Experiences of introducing research methods to Honours students

South African Computer …, 1999

Department of Computer Science, University of the Witwatersrand, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] ... Research skills are important for any academic and can be of great benefit to any professional person. These skills are, ...

2016

Existing literature examining the teaching of research methods highlights difficulties students face when developing research competencies. Studies of student-centered teaching approaches have found increased student performance and improved confidence in undertaking research projects. To develop a student-centered approach, it could be beneficial to teach students through active participation, with the development of their research agendas as the basis for progression. To develop this goal, the research methods module for graduate students at a UK business school was restructured into a two-week block utilizing a student-centered approach. The performance of the students was then compared to the performance of students who undertook the same course material presented in a traditional semester-long module and the results were then statistically analyzed. The results of this study provide new and interesting evidence of increased student achievement and understanding through the new format and provide new avenues for future research.

South African Journal of Education, 2015

In comparison to attention given to research methods for education students at postgraduate level, the offering of research methods for education students at undergraduate level is less often considered. Yet, it is agreed that research methods for undergraduate level students is important for shaping student attitudes, learning and achievement in the field of research. In concurrence with the aforementioned, this paper aimed to examine the views and experiences of a conveniently sampled group of 124 undergraduate South African student teachers of a compulsory course in research methods. By following a quantitative research design, the authors determined the sampled students' experiences of research methods, how they value them, and how they perceive the pedagogy, which in this particular instance was 'working-in-pairs', to teach research methods. For all three the mentioned facets, the findings reflected positive results. However, the research results also pointed to specific issues which might enrich the teaching and status of research methods for undergraduate level education students.

2006

The aim of this paper was to investigate graduate students' experiences in a research methods course in an international context. The study first aimed at describing how graduate students in language at the American University of Beirut (AUB) are introduced to research by providing a detailed description of the course and secondly at exploring how these students react to and reflect on their experience in the research methods course. Semi-structured interviews with the seven students who were enrolled in the course in 2005 were conducted in February 2006. The results of the data analysis revealed five major categories: (a) aspects of the course the students found beneficial; (b) aspects of the course the students would like to change; (c) how the course changed students' views of research; (d) how the course changed students' research practices; and (e) views of first- vs. second-year graduate students. Based on the findings, several conclusions as well as specific pedag...

33rd Annual Frontiers in Education, 2003. FIE 2003., 2003

Students at the School of Engineering of the University of Buenos Aires are requested, in their senior years from a six year program, to produce some research related activities and to write a Thesis. Thesis works are regularly procrastinated because of reasons such as a highly unstructured (and thus unfamiliar) activity, lack of background on how to perform research, workplace pressure or lack of time. In addition, there is a social appreciation of research as a highly difficult task reserved only to Nobel Prize winners. Also research activities have been considered as being very different from the daily engineer's work. In one of our courses, students get the big picture of concurrent programming fundamentals and its associated caveats and then, they must cover a more real world approach. We decided to guide them in some information collecting tasks, asking students to use some of the approaches in real world problems and comparing them by developing figures of merit. In the process we found ourselves developing in our students skills which seems to be more transferable than detail level programming skills and more in line with modern software industry requirement.

2016

Quite often the approach adopted by tutors to the teaching and learning of research methodology at undergraduate and, sometimes even at postgraduate level, is to teach students to be able to set a question and to go about trying to answer it in the way of research. This is a pragmatic approach to an important area of scholarship which deserves something more special than what is being provided in frequently used books on research methods (see Easterby-Smith et al 2002; Saunders et al 2012). Given the simplistic nature of this approach teaching and learning how to become competent researchers has been reduced to teaching students to know basic methods about setting and refining research questions, negotiating access to data collection, ways of presenting and analysing data and arriving at conclusions that answer one’s research question or validates a hypothesis. The literature (Lakatos 1999; Popper 1972) shows that there is more to becoming a successful researcher other than teaching...

Journal of Research Practice, 2007

Electronic Journal of Business Research Methods, 2022

Postgraduate student research experience is key to understanding the quality of postgraduate education. This article presents the critical factors that can enhance postgraduate students' research experience. The research explored postgraduate students' research experiences (n=116) at a research-intensive public university in New Zealand. The aim was to inform the development of a more personalised and scalable research methodology programme. The study identified several factors that can significantly enhance the postgraduate research experience, including the quality of supervision, institutional and department support, personal investment, and financial support. Also, the study found that courses on research methodology play an essential role in improving the postgraduate experience. In particular, providing research methodology education to students during candidacy enriches postgraduate research experience and contributes to the timely completion of postgraduate education...

Research Methods has become an important determinant of quality education by advancing students and educators to the level of problem solving citizens that are also result oriented at their work places. It is therefore currently one of the major course units in almost all academic disciplines in all universities worldwide. The purpose of this paper therefore was to assess the relevance of teaching research methods as a course unit at both under and graduate levels. The paper also studied the challenges that limit the progress of research methods course in some universities. The arrow framework method used in research was reported to be the best option of handling the problem of research language. A system for sharing research topics among students from developed countries and those from developing countries was recommended as the best solution for solving the existing challenges to the course. The relevant conclusions were developed as well.