Book Review: Researching second language acquisition in the study abroad learning environment: An introduction for student researchers

Researching Second Language Acquisition in the Study Abroad Learning Environment: An Introduction for Student Researchers (Isabelli-García and Isabelli, 2020) presents an overview of some of the major topics relevant to research on study abroad. This book is intended to be a basic primer for advanced students and beginner professional researchers and serves to provide general orientation on various aspects ranging from language and interactional systems to research gaps in the topic area. The book gives a relatively thorough presentation on some of the scholarly perspectives on study abroad that can be used as a guidebook for anyone who is interested in conducting academic research in the area. While there are some shortcomings, the book does an excellent job of synthesizing some of the major scholarly themes that are relevant to study abroad. Consequently, this is a useful book not only for novel researchers but also for faculty or staff who are interested in organizing university study abroad programs and would like a more thorough background.

Creating the [Insert Name Here] Methodology

In this chapter, the author uses a first-person narrative to describe her dissertation journey as she shifted from deductively hunting for the “right” methodology in order to follow an inductive process as she developed the “Melissa Methodology” of value-creative dialogue inspired by Ikeda's philosophical perspectives and practice. She illustrates one way that non-Western ways of knowing, being, and doing might inform curriculum studies student researchers. In addition, she highlights the importance of having supportive advisors and colleagues who pose and answer questions that push one's thoughts in new directions. Finally, she discusses implications for doctoral students based on her observations as an instructor of doctoral research methods courses. By sharing her journey, she hopes to provide an example of how doctoral students can be guided by their pursuit of what is worth knowing in creating their own research methodology.

A Multi-Disciplinary Undergraduate Pedagogical Experience Looking at Attitudes Towards Solar Development in the Mojave Desert

This research project aimed to integrate geography, spatial analysis, environmental studies, and social psychology to understand conflicts over solar development in the Mojave Desert region. A second objective was to empower the participating undergraduate student researchers with a deep-learning experience using multidisciplinary tools. This project ran from 2019 to 2021 under the Undergraduate Research Associates Program (URAP) at the University of Southern California. The students conducted site suitability analysis, survey research, interviews, and field studies. Results combined spatial analysis, attitudinal surveys, mapping, and detailed accounts of the students’ learning experiences. An important conclusion of this project was the discovery of a discrepancy between broad support for solar development at the state and national level, and a suspicion at the local level The student researchers went on to present multiple conferences and receive awards, and based on this project, both decided to attend graduate school in environmental studies and sciences. Recommendations for further research include interpolation of attitudes toward solar development, conducting a demographically representative survey, and participatory mapping. This approach can serve as a pedagogical strategy for other institutions, as students are increasingly eager to address environmental problem solving from the perspective of both the natural and social sciences.

Creating an Age-Friendly Model System Through a Community and University Partnership

The University of Massachusetts 5-campus system was the first university system to receive the Age-Friendly University designation in the AFU Global Network (Business West, 2019). Simultaneously, the town of Dartmouth and city of New Bedford became Age-Friendly Communities. This allowed for dynamic collaboration between our university and communities. This presentation highlights several examples. The Ora M. DeJesus Gerontology Center faculty and student researchers developed the original age-friendly survey items for New Bedford’s initial community assessment; and the College of Nursing and Health Sciences faculty and student researchers compiled data for Dartmouth’s survey. Community service during the pandemic has flourished. The Community Companions program, which matches students with community members in social need, went virtual. Nursing students and faculty have been on the frontline in the vaccination efforts in the town of Dartmouth. These partnerships will be presented as examples of potential opportunities for other age-friendly communities. Community-university partnerships are encouraged.

Writer Identity Construction in MSc. Students of Engineering

Writing in academia is not only a way for students to acquire knowledge and skills, but also a process through which they construct author/researcher identity. This study aims to explore how twenty MSc. students construct their identity as writers of research papers. The students in this study received genre-based writing instructions on writing research papers during their writing course in the first semester of university. They wrote four papers during the semester, and the researcher provided feedback to their papers. Then, they were interviewed individually in order to find out how they reacted to the instructions, the writing process, and the feedback provided by the teacher. In addition, they were requested to write a reflective piece of writing about what they experienced including their emotions, thoughts and opinions about writing an academic paper before and after the course. Two types of analyses were made. Firstly, their sample research papers were examined during the course to see if there were improvements in the areas where feedback was provided. Secondly, the interviews and reflective pieces of writing were subjected to content analysis in order to extract themes. The examination of the papers revealed that the feedback provided by the teacher was effective as the writings improved in the areas where feedback was given. The thematic analysis resulted in two major themes of Affect and Attitude and the Need for Adaptation. An important implication of this study was the role feedback played in helping student/researchers to develop their identity in writing.

Science fairs and the metacognitive phenomenon

This article deals with science fairs as spaces favorable to the evocation of metacognitive thinking fostered by the development of scientific research. It aims to highlight the skills unleashed in student researchers regarding participation in science fairs. It involved ten teachers and 133 students of Basic Education, from public and private networks, approached at a science fair held at a university in RS. Data were collected using a Likert questionnaire and recorded interviews, analyzed using descriptive statistics and the phenomenological method. It was evident that the evocation of metacognitive thinking was present throughout the process of scientific research, which culminated in the science fair. These revealed to be spaces of phenomena, because when constituted, they allow the student to evaluate himself and recognize his own learning, as well as, identify gaps to be improved. Thus, they result in the triggering of intellectual skills, contributing to the personal and social development of student researchers.

SenseCollect

On-body sensor-based human activity recognition (HAR) lags behind other fields because it lacks large-scale, labeled datasets; this shortfall impedes progress in developing robust and generalized predictive models. To facilitate researchers in collecting more extensive datasets quickly and efficiently we developed SenseCollect. We did a survey and interviewed student researchers in this area to identify what barriers are making it difficult to collect on-body sensor-based HAR data from human subjects. Every interviewee identified data collection as the hardest part of their research, stating it was laborious, consuming and error-prone. To improve HAR data resources we need to address that barrier, but we need a better understanding of the complicating factors to overcome it. To that end we conducted a series of control variable experiments that tested several protocols to ascertain their impact on data collection. SenseCollect studied 240+ human subjects in total and presented the findings to develop a data collection guideline. We also implemented a system to collect data, created the two largest on-body sensor-based human activity datasets, and made them publicly available.

“Your Eyes Open and so do Your Ears”: Centering Knowledge of Families with Refugee Backgrounds during a Follow-up Interview

In an exploratory case study of partnerships between educators and refugee families recently resettled in the U.S, we conducted follow-up interviews with each of the ten participating families during year one. In this paper, we report on themes from these interviews highlighted in three family case studies. We used methodological approaches that enabled us to reenvision and interrogate the power structure inherent in research relationships between ‘researcher’ and ‘researched.” The purposes of the additional interview were to conduct a member check on the data we had gathered, understand what had changed since our initial interview with the family, and gather families’ feedback about our comportment and methods. The two-part question was, How might decolonizing methods from a postcolonial lens serve as guideposts for disrupting research methods with families with refugee backgrounds?, and How did partnering with transnational student researchers inform ways of representing the family narratives? The follow-up narratives suggest a complex understanding of building knowledge within the limitations of a conventional research paradigm.

Disruptions of Post-Qualitative Education Research: Tensions and Openings

This article speaks up for those who are feeling unheard as post-qualitative inquirers. It also speaks with hope, helpfully, to those in positions of supervision and mentorship to help student researchers work across post paradigms, becoming allies with those who are attempting to experiment with new theory, figurative forms, and processes. Addressing some of the tensions we have experienced between traditional qualitative and emerging post-qualitative researchers enables us to specifically name disruptions that block, silence, and misalign. We also share openings as possibilities that remain with the tension and do not offer advice or recipes to follow. This is exactly the type of reductive process that post-qualitative research is trying to circumnavigate. In the hullabaloo, this article is a clarion call for the academy to open up education research and make room for researchers who are unbounded by the invented rules of humanist tradition and familiarity.