It is clear that a research-intensive university should be structured and organised around a strong emphasis on developing a \u201cresearch-active\u201d curriculum that socialises students into inquiry-based learning from day one. By 2026, students\u2019 successful transition from university to professional life will require the ability to resolve problems in an analytic manner, to evaluate evidence and take rational decisions based on it, as well as to defend one\u2019s choices in a clear, articulate manner. In this, a \u201cresearch-active\u201d curriculum is best suited to support students\u2019 engagement in research and inquiry.<\/p>\n
Multiple approaches have attempted to link research and teaching, many focusing on promoting students\u2019 research in their capstone\/final year, initiated and administered by the relevant College or School, and focused on individual students\u2019 research contribution in the form of a dissertation. I would argue that a \u201cresearch-active\u201d curriculum would challenge many of these approaches by going beyond them: it would focus instead on student-driven processes taking place throughout students\u2019 years at university; it would reward collaborative work rather that merely individual research; it would be integrated across the curriculum, rather than in a final-year dissertation; it would link research skills to post-university employability.<\/p>\n
Most importantly, a research-active curriculum would focus on more than formal teaching: I would like to see the University of Birmingham look carefully at the strategies of a number of American universities that have created centres for undergraduate research (at the University of Maryland<\/a>, the University of Pennsylvania<\/a>, at UC Davis<\/a>, and elsewhere). We may be able to expand the University of Birmingham Undergraduate Research Experience scheme <\/a>by encouraging faculty to create and publicise research opportunities for students; by instituting an undergraduate research day where students could showcase research; or by linking to Universitas 21 network opportunities. Back in my undergraduate days, the opportunity to get involved in, and write for, a student-run journal (the Yale Review of International Studies<\/a>) convinced me to embark on postgraduate study and an academic career. Nurturing such initiatives within the University of Birmingham should form part of our vision for the future, and of our \u201cBig Conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n Gerasimos Tsourapas It is clear that a research-intensive university should be structured and organised around a strong emphasis on developing a \u201cresearch-active\u201d curriculum that socialises students into inquiry-based learning from day one. By 2026, students\u2019 successful transition from university to professional life will require the ability to resolve problems in an analytic manner, to evaluate evidence and … Continue reading “Developing a \u201cResearch-Active\u201d Curriculum”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[17,16,15],"class_list":["post-109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research","tag-curriculum","tag-research","tag-research-intensive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/bigconversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/bigconversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/bigconversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/bigconversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/bigconversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/bigconversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/bigconversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109\/revisions\/114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/bigconversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/bigconversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/bigconversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nLecturer in Middle East Politics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"