orientation, religion, race and sex. Institutional responses to gender-based harassment and violence (and other forms of harassment and hate crime) have been varied, ranging from spot-check solutions to deal with the immediate issue to institution-wide policy change and implementation of training programmes for staff and students. Few of these responses or interventions have been rigorously evaluated; few have considered the cross-cutting forms of harassment that might be experienced by students and staff.

Read more about this ' Institutional responses to gender-based harassment and violence ' research project.

Teachers, teaching and gender equality

From September 2020, Relationships and Sex Education will become a statutory subject in primary and secondary schools in England and Wales. The updated curriculum requires schools to cover issues relating to healthy relationships, including enabling children and young people to recognise unhealthy relationship behaviours and dynamics. In secondary school, teachers are required to specifically teach about particular forms of abuse including coercion, grooming, sexual and physical violence. However, teacher education in England and Wales does not include a statutory component on gender, gender-based harassment or violence. Relatively little is known about teachers’ experiences of teaching about or for gender equality in schools, and research-informed modules on issues relating to gender, including harassment and violence do not form a standard or statutory element of teacher training.

Read more about this ' Teachers, teaching and gender equality ' research project.

Psychology in Education Research Centre  (PERC)

Using genomewide polygenic scores in education: a risk-benefit analysis.

Supervisor: Dr Kathryn Asbury

Research shows clearly that individual differences in educationally relevant traits such as cognitive ability, academic achievement and motivation are partly explained by individual differences at the level of DNA.  More recently, international teams have begun to identify genetic variants of small effect that correlate with educationally relevant traits, and to combine them in genomewide polygenic scores (GPS) that explain increasing proportions of variance.  It seems likely that at some point in the future commercial companies will be interested in using GPSs for screening purposes, and there is potential for them to be used widely within education.  It is therefore necessary that we consider the risks and benefits of such an approach, before the technology becomes available, in order that we can (a) establish principles to avoid harm; and (b) put appropriate regulation in place.  This project will be of interest to people with interest in, or knowledge of, behavioural genetics; bioethics; medical ethics; law; philosophy; politics or risk analysis.

Read more about this ' Using Genomewide Polygenic Scores in Education:  A risk-benefit analysis ' research project.

Digital technology and youth mental health

Supervisor: Dr Beth Bell

Digital technologies play a complicated role in youth mental health and wellbeing. On one hand, they confer many risks. For example, online sexual victimisation can contribute to depression, diet and exercise apps can contribute to disordered eating, and there exists a wealth of online misinformation about mental health on social media more broadly. On the other hand, digital technologies can have many positive affordances. For example, online mental health information can help young people overcome barriers to help-seeking, engagement with body positive social media content can reduce eating disorder risk, and forums can provide opportunities to connect with others. Developing nuanced understandings of the role digital technologies play in relation to youth mental health and wellbeing is important. This project aims to explore the risks and opportunities afforded by digital technologies in relation to youth mental health and wellbeing, using qualitative and/or mixed methods.

Read more about this ' Digital technology and youth mental health ' research project.

Young people are exposed to a wide range of risks in online environments, including risks related to Content (e.g., unrealistic appearance ideals), Conduct (e.g., engagement in bullying), Contact (e.g., grooming, bully victim) and Commercialisation/Contract (e.g., scams). All of these “4Cs” of online harm can have a significant negative impact on children and adolescents’ mental health and wellbeing. Educating young people about the potential harms of digital environment can help to mitigate against these online risks, including through digital citizenship and critical literacy programmes. Yet research on effective approaches to this is still in its infancy. This project aims to understand how digital wellbeing can be effectively promoted through education.

Read more about this ' Promoting digital wellbeing through education ' research project.

Developmental trajectories of the metacognitive self-regulatory capacity in relation to mental health and wellbeing in children (or adolescents)

Supervisor: Dr Dusana Dorjee

Mental health and wellbeing of children and adolescents has been highlighted as an increasing concern by policy makers, educators and healthcare professionals. The focus of wellbeing interventions delivered in schools has been so far mostly on physical health (such as diet and nutrition) rather than on mental health. One of the main reasons for this is a lack of clarity regarding determinants of mental wellbeing and limited understanding of developmental trajectories of wellbeing and their evaluation. This PhD project builds on previous work in Dr Dorjee’s lab and particularly her latest theoretical research on the core determinants of wellbeing development (Dorjee, 2017; Dorjee, in prep.; also see the article in The Conversation, titled, ‘ Schools need to teach pupils skills to maintain good mental health – here’s how ’. One of the two core determinants is the metacognitive self-regulatory capacity (MSRC). The MSRC enables us to notice thoughts, feelings etc. in our mind and to effectively manage these in support of our wellbeing (Dorjee, in prep.). The MSRC involves metacognition, attention control, emotion regulation and regulation of negative rumination. Previous research on related psychological constructs shows that self-regulation and self-control (involving metacognition, attention control and emotion regulation) in childhood predict health in adulthood (eg, Moffitt et al., 2010). We also know that negative rumination is strongly associated with psychopathology (Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 2008).

Read more about this ' Developmental trajectories of the metacognitive self-regulatory capacity in relation to mental health and wellbeing in children (or adolescents) ' research project.

Investigating the potential of contemplative practice programmes in supporting mental health and wellbeing of children and adolescents

Implementation and research on contemplative practice-based programmes cultivating qualities such as mindfulness, acceptance, self-compassion etc. in education greatly expanded over the last decade. There is growing evidence suggesting that such programmes may enhance cognitive abilities (Sanger & Dorjee, 2016) and reduce anxiety, depression and stress symptoms in children and adolescents (Dunning et al., 2019). However, it is not clear if such benefits are maintained longer-term beyond the completion of the programmes, impacting on developmental wellbeing trajectories of young people. In addition, majority of previous research examined the effects of mindfulness-based programmes only; the available evidence on the effects of programmes cultivating not only mindfulness but also explicitly training in kindness, compassion and/or cultivating a sense of purpose and meaning in life is very limited. The potential of contemplative practices in contributing to education has also not been harnessed in the context of religious education where such practices could help revitalise the subject by inclusion of innovative experiential, rather than mostly conceptual, learning about a variety of contemplative and religious traditions.

Read more about this ' Investigating the potential of contemplative practice programmes in supporting mental health and wellbeing of children and adolescents ' research project.

Developmental trajectories of existential awareness in relation to mental health and wellbeing in children (or adolescents)

Mental health and wellbeing of children and adolescents is an increasing concern for parents, educators, healthcare professionals and policy makers. The mental wellbeing programmes currently delivered in schools are often only a couple of months in duration and there is a lack of clarity about which programmes might be most effective at which age with a view of supporting long-term wellbeing of children and adolescents. One of the main reasons for this is limited understanding of the key determinants of mental wellbeing and its developmental trajectories. This PhD project builds on previous work in Dr Dorjee’s lab and particularly the latest theoretical research on the two core determinants of wellbeing (Dorjee, 2017; Dorjee, in prep.; also see the article in The Conversation, titled, ‘ Schools need to teach pupils skills to maintain good mental health – here’s how ’.) One of the two determinants is mode of existential awareness - a phenomenological felt-sense of self and world linked to purpose and meaning in life. Existential awareness determines how we relate to our thoughts, feelings and perceptions. For example, poor wellbeing would be associated with a mode of existential awareness characterised by immersion in, and identification with, thoughts and feelings (and associated with increased reactivity to them). Such state is often linked with a felt lack of connection with people in our lives and with the world more broadly. In contrast, better wellbeing would be associated with a felt sense of healthy distance from thoughts and feelings, and a sense of connection with others and the world; it would also be associated with more pro-social behaviour and altruistic/compassionate attitudes. 

Read more about this ' Developmental trajectories of existential awareness in relation to mental health and wellbeing in children (or adolescents) ' research project.

Understanding Gender Gaps in Education

Supervisor: Dr Nadia Jessop

Gender differences in academic attainment and mental health are widely studied, as are the links between mental health and academic attainment. Gender interacts with the learning environment, and psychosocial factors (e.g. mental health, belongingness) to influence attainment. However, few studies explicitly link the gender differences in mental health to gender differences in academic achievement. A first step in understanding the link between gender differences in mental health and gender differences in attainment, is understanding the common causes and consequences of both, as well as identifying commonalities in what works and doesn't work across interventions meant to address each issue.

Read more about this ' Understanding Gender Gaps in Education ' research project.

Multidimensional Student Inclusion

Social inclusion is particularly important for first-year international university students, who might be experiencing cultural mismatch at UK universities. A major developmental task of adolescence, including emerging adulthood, is the learning of sociocultural scripts within a particular context, in preparation for a successful transition to adulthood. However, cultural mismatch can occur when the social scripts for one cultural context do not translate into a new cultural context. Because first-year international university students find themselves in new physical settings within a new culture, while adapting to a new independence, inclusion cannot be examined within one dimension. According to sociocultural and social learning theories in educational psychology, the key to improving students' academic and psychosocial adjustment goes beyond addressing individual factors to include intervening upon multiple features of the learning environment.

Read more about this ' Multidimensional Student Inclusion ' research project.

Why do some children perform better in school than others?

Supervisor: Professor Sophie von Stumm

School serves two important functions in society. Firstly, it equips children with the knowledge and skills essential for them to successfully participate in society, for example, reading, writing and arithmetic. And secondly, school performance functions as a gatekeeper regulating children’s access to further education. That is, children who perform poorly in school are less likely to secure a place at university or other higher education institutions that place great demands on learning ability, compared to children who did well in school. Because educational qualifications are positively associated with all important life outcomes, including income, health, and longevity, children’s differences in school performance have pervasive, long-term influence on their lifespan development.

Read more about this ' Why do some children perform better in school than others? ' research project.

Alternative mental health interventions for autistic children

Supervisors: Dr Umar Toseeb & Professor Carole Torgerson

Autism spectrum conditions are characterized by social and communication difficulties, repetitive behaviours, and high sensitivity to sensory stimuli (APA, 2013). In the UK, the prevalence of autism is estimated at ~1 (Baird et al., 2006). Autistic children are also more likely to experience anxiety and depression meaning that they are more likely to present in mental health services for support. Much of the support offered in these settings is based around talking therapies (e.g., IAPT). This is problematic for those with language and communication difficulties, such as autistic children, as it means they are effectively excluded from accessing support for mental health difficulties.

Read more about this ' Alternative mental health interventions for autistic children ' research project.

Which factors make autistic children vulnerable to sibling bullying?

Supervisor: Dr Umar Toseeb

Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) are characterized by social and communication difficulties, repetitive behaviours, and high sensitivity to sensory stimulus (APA, 2013). In the UK, the prevalence of ASC is estimated at ~1 (Baird et al., 2006). The condition has a number of mental health correlates, which further reduce the quality of life of those affected (Matson & Nebel-Schwalm, 2007).

Autistic children have difficulties in social interactions, such as turn taking in conversation, and deficits in non-verbal communication (APA, 2013). These difficulties have implications for children’s relationships with the people around them. In neurotypical children, good quality sibling relationships are important as they help children develop social skills and are a source of emotional support. However, up to 50% of children have been bullied by their siblings and up to 40% have bullied their siblings (Wolke, Tippett, & Dantchev, 2015). Sibling bullying in childhood is associated with adverse behavioural (Wolke & Samara, 2004; Wolke & Skew, 2011) and worse mental health outcomes (Bowes, Wolke, Joinson, Lereya, & Lewis, 2014). Given the heritable nature of ASC, it might be expected that sibling bullying may be more likely in families in which a child with ASC due to a higher risk of poorer language and communication skills within these families (due to the broader Autism phenotype). Indeed, recent evidence suggests that children with ASC are more likely to bully and be bullied by their siblings compared to children without ASD (Toseeb, McChesney, & Wolke, 2018) and this is associated with various mental health difficulties (Toseeb, McChesney, Oldfield, & Wolke, 2020).

Whilst there are many possible reasons for the increased risk of sibling bullying in families with an autistic child there are no reports on the reasons for this. Therefore, the primary focus of the PhD project will be to understand which factors that make autistic children vulnerable to sibling bullying.

Read more about this ' Which factors make autistic children vulnerable to sibling bullying? ' research project.

Who takes part in autism research and whose voices are being heard?

Autism spectrum conditions are characterized by social and communication difficulties, repetitive behaviours, and high sensitivity to sensory stimulus (APA, 2013). In the UK, the prevalence of ASC is estimated at ~1 (Baird et al., 2006). The condition has a number of mental health correlates, which reduce the quality of life of those affected (Matson & Nebel-Schwalm, 2007).

There has been a great push towards involving the autistic community in research. For research to be conducted with autistic people rather than on autistic people. Funders expect the autistic community to have been involved in the planning of research. Some academic journals now require explicit statements about how the autistic community were involved in the reported research. This can include autistic people helping to identify areas of need, co-designing research questions, helping to interpret findings, or autistic people leading research projects. But the autistic community is so diverse - are everyone’s voices being heard?

Read more about this ' Who takes part in autism research and whose voices are being heard? ' research project.

University of York Science Education Group (UYSEG)

Investigating genomics education in schools.

Supervisor: Dr Jeremy Airey

Genomics literacy is a pressing issue in school science education, given the rapid development of genomics and its applications, the urgent need to support learners with personal choices and with their democratic rights to engage with related societal debates, and the evidence of persistently low levels of genomic literacy. There have been many calls, dating back at least two decades, for evidence-informed modernisation of school-level teaching of variation, inheritance and genetics, to meet these needs. These calls have come from within and beyond the genetics and science education research communities. However, the pace of change is frustratingly slow. 

There are some under-researched groups, in relation to ‘genomics education’ - notably teachers, and learners in the 9-13 age range. For example, we know little about science teachers’ views on what needs to be taught and how, or about how confident they feel with their relevant subject knowledge and pedagogical skills. We know little about what learners want to know, how they relate to the issues that genomics applications raise, or how they come to solid (or shaky) understandings of relevant ideas. Improved knowledge in these areas could support relevant educational reform.

Read more about this ' Investigating genomics education in schools ' research project.

A climate of uncertainty? Investigating youth responses to climate adaptation, mitigation and technological intervention

Supervisor: Dr Lynda Dunlop

Urgent action is needed to deal with the climate crisis to meet the goals of the Paris Climate Accord. Possible actions include reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and minimising the harmful effects of climate change. More recently, a range of technological responses to climate change have been proposed: large-scale intervention in Earth’s climate (geoengineering). Geoengineering includes technologies for carbon dioxide removal and solar radiation management. Geoengineering is debated among scientists and politicians, not least because of the unknown intergenerational consequences, and the potential differential impacts on people in different parts of the planet.

It is therefore important to include youth perspectives in decision-making about the development and use of these technologies. This project will investigate decision-making processes and youth perceptions of these different responses to climate change.

Read more about this ' A climate of uncertainty? Investigating youth responses to climate adaptation, mitigation and technological intervention ' research project.

Science Education, the environment and social justice

Whilst science education has the potential to contribute to more equitable environments and societies, it can also serve to reinforce oppressive systems and practices.  Inequities across race, class, and gender persist in science education, and also in who experiences exposure to environmental risks.

This project will examine the role that science education can play in bringing about social justice through an analysis of policies and practices that can be used to empower students in science education, with particular attention to how environmental issues are treated in science education.  .

Read more about this ' Science Education, the environment and social justice ' research project.

Investigating education and youth environmental activism

In recent years, young people have been at the forefront of climate activism, with demands for climate and intergenerational justice made by movements such as the School Strikes 4 Climate movement. This activism has included social media campaigning, legal injunctions and peaceful protest to draw attention to the climate emergency, its origins in extraction and consumption of fossil fuels, and the local - and differential, depending on who you are and where you live - impacts of climate change. However, the extent to which education builds capacity for, or is supportive of, environmental activism is questionable.

The project will investigate systems, policies and practices linking activism and education and develop our understanding of young people’s educational experiences in support of environmental activism.

Read more about this ' Investigating education and youth environmental activism ' research project.

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The role of research at universities: why it matters.

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(Photo by William B. Plowman/Getty Images)

Teaching and learning, research and discovery, synthesis and creativity, understanding and engagement, service and outreach. There are many “core elements” to the mission of a great university. Teaching would seem the most obvious, but for those outside of the university, “research” (taken to include scientific research, scholarship more broadly, as well as creative activity) may be the least well understood. This creates misunderstanding of how universities invest resources, especially those deriving from undergraduate tuition and state (or other public) support, and the misperception that those resources are being diverted away from what is believed should be the core (and sole) focus, teaching. This has led to a loss of trust, confidence, and willingness to continue to invest or otherwise support (especially our public) universities.

Why are universities engaged in the conduct of research? Who pays? Who benefits? And why does it all matter? Good questions. Let’s get to some straightforward answers. Because the academic research enterprise really is not that difficult to explain, and its impacts are profound.

So let’s demystify university-based research. And in doing so, hopefully we can begin building both better understanding and a better relationship between the public and higher education, both of which are essential to the future of US higher education.   

Why are universities engaged in the conduct of research?

Universities engage in research as part of their missions around learning and discovery. This, in turn, contributes directly and indirectly to their primary mission of teaching. Universities and many colleges (the exception being those dedicated exclusively to undergraduate teaching) have as part of their mission the pursuit of scholarship. This can come in the form of fundamental or applied research (both are most common in the STEM fields, broadly defined), research-based scholarship or what often is called “scholarly activity” (most common in the social sciences and humanities), or creative activity (most common in the arts). Increasingly, these simple categorizations are being blurred, for all good reasons and to the good of the discovery of new knowledge and greater understanding of complex (transdisciplinary) challenges and the creation of increasingly interrelated fields needed to address them.

It goes without saying that the advancement of knowledge (discovery, innovation, creation) is essential to any civilization. Our nation’s research universities represent some of the most concentrated communities of scholars, facilities, and collective expertise engaged in these activities. But more importantly, this is where higher education is delivered, where students develop breadth and depth of knowledge in foundational and advanced subjects, where the skills for knowledge acquisition and understanding (including contextualization, interpretation, and inference) are honed, and where students are educated, trained, and otherwise prepared for successful careers. Part of that training and preparation derives from exposure to faculty who are engaged at the leading-edge of their fields, through their research and scholarly work. The best faculty, the teacher-scholars, seamlessly weave their teaching and research efforts together, to their mutual benefit, and in a way that excites and engages their students. In this way, the next generation of scholars (academic or otherwise) is trained, research and discovery continue to advance inter-generationally, and the cycle is perpetuated.

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University research can be expensive, particularly in laboratory-intensive fields. But the responsibility for much (indeed most) of the cost of conducting research falls to the faculty member. Faculty who are engaged in research write grants for funding (e.g., from federal and state agencies, foundations, and private companies) to support their work and the work of their students and staff. In some cases, the universities do need to invest heavily in equipment, facilities, and personnel to support select research activities. But they do so judiciously, with an eye toward both their mission, their strategic priorities, and their available resources.

Medical research, and medical education more broadly, is expensive and often requires substantial institutional investment beyond what can be covered by clinical operations or externally funded research. But universities with medical schools/medical centers have determined that the value to their educational and training missions as well as to their communities justifies the investment. And most would agree that university-based medical centers are of significant value to their communities, often providing best-in-class treatment and care in midsize and smaller communities at a level more often seen in larger metropolitan areas.

Research in the STEM fields (broadly defined) can also be expensive. Scientific (including medical) and engineering research often involves specialized facilities or pieces of equipment, advanced computing capabilities, materials requiring controlled handling and storage, and so forth. But much of this work is funded, in large part, by federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, US Department of Energy, US Department of Agriculture, and many others.

Research in the social sciences is often (not always) less expensive, requiring smaller amount of grant funding. As mentioned previously, however, it is now becoming common to have physical, natural, and social scientist teams pursuing large grant funding. This is an exciting and very promising trend for many reasons, not the least of which is the nature of the complex problems being studied.

Research in the arts and humanities typically requires the least amount of funding as it rarely requires the expensive items listed previously. Funding from such organizations as the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, and private foundations may be able to support significant scholarship and creation of new knowledge or works through much more modest grants than would be required in the natural or physical sciences, for example.

Philanthropy may also be directed toward the support of research and scholarly activity at universities. Support from individual donors, family foundations, private or corporate foundations may be directed to support students, faculty, labs or other facilities, research programs, galleries, centers, and institutes.

Who benefits?

Students, both undergraduate and graduate, benefit from studying in an environment rich with research and discovery. Besides what the faculty can bring back to the classroom, there are opportunities to engage with faculty as part of their research teams and even conduct independent research under their supervision, often for credit. There are opportunities to learn about and learn on state-of-the-art equipment, in state-of-the-art laboratories, and from those working on the leading edge in a discipline. There are opportunities to co-author, present at conferences, make important connections, and explore post-graduate pathways.

The broader university benefits from active research programs. Research on timely and important topics attracts attention, which in turn leads to greater institutional visibility and reputation. As a university becomes known for its research in certain fields, they become magnets for students, faculty, grants, media coverage, and even philanthropy. Strength in research helps to define a university’s “brand” in the national and international marketplace, impacting everything from student recruitment, to faculty retention, to attracting new investments.

The community, region, and state benefits from the research activity of the university. This is especially true for public research universities. Research also contributes directly to economic development, clinical, commercial, and business opportunities. Resources brought into the university through grants and contracts support faculty, staff, and student salaries, often adding additional jobs, contributing directly to the tax base. Research universities, through their expertise, reputation, and facilities, can attract new businesses into their communities or states. They can also launch and incubate startup companies, or license and sell their technologies to other companies. Research universities often host meeting and conferences which creates revenue for local hotels, restaurants, event centers, and more. And as mentioned previously, university medical centers provide high-quality medical care, often in midsize communities that wouldn’t otherwise have such outstanding services and state-of-the-art facilities.

(Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

And finally, why does this all matter?

Research is essential to advancing society, strengthening the economy, driving innovation, and addressing the vexing and challenging problems we face as a people, place, and planet. It’s through research, scholarship, and discovery that we learn about our history and ourselves, understand the present context in which we live, and plan for and secure our future.

Research universities are vibrant, exciting, and inspiring places to learn and to work. They offer opportunities for students that few other institutions can match – whether small liberal arts colleges, mid-size teaching universities, or community colleges – and while not right for every learner or every educator, they are right for many, if not most. The advantages simply cannot be ignored. Neither can the importance or the need for these institutions. They need not be for everyone, and everyone need not find their way to study or work at our research universities, and we stipulate that there are many outstanding options to meet and support different learning styles and provide different environments for teaching and learning. But it’s critically important that we continue to support, protect, and respect research universities for all they do for their students, their communities and states, our standing in the global scientific community, our economy, and our nation.

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Planning Your Teaching-as-Research Project

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June 13, 2023 @ 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm CDT

Jumpstart your plans for a Teaching-as-Research (TAR) project in this 6-week flipped course designed to guide participants through developing a research question, identifying project methods and outcomes, and more. Each week, students will watch videos, read articles, and complete assignments on their own time; in weekly sessions, students will refine their work with peer review, work through sticking points with instructors, and build community to sustain their work. Throughout the course, students will also be expected to meet occasionally with a local TAR contact (typically the person at your CIRTL member institution who mentors TAR students and/or runs your institution’s TAR program) to refine key components of your TAR project plan. By the end of the course, students will present a TAR project plan and be well-positioned to implement their project in the coming academic year. REGISTration is closed

What is Teaching-as-Research?

Teaching-as-Research (TAR) takes a deliberate and systematic approach towards investigating, reflecting on, and improving one’s own teaching. The TAR process follows an inquiry cycle that consists of the following stages: identifying of a challenge within the context of teaching and learning, delving into the relevant scientific literature, designing a project to elucidate why the challenge occurs or designing a teaching intervention to address the challenge, implementing the project, collecting data, analyzing the data, drawing conclusions, and reflecting on the experience. TAR is a proactive and dynamic approach towards improving your teaching and document your teaching effectiveness. A TAR experience will provide a substantial example of your reflective, professional practice applicable to a range of career outcomes.

Course Schedule

This 6-week course has weekly online sessions on Tuesdays at 3-4:30PM AT / 2-3:30PM ET / 1-2:30PM CT / 12-1:30PM MT / 11AM-12:30PM PT from June 13 through July 25 (skipping the week of July 4).

Your instructors estimate students will need to spend 6-8 hours per week on work outside of class sessions including: watching videos, reading articles, completing assignments, meeting with your local TAR contact, and reviewing peer group work so that you can provide in-session feedback.

Registration and Enrollment

This course is limited to 25 students. Registration is open Monday, May 15 and closes Thursday, June 1. This course builds on a foundational understanding of teaching and learning, and interested participants will need to share their teaching and/or teaching development experience in a brief course application. Instructors will review applications on a first-come, first-served basis and registrants from CIRTL member institutions or alumni of CIRTL member institutions will receive priority. Once registration closes, all registrants will be notified of their enrollment status.

Accessibility

We strive to be inclusive of anyone interested in participating in our activities. If you have specific accessibility needs, please contact us at  [email protected]  in advance so that we may make the necessary accommodations.

Learning Outcomes

All CIRTL Network programming is designed to help participants achieve familiarity with our  Core Ideas . This workshop is designed around the following  learning outcomes .

Associate: Learning-through-Diversity

• Describe the scope of diversity in learning environments, of both students and instructor. (*Including but not limited to backgrounds, race, gender, ability, socio-economic status, ethnicity, gender preference, and cognitive skills)
• Describe the impact of diversity on student learning, in particular how diversity can enhance learning, and how inequities can negatively impact learning if not addressed.
• Describe how an instructor’s beliefs and biases can influence student learning.
• Describe and recognize the value of drawing on diversity in the development of teaching plans (including content, teaching practices and assessments) to foster learning.
• Describe several learning-through-diversity (LtD) techniques and strategies.

Associate: Teaching-as-Research

• Define and recognize the value of the Teaching-as-Research process, and how it can be used for ongoing enhancement of learning.
• Describe a “full-inquiry” cycle.

Practitioner: Evidence-Based Teaching

• Integrate one or more evidence-based teaching strategies into a teaching plan so as to accomplish learning goals.

Practitioner: Learning-through-Diversity

• Examine and describe own beliefs and biases, including how they may influence their students’ learning.
• Create a teaching plan that incorporates content and teaching practices responsive to the students’ backgrounds.
• Integrate one or more LtD techniques and strategies in a teaching plan so as to use students’ diversity to enhance the learning of all.

Practitioner: Teaching-as-Research

• Show the integration of Evidence-Based Teaching, Learning Communities and Learning-through-Diversity to accomplish learning goals.
• Describe how to access the literature and existing knowledge about teaching and learning issues, in a discipline or more broadly.
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Texas A&M University System Selects Architect, Construction Manager For Clinical Veterinary Teaching And Research Complex

The Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (VMBS) has reached an important milestone in its plan to build a new Clinical Veterinary Teaching and Research Complex (CVTRC), partnering with Page, a full-service architecture, engineering and design firm, and Texas-owned Vaughn Construction to design and build its new facility.  

“We are delighted to be initiating the design phase for our long-awaited new Clinical Veterinary Teaching and Research Complex,” said Dr. John R. August , the Carl B. King Dean of Veterinary Medicine. “We look forward to working with Page, Vaughn Construction, and the outstanding faculty and staff in our current Small Animal Teaching Hospital (SATH) to create a new small animal hospital that will meet not only our needs and the needs for clinical instruction and advanced training but also the needs of the patients and clients who depend on the SATH for state-of-the-art care for their beloved companion animals.”

“Our students, faculty and staff are extremely passionate about what they do, but the building they work in is over 40 years old,” said Dr. Stacy Eckman , the associate dean for hospital operations and chief executive officer of the school’s Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital (VMTH). “It’s much older than the hospital facilities at our peer institutions, and it no longer reflects the VMBS’ nationally ranked curriculum and exceptional patient care.”

Page brings more than 125 years of experience designing complex projects that make significant impact on the communities it serves. As a nationally recognized leader in academic medicine design, Page has worked with more than 400 institutions and has supported more than 18 million square feet of space in the Texas Medical Center, including the Paula and Joseph C. (Rusty) Walter III Tower and Centennial Tower at Houston Methodist; the Texas A&M University School of Engineering Medicine; the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins Medicine; and the Surgical Hospital at The University of North Carolina.

For this project, Page will collaborate with Foil Wyatt Architects, one of the country’s preeminent veterinary medicine design firms, to ensure that the new state-of-the-art facility meets the needs of patients, clinical faculty and staff, and students at the hospital.

“Page is proud to partner with Texas A&M University and the VBMS team on the new Clinical Veterinary Teaching and Research Complex. We hold Texas A&M’s veterinary program in the highest regard and understand the lasting impact this facility will have on the university, its students, and the community it serves, both animals and humans alike,” said Laura Vargas, principal, science and technology director for Page. “The leading-edge care provided by these professionals is unparalleled, and we are honored by the trust placed in us to deliver an exceptional design that will support veterinary medicine for decades to come.”

Vaughn Construction is a Texas-based commercial general contractor and construction manager that specializes in building complex and time-sensitive construction projects of any size for health care, higher education and research. Its projects have included the Texas A&M Global Health Research Building, the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory in College Station, the Texas A&M Nursing Education and Research Building currently being constructed at the Higher Education Center at McAllen, the Zachry Engineering Education Complex, Texas Medical Center’s TMC3 Collaborative Building, and the Texas A&M Instructional Laboratory and Innovative Learning Building, among others.

“Vaughn Construction has a strong 25-year history of delivering complex projects for the Texas A&M University System with our shared goal of providing exceptional facilities for students, faculty and the community,” said Judd Blume, Vaughn Construction director. “As a company with many Aggie graduates, including myself, we are always excited about the opportunity to pursue another legacy project on the main campus. We are extremely honored to have the opportunity to build a new facility for one of the top veterinary medicine programs in the country, which will continue to elevate this standard. We are very thankful to be a part of this project team.”

The CVTRC is a project that has been a long time in the making but has generated new momentum under the leadership of August, who became VMBS dean in the summer of 2020. 

In 2022, the VMBS reached several key milestones allowing the school to proceed with plans for the new small animal hospital, including receiving funding from Texas A&M University and the Texas Legislature. In March 2023, the VMBS received a $20 million lead gift from Linda and Dennis Clark ’68, business owners with a dedicated love for animals and Texas A&M University. This extraordinary gift brings the total fundraising to over $30 million, significantly advancing toward the goal of $60 million to profoundly impact our faculty, clinicians, students and programs.

“We are extraordinarily appreciative of the financial generosity that has allowed us to move forward with this once-in-a-generation project,” August said. “The new small animal hospital facility will help us expand our ability to provide teaching, specialist training, research and patient care of the very highest quality, setting the standard nationwide for academic veterinary medicine.”

Once construction is complete, the CVTRC will be on the corner of Raymond Stotzer Parkway and Agronomy Road, near the current SATH building. For more information, or to learn how you can support the new CVTRC, visit nextgenvethospital.tamu.edu .

Media contact: Jennifer Gauntt, [email protected], 979-862-4216

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UTA awards more than $130,000 to spark new research

Thursday, Jun 13, 2024 • Katherine Egan Bennett : contact

The Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation at The University of Texas at Arlington has granted 10 Research Enhancement Program (REP) awards valued at more than $130,000 to support new research initiatives.

The REP grant serves as seed funding for launching new research, providing a foundation for recipients to pursue future research and funding from external sources.

“UTA is committed to fostering a culture of innovation and research discoveries for our community of scholars,” said Kate C. Miller, vice president for research and innovation for UT Arlington. “These REP grants give our researchers the freedom to initiate creative endeavors aimed at making a difference for society, especially where the challenges are great. Our hope is that the seed funding will help professors turn their ideas into scholarly works that attract other organizations and investigators to support them going forward.”

The 10 award recipients are:

• Landscape Architecture Assistant Professor Letora Fortune Anderson and Public Affairs Assistant Professor Emily I. Nwakpuda: The two received a $16,000 grant for their project on community-based design for green infrastructure. Their research will investigate the extent to which residents of Arlington's Johnson Creek understand their community's environmental conditions—such as the ecological impact on their households caused by the degradation of the waterway—and their perception of local floodplain mitigation efforts. The data collected from this project will help stakeholders address the community’s environmental needs.
• Civil Engineering Assistant Professor Xiujuan Chen: Chen was awarded $12,000 for her project to improve PFAS water filtration. PFAS, or pre- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of man-made chemicals used to make everyday items like food wrapping, stain repellants, and nonstick cookware. PFAS chemicals do not break down easily and often end up in the water supply, causing health risks. Researchers have found that filtration processes using nanofiltration are effective, but they can often “foul” when organic materials bind to the membranes, reducing efficiency. Chen hopes to develop new nanocomposite membranes that can prevent fouling to improve filtration efficiency.
• Art and Art History Assistant Professor Fletcher John Coleman: Coleman received an $11,683 award for his project “Solace in Painting: Conflict Art of the Asian Diaspora.” Contemporary art markets are often driven by an unspoken interest in trauma. But what of artists from underrepresented communities whose lives were altered by conflicts of the 20th century, yet who chose to never directly represent their traumatic experiences? “Solace in Painting” explores artwork by conflicted artists of the Asian diaspora who never produced overt “conflict art.”
• Assistant Professors Leslie Ann Jennings and Regina Wilder Urban from the College of Nursing and Health Innovation: The duo received $16,000 to research social support, stress, and resilience among students preparing to apply to formal nursing programs. The insight gleaned into the well-being of nursing students will guide the researchers’ creation of course-specific content aimed at ensuring future nursing student successes, boosting retention rates, and equipping students with the tools necessary for their future nursing careers.
• Nursing Assistant Professor Sohyun Kim, Social Work Associate Professor Noelle Fields, and Mathematics Professor Shan Sun-Mitchell. The team received $16,000 for its project to promote quality of life for persons living with dementia and their family caregivers. The professors will conduct a feasibility study by providing six weekly video family visits with residents living with dementia in nursing homes. The team will monitor changes in the stress levels of participants using wrist bands and will assess family relationship quality, feelings of loneliness, and overall quality of life via surveys.
• Curriculum and Instruction Assistant Professor Taylor M. Kessner and Economics Professor Michael R. Ward: The professors received $16,000 for their project tracking eye movements of players using the off-the-shelf video game Offworld Trading Company. Tracking the movements will enable the team to create a cognitive map of how economists think about dynamic economics problems. This better understanding of expert thought processes will inform how and to what end educators will teach this critical 21st-century toolkit.
• Public Affairs and Planning Assistant Professor Hannah Lebovits: Lebovits received a $9,950 grant for her project studying supportive housing for formerly homeless older adults. The grant will enable her to evaluate housing support services and determine their capacity to respond to the unique needs of homeless individuals over the age of 55. The findings will be used to inform policymaking and service provision efforts.
• Mathematics Associate Professor Suvra Pal: Pal received a $12,000 grant to devise a precision-medicine machine-learning algorithm for all ailments. Currently, there are algorithms and decision trees that help people with cancer understand the likelihood of a cure along with the risks associated with treatments. With Pal’s new approach, the algorithm would be expanded to go beyond cancer treatments to also include risks and benefits associated with other diseases that may occur at the same time as cancer. Understanding the increased probability of additional ailments will help health care providers ensure adequate resources are available to offer the healthiest outcomes for patients.
• Finance and Real Estate Professor David A. Rakowski: He received $12,000 to examine the funding of conflict-linked investments in Africa. Specifically, Rakowski plans to identify the characteristics of institutional investors who appear to discourage conflict in Africa through their investments, as well as foreign institutional investors whose funding is correlated with increased conflict. This work will inform investors and policymakers on the potential impact of foreign investment on conflicts in emerging markets.

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Keio University Ranked 60th Globally for SDG 16: THE University Impact Rankings 2024

On June 12, 2024, Keio University was ranked 60th in the Times Higher Education (THE) University Impact Rankings 2024 for Sustainable Development Goal 16 (Peace, justice and strong institutions), making it 1st among Japanese universities for the second consecutive year. Furthermore, Keio University was within the 201-300 bracket for the overall global rankings.

The Times Higher Education University Impact Rankings assesses universities' societal contributions and impact against the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and ranks them accordingly. 2,152 institutions from 125 countries and regions participated in the 2024 rankings, marking the sixth edition of this publication.

Keio University engages in initiatives in various fields related to the SDGs in its capacity as both an institution for education and research with a University Hospital, and as a research university that contributes to global and local communities. We will continue to promote efforts to realize a sustainable future society.

https://www.global-sdgs.keio.ac.jp/en/sdgs/

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• Jun 17 2024

HEALing Communities Study intervention impacted by pandemic, fentanyl crisis

A major research project focused on addressing the opioid crisis in Kentucky and three other states reported its primary results June 16 in the  New England Journal of Medicine . The  HEALing (Helping to End Addiction Long-term) Communities Study , which included the  University of Kentucky  as a research site, did not achieve a statistically significant reduction in opioid-related overdose deaths during the evaluation period. Communities implementing the study intervention had an opioid-related overdose death rate that was estimated to be 9% lower between July 2021 and June 2022 compared to control communities.

Launched in 2019, the HEALing Communities Study (HCS) was supported and carried out in partnership between the National Institute of Health’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) through the  NIH HEAL Initiative . It was implemented across 67 communities in Kentucky, Massachusetts, New York and Ohio. The study aimed to reduce the overdose death rate in 33 of those communities that were first to implement the “Communities that HEAL” intervention, a process in which communities work with researchers to establish and expand proven practices for preventing overdose deaths. 

The paper identifies unforeseen challenges that likely diminished the impact of the intervention, including the COVID-19 pandemic, which began just two months after the start of the study’s intervention. Paired with an increased prevalence of fentanyl in illicit drug markets, the U.S. saw a  30% increase in drug overdose deaths in 2020 and another 15% increase in 2021 . Additionally, the study had only a 10-month implementation period before evaluating results, which may have been too short for communities to fully implement and see the effects of their efforts.

Despite the challenges, the study successfully engaged communities to select and implement hundreds of strategies. 

“Our findings demonstrate that implementing these evidence-based practices through community-engaged strategies and partnerships can make a meaningful impact on combating overdoses, even amid the rapidly evolving opioid epidemic and unprecedented disruptions like the COVID-19 pandemic,” said UK’s HCS principal investigator Sharon Walsh, Ph.D., a professor in the College of Medicine and College of Pharmacy and director for the Center on Drug and Alcohol Research.

In Kentucky, a team of more than 25 researchers from across UK’s campus led implementation efforts in partnership with community members, state and local leaders, and public and private agencies. In total, Kentucky's eight intervention communities implemented 309 strategies aimed at reducing opioid-related mortality.

The intervention required community coalitions and researchers to work together on three primary evidence-based practices and implement strategies across health care, criminal justice and behavioral health settings: expanded access to overdose prevention education and the overdose-reversal medication naloxone, effective delivery of medication for opioid use disorder and improved prescription opioid safety practices. The intervention also included a series of communication campaigns to reduce stigma and increase awareness of lifesaving resources.

Specific efforts in Kentucky included partnering with 145 organizations to distribute more than 40,000 naloxone units. Strategies to help people find and stay in treatment deployed 26 peer recovery coaches and 16 care navigators and provided $411,848 in transportation support. Other impacts included partnering with 35 pharmacies to install permanent medication disposal drop boxes, which has resulted in the incineration of more than 6,500 pounds of leftover medication. Efforts to reduce stigma and increase awareness of treatment resources produced 64 communication campaigns, resulting in 73 million engagements.

Following the initial intervention period, researchers brought those learned lessons to the 34 control communities, which implemented the “Communities that HEAL” intervention from July 2022 to December 2023. Results from the second set of communities are still being analyzed. Kentucky reported annual reductions in  statewide overdose deaths  in both 2022 and 2023.

The support and engagement of nearly two dozen Kentucky state government partners including the Kentucky Opioid Response Effort played an essential role in the study's efforts in the Commonwealth.

While the initial HCS analysis showed no statistically significant difference in overdose deaths between the intervention and control communities, researchers are continuing to examine the project’s impact on overall overdose deaths, deaths with specific drug combinations like opioids and stimulants, and nonfatal overdoses. UK’s HCS team also continues to analyze outcomes specific to the Commonwealth, as well as key lessons from implementing the study during the unprecedented challenges of COVID-19 and fentanyl.

“Our goal now is to thoroughly analyze the data and translate the effective strategies into sustainable solutions for the opioid epidemic that can be replicated across Kentucky and the nation,” Walsh said.

Several additional research papers examining areas like the intervention’s impact on reducing stigma and the equity of overdose prevention education and naloxone distribution following its scale-up in the HCS communities have been published, with many other papers expected in the coming months.   

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health under Award Numbers UM1DA049406, UM1DA049412, UM1DA049415 and UM1DA049417. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. 

Words: Elizabeth Chapin (Public Relations & Strategic Communication)

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Inaugural recipients of Ryan Family Research Acceleration Fund awards announced

Strategic seed funding aims to propel projects with high-impact societal potential to late-stage government funding or market translation

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• Release Date: June 17, 2024

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EVANSTON, Ill. — Northwestern University has selected eight innovative and high-potential research projects in the life sciences to receive critical seed funding from the Pat & Shirley Ryan Family Research Acceleration Fund . This new resource provides vital bridge funding for promising initiatives within Northwestern’s $1 billion research portfolio, targeting efforts nearing the end of their public financing but not yet ready for private-sector investment — a precarious phase known as the “Valley of Death” in the startup world.

The projects represent the acceleration fund’s inaugural awards and address challenges ranging from sleep quality and medical imaging to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. Led by scientists and engineers from across the University, these research projects focus on extending and improving the quality of human life, exemplifying a Northwestern strategic priority to advance the biosciences and produce real-world results.

The inaugural cohort was chosen (out of 72 proposals) because their projects have great translational potential to make a meaningful and immediate impact on society. The acceleration fund is an important new avenue to propel Northwestern research innovation, supporting promising investigations that can lead to discoveries, therapies, devices and diagnostics. By design, the seed funding will advance research that falls into the “gap” between initial results and being eligible for federal grants or private-sector investment.  

A gift from the Patrick G. ’59, ’09 H and Shirley W. Ryan ’61, ’19 H (’97, ’00 P) Family established the Ryan Family Research Acceleration Fund in 2022 to advance promising translational research discoveries in engineering and medicine. These seed grants — to be awarded twice yearly — enable faculty to undertake promising, sometimes high-risk research that often leads to breakthroughs and additional funding. Each project will receive up to $300,000 for one year. The typical funding period is one year.

“We see the acceleration fund as a translational game-changer for Northwestern,” said Patrick G. Ryan. “By strategically targeting exceptional basic research, we are bridging a critical gap that often hinders groundbreaking projects from achieving their full potential. This support will propel innovative research to solve society’s most pressing challenges while encouraging cross-field collaboration, furthering Northwestern’s unique interdisciplinary strengths.”

Ryan expressed confidence that the inaugural projects will make remarkable progress and exert a transformative impact that inspires future innovations.

“With the generous support of the Ryan Family, Northwestern’s incredible faculty now have a strategic new outlet that better positions them for translating their high-impact work in the life sciences,” Provost Kathleen Hagerty said. “We are eager to see all that these awardees accomplish and to build on their success for the benefit of society.”

“The acceleration fund creates tremendous opportunities for Northwestern, empowering our faculty to pursue trailblazing research that, while bold and promising, is positioned between traditional funding by federal agencies and the private sector,” said Eric J. Perreault, vice president for research. “The number of high-quality applications we received is both thrilling and expected, showcasing our research community’s drive to pursue innovations with societal impact. We are profoundly grateful to the Ryan Family for their steadfast support of Northwestern research excellence.”

The projects highlight the flourishing interdisciplinary teamwork across the University, with 16 faculty members from the Feinberg School of Medicine, the McCormick School of Engineering and the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences participating in the research.   The principal investigators and their projects are:

Dr. Bradley Allen ,   chief of cardiovascular and thoracic imaging and assistant professor of radiology, Feinberg School of Medicine

Co-principal investigators: Michael Markl (Feinberg, McCormick), Ulas Bagci (Feinberg) and Ann Ragin (Feinberg)

The project will leverage deep learning to measure aorta blood flow in patients at high risk for thoracic aorta aneurysms, a highly prevalent condition affecting more than 500,000 people annually. In addition to driving beneficial health outcomes, the project will use AI in conjunction with widely available, lower-cost CT or MRI scans to replace highly specialized 4D-flow MRI with a plan to seek FDA clearance for the technology.

Irina Balyasnikova , professor of neurological surgery, Feinberg

This research targets glioblastoma, an incurable brain cancer with a low survival rate. By developing a new targeted intervention (tri-specific T cell engager) that “weaponizes” the immune system to attack cancer cells while sparing healthy tissue, the researchers aim for eventual clinical translation.

Navdeep Chandel , the David W. Cugell, MD, Professor of Medicine in the division of pulmonary and critical care, Feinberg

This proposal uses gene therapy to engineer the yeast protein NDI1 to regenerate NAD+, which is impaired in many primary mitochondrial diseases, including neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s. The researchers also will develop novel AI-designed proteins with the aim of patenting these for technological commercialization.

Shana Kelley , the Neena B. Schwartz Professor of Chemistry and Biomedical Engineering, Weinberg and McCormick

This research project is pursuing a first-in-class, highly efficient, nontoxic intracellular protein delivery system with the potential to fight cancer, neurodegenerative disease, heart disease and autoimmune disease. The technique employs selective target degradation and superior ease of use to maximize therapeutic potential with the goal of clinical translation.

Milan Mrksich , the Henry Wade Rogers Professor of Biomedical Engineering, professor of chemistry and professor of cell and developmental biology, McCormick, Weinberg and Feinberg

Co-principal investigator: William Klein (Weinberg)

This project aims to develop highly specific and effective diagnostics and potential therapeutics to monitor and treat Alzheimer’s disease, a progressive disorder with a substantial societal impact. The research targets the neurotoxic molecules (amyloid beta oligomers) that cause the disease. ModuMab Therapeutics, a recent Northwestern startup, is commercializing this approach to new therapeutics that could broadly impact the immunotherapy field. 

Ken Paller , director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Program, Weinberg

Co-principal investigator: Phyllis Zee (Feinberg)

This research aims to improve sleep quality through innovative methods for sleep-physiology monitoring and subtle sensory stimulation based on biofeedback and AI training. Given its promise to help reduce insomnia and bolster health, the project has significant translational potential.

Robert Vassar , professor of neurology and of cell and developmental biology, Feinberg

Co-principal investigator: Katherine Sadleir (Feinberg)

This project will develop a disease-modifying therapy to protect and heal the brain’s membranes from Alzheimer’s disease damage, stopping the disease in its tracks. The effort targets a fundamental cellular mechanism to combat the looming Alzheimer’s epidemic, which is anticipated to afflict some 14 million U.S. citizens by 2050. If the technique is successful, the investigators will launch a start-up venture based on this technology.

Xinlong Wang , research assistant professor, Center for Advanced Regenerative Engineering, McCormick

Co-principal investigators: Guillermo Ameer (McCormick, Feinberg) and John Rogers (McCormick, Feinberg)

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S., where about 5% of the population suffers from myocardial infarction. This project looks to treat myocardial infarction by developing a minimally invasive injectable bioresorbable cellular cardiac patch with a built-in cardiac sensor and stimulator. This research could eventually be deployed in clinical settings to address an urgent societal health problem.  

The Ryan Family Research Acceleration Fund website provides information on the deadline to submit a proposal for the next round of funding and the expected start date for the awards. Inquiries may also be directed to [email protected] .

New center harnesses AI to advance autonomous exploration of outer space

A new center at the Stanford School of Engineering will leverage artificial intelligence in the service of space science, exploration, and business.

The Center for AEroSpace Autonomy Research , or CAESAR, aims to make these activities more efficient, safe, and sustainable. Researchers at the center say that AI could optimize navigation for spacecraft; deftly land space vehicles on planets or asteroids; allow unmanned rovers to make decisions about where to go, what to avoid, and what to analyze; keep tabs on all the space junk (some 60,000 pieces, at last count) whirling around Earth, threatening lives and equipment; and much more.

To enable such ambitions, Marco Pavone , CAESAR co-founder and associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics, announced that one of the center’s main projects will be to develop a foundation model for space pursuits. A foundation model is a kind of general-purpose AI that’s trained on huge amounts of data and can handle a variety of tasks, like generating text, images, and even videos. This “space foundation model,” Pavone said, will be designed to synthesize information across a range of modalities, including vision, text, remote sensing (such as multispectral imagery and radar), and space-object catalogs, and will be capable of addressing a variety of space-related tasks, including situational awareness, positioning, and navigation.

“We want to develop rigorous tools for the trusted deployment of AI for spacecraft systems – trusted in the sense that they can behave within bounds described by the user,” said Simone D’Amico , CAESAR co-founder and associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics.

D’Amico made it clear that he, Pavone, and their collaborators plan to proceed prudently, with eyes wide open to the potential pitfalls of pursuing AI for spacecraft and robots. He said that in some cases, AI components are not the most effective choice for space systems.

“We founded CAESAR with the objective to tackle unsolved problems in spaceborne autonomy through the judicious incorporation of artificial intelligence components,” D’Amico said.

D’Amico also noted the constraints space imposes on the fledgling technology. For example, space is a harsh, remote environment that’s not readily available for AI training, and powerful microprocessors needed for AI are still not resilient to space radiation.

Pavone and D’Amico spoke May 22 during a daylong symposium to mark the official launch of CAESAR, which is a collaboration between academia, industry, and government with D’Amico’s Space Rendezvous Lab and Pavone’s Autonomous Systems Lab at its core. The event featured presentations from Stanford faculty members, postdoctoral scholars, and students, as well as representatives from NASA, Aerospace Corp., and aerospace manufacturers Redwire Space, Blue Origin, and Lockheed Martin.

CAESAR projects underway

CAESAR’s initial focus has been on developing machine learning models for space rendezvous, proximity operations, and docking – a suite of maneuvers for bringing two or more spacecraft close enough to one another to interact or dock while in orbit. One of these models, D’Amico said, is the Spacecraft Pose estimation Network (SPN), which integrates machine learning with a classical navigation algorithm to robustly estimate a target spacecraft’s position and orientation from monocular images.

Another is the Autonomous Rendezvous Transformer (ART) . ART aims to optimize spacecraft trajectories by allowing AI to provide a “smart initial guess” that is fine-tuned by traditional mathematical optimization, said Daniele Gammelli, a research fellow at CAESAR. This approach could be useful because optimizing spacecraft trajectories with only conventional numerical methods is likely beyond the capabilities of today’s space-grade microprocessors, Gammelli said. “We try to combine the best of both worlds between numerical optimization and learning-based methods,” he said.

In a different realm of space exploration, researchers at CAESAR are designing a small, autonomous robot called ReachBot , which can deploy extendable booms from its body for gripping the walls of, say, a lava tube or rock overhang. Its creators have the Martian landscape in mind. “ReachBot can descend into a Martian lava tube, scan for geologically interesting areas, and drill into the wall to extract and transport material for analysis,” said Daniel Morton, a graduate student in mechanical engineering and one of the project’s lead researchers.

Moon endeavors

CAESAR’s kickoff event was an opportunity to showcase faculty from the School of Engineering unaffiliated with the center but interested in AI-enabled space projects.

Manan Arya , assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics, wants to anchor a 350-meter-diameter radio reflector in a crater on the far side of the moon. The goal is to shield the telescope from radio interference emanating from Earth. “The reason we want to do that is for looking at very, very early signals from the early part of the universe – a time referred to as the cosmic dark ages,” Arya said.

He explained how such a project could be achieved: A lander touches down at the bottom of a crater. The lander fires cables tipped by harpoons that anchor themselves in the regolith at the rim of the crater. Then, tiny, autonomous robots crawl up these tension cables, deploying a lightweight reflector as they go.

Grace Gao , assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics, and her lab are also shooting for the moon with several AI-related projects, including one that could help autonomous lunar robots and humans with navigation: a “GPS” system for the moon. Noting that more than 100 missions are planned for the moon over the next decade, Gao said it’s vital to provide positioning, navigation, and timing services there. They would be enabled by a low-cost satellite system in orbit around the moon. “We want to have smaller satellites – as small as a shoebox,” she said. “In comparison, the terrestrial GPS satellites are as big as a truck.” She also said clocks on the lunar satellites could be “1,000-times cheaper” because they could rely on information relayed from atomic clocks on satellites orbiting Earth.

Gao’s lab is also working with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to develop the Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration, or CADRE, project, which aims to put three autonomous rovers on the moon next year. Gao’s team has developed technology to help the robots autonomously navigate while dealing with communication challenges they may experience.

Pavone and D’Amico said they hope to tap the expertise of many engineers and scientists both at Stanford and other organizations to catalyze space-related research projects at CAESAR. Addressing symposium attendees, Pavone circled back to the subject of the space foundation model, which he said will be “a game changer.” “We look forward to engaging with the many people that are here today and the space community in general to build such a capability,” he said.

ReachBot is a joint collaboration between Marco Pavone’s lab and the labs of Mark Cutkosky , the Fletcher Jones Professor in the School of Engineering and professor of mechanical engineering, and Mathieu Lapôtre , assistant professor of Earth and planetary sciences. Redwire Space and Blue Origin are co-sponsors of CAESAR.

Related : Simone D’Amico , associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics

Related : Marco Pavone , associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics

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