scholarly journals An Undergraduate Course to Bridge the Gap between Textbooks and Scientific Research

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred Wiegant ◽  
Karin Scager ◽  
Johannes Boonstra
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Cell Biology ◽  
Scientific Reasoning ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Leadership Skills ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
High Quality ◽  
High Quality Research ◽  
Student Centered ◽  
Research Designs

This article reports on a one-semester Advanced Cell Biology course that endeavors to bridge the gap between gaining basic textbook knowledge about cell biology and learning to think and work as a researcher. The key elements of this course are 1) learning to work with primary articles in order to get acquainted with the field of choice, to learn scientific reasoning, and to identify gaps in our current knowledge that represent opportunities for further research; 2) formulating a research project with fellow students; 3) gaining thorough knowledge of relevant methodology and technologies used within the field of cell biology; 4) developing cooperation and leadership skills; and 5) presenting and defending research projects before a jury of experts. The course activities were student centered and focused on designing a genuine research program. Our 5-yr experience with this course demonstrates that 1) undergraduate students are capable of delivering high-quality research designs that meet professional standards, and 2) the authenticity of the learning environment in this course strongly engages students to become self-directed and critical thinkers. We hope to provide colleagues with an example of a course that encourages and stimulates students to develop essential research thinking skills.

scholarly journals Using Team-Based Learning in Teaching English to EFL Undergraduate Students

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-103
Author(s):  
Najat O. Kareem
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Creative Thinking ◽  
Procedural Knowledge ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Student Centered ◽  
Pilot Experiment ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
English Reading ◽  
Team Based Learning

Team Based Learning (TBL) is a method that has been introduced to provide students with both conceptual and procedural knowledge to foster critical and creative thinking skills while students work in high functioning teams. The study throws some light on the TBL approach in general and the researcher's pilot- experiment on using the TBL in teaching English to EFL (English as a Foreign Language) undergraduate students. The main aim of this pilot experiment is to assess the TBL's effects on student engagement, accountability, and satisfaction and to identify the problems faced in applying it and then, in the light of the findings, to propose suggestions about how to use the approach effectively.  Forty (40) second-year undergraduate students of the Department of English/ Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of Koya University were involved in this experiment and its evaluation. These students were taught through student learning teams for two successive academic years (2017-2018 & 2018-2019) in the subject of English Reading Comprehension. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected from the students about their TBL experience using questionnaires. The results of the evaluation revealed that the vast majority of the students preferred TBL to the traditional individual learning and that the TBL has more positive effects on the students' engagement in class activities and assignments. The findings also indicate that despite the positive effects and the students' satisfaction with the approach, there are problems and obstacles on the way of its application in the classroom, but that with the proper use of the approach most of these problems can be overcome. What is important about this evaluation is that it is student-centered as it shows the real opinions of the students who lived the experience.

scholarly journals Declaring and Diagnosing Research Designs

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graeme Blair ◽  
Jasper Jack Cooper ◽  
Alexander Coppock ◽  
Macartan Humphreys
Keyword(s):  
Open Source Software ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Sufficient Information ◽  
Causal Inferences ◽  
High Quality ◽  
High Quality Research ◽  
Monte Carlo Techniques ◽  
Ex Post ◽  
Research Designs ◽  
The World

Researchers need to select high-quality research designs and communicate those designs clearly to readers. Both tasks are difficult. We provide a framework for formally "declaring" the analytically relevant features of a research design in a demonstrably complete manner, with applications to qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research. The approach to design declaration we describe requires defining a model of the world (M), an inquiry (I), a data strategy (D), and an answer strategy (A). Declaration of these features in code provides sufficient information for researchers and readers to use Monte Carlo techniques to diagnose properties such as power, bias, accuracy of qualitative causal inferences, and other "diagnosands." Ex ante declarations can be used to improve designs and facilitate preregistration, analysis, and reconciliation of intended and actual analyses. Ex post declarations are useful for describing, sharing, reanalyzing, and critiquing existing designs. We provide open-source software, DeclareDesign, to implement the proposed approach.

scholarly journals Research highlights from the 2017 ERS International Congress: airway diseases in focus

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 00163-2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecilia Andersson ◽  
Sara J. Bonvini ◽  
Peter Horvath ◽  
Eduardo Marquez ◽  
Imran Satia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Current Knowledge ◽  
International Congress ◽  
Chronic Obstructive ◽  
High Quality ◽  
High Quality Research ◽  
Obstructive Pulmonary Disease ◽  
Quality Research ◽  
Airway Diseases ◽  
New Research ◽  
Research Studies

For another year, high-quality research studies from around the world transformed the annual ERS International Congress into a vivid platform to discuss trending research topics, to produce new research questions and to further push the boundaries of respiratory medicine and science. This article reviews only some of the high-quality research studies on asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), bronchiectasis and chronic cough that were presented during the congress through the Airway Diseases Assembly (ERS Assembly 5) and places them into the context of current knowledge and research challenges.

scholarly journals Declaring and Diagnosing Research Designs

2019 ◽  
Vol 113 (3) ◽  
pp. 838-859 ◽  
Author(s):  
GRAEME BLAIR ◽  
JASPER COOPER ◽  
ALEXANDER COPPOCK ◽  
MACARTAN HUMPHREYS
Keyword(s):  
Open Source Software ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Sufficient Information ◽  
Causal Inferences ◽  
High Quality ◽  
High Quality Research ◽  
Monte Carlo Techniques ◽  
Ex Post ◽  
Research Designs ◽  
The World

Researchers need to select high-quality research designs and communicate those designs clearly to readers. Both tasks are difficult. We provide a framework for formally “declaring” the analytically relevant features of a research design in a demonstrably complete manner, with applications to qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research. The approach to design declaration we describe requires defining a model of the world (M), an inquiry (I), a data strategy (D), and an answer strategy (A). Declaration of these features in code provides sufficient information for researchers and readers to use Monte Carlo techniques to diagnose properties such as power, bias, accuracy of qualitative causal inferences, and other “diagnosands.” Ex ante declarations can be used to improve designs and facilitate preregistration, analysis, and reconciliation of intended and actual analyses. Ex post declarations are useful for describing, sharing, reanalyzing, and critiquing existing designs. We provide open-source software, DeclareDesign, to implement the proposed approach.

scholarly journals Conducting longitudinal, process-oriented research with conflict-affected youth: Solving the inevitable challenges

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric F. Dubow ◽  
J. Lawrence Aber ◽  
Theresa S. Betancourt ◽  
E. Mark Cummings ◽  
L. Rowell Huesmann
Keyword(s):  
External Validity ◽  
Special Section ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
High Quality ◽  
High Quality Research ◽  
Quality Research ◽  
Research Designs ◽  
Process Oriented ◽  
Internal And External Validity ◽  
Oriented Research

AbstractThe reader might get the impression that the four projects described in this Special Section proceeded in a systematic and predictable way. Of course, those of us engaged in each research project encountered pitfalls and challenges along the way. A main goal of this Special Section is to provide pathways and encouragement for those who may be interested in advancing high-quality research on this topic. In this paper, we describe a set of practical and ethical challenges that we encountered in conducting our longitudinal, process-oriented, and translational research with conflict-affected youth, and we illustrate how problems can be solved with the goal of maintaining the internal and external validity of the research designs. We are hopeful that by describing the challenges of our work, and how we overcame them, which are seldom treated in this or any other literature on research on child development in high-risk contexts, we can offer a realistic and encouraging picture of conducting methodologically sound research in conflict-affected contexts.

scholarly journals Development, implementation and importance of an undergraduate peer research consultant program at the University of North Dakota’s Chester Fritz Library

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 579-600
Author(s):  
Karlene T. Clark ◽  
Holly M. Gabriel ◽  
Kristen Borysewicz
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Academic Library ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
First Year ◽  
High Quality ◽  
High Quality Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Reference Services ◽  
Student Employees ◽  
Training And Support

Purpose This paper aims to describe both the development of a peer research consultant program – using student assistants to staff the reference desk with minimal supervision while providing high-quality research assistance to their undergraduate peers, and the steps taken to create buy-in for the program from campus and librarians. Design/methodology/approach The authors provide a description of peer reference services and describe how a remodel of the library building facilitated a redesign of services. The paper covers the process of developing program guidelines, securing funding, expectations of peer research consultants, the training process and lessons learned from a medium-sized academic library. Findings The findings after the first year demonstrate that undergraduates are highly skilled at providing high-quality reference services when provided with quality training and support. In addition, undergraduate students are now seeking out peer researchers for assistance with research items such as topic formation, keyword development in databases and proper citations. Research limitations/implications No formal research or assessment of the program has been completed as of this time. Practical implications Well-trained Peer Research Consultants (PRCs) provide valued assistance to librarians in freshman composition classes, at the Ask Us reference desk, and to their peers. The program has allowed librarians to provide more outreach to their subject areas. Social implications Students prefer going to their peers for research assistance rather than a professional librarian when given the choice. The training the PRCs are provided by librarians provides credibility and trust, which encourages undergraduate students to approach PRCs for assistance. Originality/value This paper draws on multiple iterations of peer reference models to create an original program, involving training student employees to provide reference services at a paraprofessional level, as well as providing the methodology for other academic libraries to develop and launch a similar program.

scholarly journals Patterns of the Network of Cross-Border University Research Collaboration in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 6846
Author(s):  
Jinyuan Ma ◽  
Fan Jiang ◽  
Liujian Gu ◽  
Xiang Zheng ◽  
Xiao Lin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Research Collaboration ◽  
Citation Impact ◽  
High Quality ◽  
High Quality Research ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Bay Area ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
Industrial Distribution

This study analyzes the patterns of university co-authorship networks in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area. It also examines the quality and subject distribution of co-authored articles within these networks. Social network analysis is used to outline the structure and evolution of the networks that have produced co-authored articles at universities in the Greater Bay Area from 2014 to 2018, at both regional and institutional levels. Field-weighted citation impact (FWCI) is used to analyze the quality and citation impact of co-authored articles in different subject fields. The findings of the study reveal that university co-authorship networks in the Greater Bay Area are still dispersed, and their disciplinary development is unbalanced. The study also finds that, while the research areas covered by high-quality co-authored articles fit the strategic needs of technological innovation and industrial distribution in the Greater Bay Area, high-quality research collaboration in the humanities and social sciences is insufficient.

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