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Keynote Speaker - Professor Angela Brew
Developing and sharing protocols for good practice in engaging undergraduate students in research and inquiry in different disciplines
Engaging undergraduate students in research and inquiry develops important graduate attributes, engages students meaningfully in higher education and prepares them for a twenty-first century world of work in which knowing how to inquire and critically evaluate knowledge is of increasing importance (Brew 2006). It’s relatively easy to establish the desirability of enhancing students’ engagement by involving them in various forms of research and inquiry, but the establishment of mechanisms for them to do so are less easily developed. There are now in existence, in publications and websites, many case studies of good practice.
Case studies provide ideas about what to develop, but not how to develop initiatives and policies. Experience in developing research-enhanced learning and teaching in Australia and overseas suggest that what is needed are various kinds of models, strategies, protocols and artefacts which provide practical guidance to bridge the gap between existing practice and research and inquiry-based practice in courses; which ease the transition of academics, academic managers and policy-makers to a more research and inquiry based higher education.
In this presentation, I will discuss what we have learnt and share resources from my ALTC National Teaching Fellowship which was designed foster student engagement through developing and sharing protocols for good practice in engaging undergraduate students in research and inquiry in different disciplines. I will share resources that have been developed and discuss how undergraduate research and inquiry can be used to enhance undergraduate engagement.
Bionote
Angela Brew is a Professorial Fellow in the Learning and Teaching Centre at Macquarie University. She is internationally renowned as a researcher and speaker and has worked in the UK and in Australia in the area of higher education for many years. Her research on the nature of research and human knowing and its relationship to teaching has been published widely. Her books include: The Nature of Research: Inquiry in Academic Contexts; Research and Teaching: beyond the divide; and Transforming a University: The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Practice and, most recently, Academic Research and Researchers. From 1999-2003 she was President of the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA). She is an elected Fellow of the Society for Research into Higher Education and a life member of HERDSA.
More information about Angela Brew and the work of her ALTC Fellowship can be found here.