Hi everyone! Here is the work for our next week “meeting.”
- We have two readings up now on Perusall, one by Carmen Kynard (previously of John Jay) and one by Nelson Graff, about teaching research. Please read and annotate both.
- After reading, please post a blog post to this Open Lab site considering (some of) the following questions:
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- What does the term “research paper” mean to you?
- How might we expand our definitions of research and “research paper” to more fully contain the curiosity and delight of research and discovery?
- What are some ways you have taught research in the classroom– successfully and unsuccessfully?
- What are some ways you have engaged in your own research– successfully and unsuccessfully?
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Please note, you don’t have to answer all of these questions– these are just starting points to guide a post about research!
What does the term “research paper” mean to you?
I see the research paper as the culmination of the semester’s work for students. It gives the students an opportunity to explore areas of interest from something that they have learned over the course of the semester. Students should be allowed to take their discovery outside of the scope of the educational institution as their learning is largely guided by community, culture, language and roles they play. In turn, this gives them a text-to-self and a self-to-world examination that should be factored into research. While student’s are not necessarily researching themselves, these ideas connect to something they were interested in during the semester.
How might we expand our definitions of research and “research paper” to more fully contain the curiosity and delight of research and discovery?
Research should be all encompassing and less directed by the instructor.
What are some ways you have taught research in the classroom– successfully and unsuccessfully?
I give scaffolding assignments in the classroom as research can be overwhelming to process all at once. Then, I follow up with feedback and one-to-one meetings.
I love these terms: text-to-self and self-to-world! !!
I found this week’s readings to be very insightful!
Teaching students about a “research paper” does come with its challenges. Narrowing down a topic, figuring out the right keywords, library instruction, etc., all take time.
I have found success when I chunk assignments and scaffold assignments in the classroom. Feedback and revision also help students understand responding to an argument and including research, this has worked for me.