Transcript Bachelor of Health Sciences - The University of Adelaide

First Year Students in the Ivory Tower
First Year Human Biology
Students in the Ivory Tower:
Perspectives on research-skill-building
experiences in content-rich courses
Eleanor Peirce and Mario Ricci
School of Medical Sciences
Irene Lee and John Willison
Centre for Learning and Professional Development
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First Year Students in the Ivory Tower
Context
• Research experiences in uni courses topical
– Authentic research experiences
– Work integrated learning, and of course …
– Teaching-research nexus
• Benefits of such approaches well established in
literature …but
• Difficult to incorporate for all students in large
(first year) courses, and
• Academics frequently perceived as having bluesky research agendas unconnected with real
world that can:
– Clash with, and impede quality of, teaching
• What happens when research skills are
identified, fostered and assessed in a large
first year science class?
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Slide 1
First Year Students in the Ivory Tower
Background
• Human Biology IA/B
– Core level I course in BHlthSc Program
– 80 students (2005)  220 students (2009)
• Challenges for Students:
– Differences between university and
secondary education
– Time management
• Challenges for Staff
– Diverse student population
– 200+ students
– How to assess skills and attitudes, not just
course content
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Slide 2
First Year Students in the Ivory Tower
Background
• Our Approach
– Find out what students can and can’t do
(O-Week diagnostic)
– Gradually introduce students to research
skills via Research Skill Development (RSD)
tasks
• RSD Tasks
– Literature, laboratory, and field-based
– Build on skills introduced in earlier activities
– Increasing autonomy over task directions
and outcomes as year progresses
– Assessed via a RSD framework rubric
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Slide 3
http://www.adelaide.edu.au/clpd/rsd/framework
First Year Students in the Ivory Tower
Life Impact The University of Adelaide
Slide 4
First Year Students in the Ivory Tower
RSD Tasks in Human Biology
Literature Research Skill Stream
O-Week RSD
I
II
Lit RSD 1
Lit RSD 3
I
I
II
III
II
Small Group Inquiry
III
I
A
A
A
A
F
F
F
F
Laboratory Research
Skill Stream
Lab RSD 1
I
Lab RSD 2
I
II
II
III
IV
Field and Literature
Research
Individual Group Inquiry
II
I
A
A
A
F
F
F
II
III
IV
Sem 1 Sem 2
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Slide 5
First Year Students in the Ivory Tower
Analysis of RSD Approach
• Quantitative
– Reported at HERDSA Conference, Darwin July
2009 (Willison Peirce & Ricci 2009)
• Qualitative
– For staff:
• Objectives and assessment tasks clearer, more
specific and focussed
• Better matching of teaching with course
objectives and University graduate attributes
• Better quality and more timely feedback
– For students?
• Interviews conducted to explore students’
understanding of benefits and downsides of
explicitly developing research skills in Human
Biology I
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Slide 6
First Year Students in the Ivory Tower
Student Interviews
•
Conducted 1 year after completion of Human Biology I so
that students had an opportunity to:
– Apply skills developed
– Retrospectively reflect on experience
• A 2006 student treated RSD tasks ‘... as a joke ‘cause it was
sort of so straight forward’ but one year later reflected that ‘…
it’s actually quite good ‘cause it got us thinking about what’s right and
what’s wrong’ and part of a bigger-picture process to ‘develop these
particular skills to enable you to be able to undertake the bigger
research project at the end’.
• Greater appreciation of RSD approach
•
2005, 2006 and 2007 cohorts interviewed
•
Compensated for time
•
Conducted by CLPD staff
– Semi-structured interview protocol
•
Independent analysis of results
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Slide 7
First Year Students in the Ivory Tower
Student Interviews
• 2005 cohort (79 students)
– Interview invitations to 4 different groups of
students:
•
•
•
•
Started
Started
Started
Started
well  minimal improvement (G 1)
poor/medium  most improvement (G 2)
weakest (based on O-Week diagnostic)  average (G 3)
average  low/no improvement or went backwards (G 4)
– 32 invitations sent; 9 accepted
•
•
•
•
Group
Group
Group
Group
1:
2:
3:
4:
0
6
2
1
students
students
students
student
• 2006 cohort (97 students)
– More random sampling
– 10 students accepted, but …
– Similar student profile (mostly G 2)
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Slide 8
First Year Students in the Ivory Tower
Student Interviews
• 2007 cohort (95 students)
– Only students whose improvement was less
than average were selected
– 18 invitations sent; 13 accepted
• In summary
– 32 student interviews in total over 3
consecutive years
– Broad selection of measured student
research skill development
– All 2005 and 2006 students were still
studying at university; two 2007 students
had left university and were working
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Slide 9
First Year Students in the Ivory Tower
What did students say?
• 2 key ideas emerged:
– In hindsight, students perceived the
process as valuable in developing their
research skills, but …
– Students did not appreciate that this
development was happening at the
time
• Should have been explicitly
explained in advance
Life Impact The University of Adelaide
Slide 10
First Year Students in the Ivory Tower
What did students say?
2006 student comment:
’when I was doing the assignments I didn't really take into account
that all these levels were increasing. I didn't honestly when I was
actually doing them, but looking at them now and then thinking
about what we were actually asked to do, it becomes a lot more
obvious to me... but these levels didn't really occur to me at the
time. But, yes, definitely I can see now though what they were
getting at and trying to improve on... I think maybe it was a good
idea doing it progressively and going into it, especially in first year
that was a pretty good way to do it, like easing people into it.’
• Outcome: for 2007 cohort, process of
research skill development was made
more explicit for students
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Slide 11
First Year Students in the Ivory Tower
What did students say?
2007 Group
• RSD useful for current university
studies
– ‘It definitely allows you to get out there and
compare all different experiments and
investigations and analyse materials and
make up your own mind based upon them. I
think it is a very important part for
university, even if your course … isn’t real
research-based.’
• Comments consistent with other studies
that have found longer term academic
benefits for student engagement in
research process Life Impact The University of Adelaide
Slide 12
First Year Students in the Ivory Tower
What did students say?
• RSD also useful outside of university
– Further studies
– Employment
– Keeping skills up-to-date (life-long
learning)
– Critical thinking
“...whether it’s academic things like doing
assignments and papers and writing whatever on
academic stuff, or whether it’s just even simple
things like that are in your job... there’s still
stuff you have to research.”
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Slide 13
First Year Students in the Ivory Tower
What did students say?
• RSD universally useful
“I think uni research in every aspect when
you’re in uni, because you need to learn and
with learning you need to research, so I guess
it’s pretty broad, research, and it applies to
every course you do. Everything you do,
actually. Even if you need to learn how to
assemble the TV, you need to research
that as well.”
Life Impact The University of Adelaide
Slide 14
First Year Students in the Ivory Tower
Conclusions
• Research skill development (RSD) at university
perceived as useful for subsequent study as
well as employment in non-academic
environments
• Students not necessarily aware of RSD process
at the time.
– It wasn’t that I didn’t understand the
assignment, it was that I sort of missed the
point at the time which seems silly now; it
makes sense now.
– Process & context is now more explicit,
even clearer
• 2009 cohort shown student quotes from
interviews
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Slide 15
First Year Students in the Ivory Tower
Ivory tower?
Maybe for those who thought
RSD only useful for university
but …
NOT for most students
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Slide 16
First Year Students in the Ivory Tower
Correlations between RSD and pre-RSD tasks
2003-2007 (Willison, Peirce & Ricci 2009)
Lit RSD 3
vs Open
Inquiry
2003
2004
(pre-RSD)
(pre-RSD)
(mid RSD)
0.20
0.40
n= 104
Power 0.77
p < 0.1
2005
2006
2007
0.48
0.55
0.57
n=117
n=79
n=97
n=95
Power 0.99
Power>0.98
power>0.99
power>0.99
p<0.01
p<0.01
p< 0.01
p<0.01
Correlations between lit-RSD tasks, field task
and end of year exam 2007
Lit RSD-
Lit RSD-
Diagnostic
Summary vs
vs Lit RSD-
Lit RSD-
Summary
Referencing
Lit RSD-
Lit RSD-
Summary vs
Referencing
RSD-
vs RSD-
Population
Population
Analysis
Analysis
0.30
0.38
0.01
(n=121)
(n=95)
(n=138)
Power =
Power =
0.95 p=0.05
Life
0.96 p=0.05
Lit RSD-
RSD-
Referencing
Population
vs Exam
Analysis vs
Sem 2
Exam Sem 2
(n=95)
0.36
0.39
Power
(n=94)
(n=94)
0.57
>0.995
Impact The University of Adelaide
p<0.01
Slide 17
First Year Students in the Ivory Tower
Research Skill Increase Over Year vs Research Skill at 'O Week'
(n=75)
16
Movement from
Assessment 1 to
Assessment 3
Great Improvers
14
12
Increase= Final Research Skill ScoreO Week Score
10
Slow Starters
8
Fast Starters
6
4
2
0
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
-2
Minimal Improvers
-4
STUDENT SCORE (O Week)
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Slide 18
14
First Year Students in the Ivory Tower
References for RSD
Willison, J., & O’Regan, K (2006) Research Skill Development
Framework. [Online] available at
http://www.adelaide.edu.au/clpd/rsd/framework
Willison, J. & O’Regan, K. (2007) Commonly known, commonly not
known, totally unknown: a framework for students becoming
researchers. Higher Education Research and Development, 26(4),
393-409.
Willison, J. Peirce, E, & Ricci, M. (2009) Towards student autonomy
in literature and field research. Proceedings from the Higher
Education Research and Development Conference, 7-9 July, 2009,
Darwin.
Life Impact The University of Adelaide
Slide 19