An exploration of how science faculty construct “scientific research” in first year undergraduate teaching
department or school: Education, Faculty of
department or school: Educational Studies (EDST), Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Lawrence, Vanessa
issued: 2024-10-21T19:30:18Z
issued: 2024
related degree: Master of Arts - MA
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: This thesis investigates the construction of “scientific research” in first-year undergraduate natural science courses. Building on literature examining the research-teaching nexus, this study focuses on research-oriented teaching, where the research process is the focus of instruction and students are not actively participating in research. The researcher examines how faculty explicitly and implicitly construct “scientific research” for students entering the academy, and how that construction is impacted by assumptions about teaching, research, and students. This is achieved through a multiple-case study of three courses, allowing comparison between teaching in the mainstream science curriculum and in specialized programs for first-year science students. The study concludes that the construction of “scientific research” is highly differentiated depending upon whether teaching research is an explicit outcome or component of a course. The depiction of research faculty aim for students to hold in courses which directly address research is more complex and complete. Teaching perspectives and practices used by faculty to construct research in first-year courses did not seem to align strongly with enculturation or induction into a community of practice, as posited in the literature. However, findings suggested that faculty teaching of research may vary across different stages or years of undergraduate study. Additionally, in these courses which explicitly teach research, faculty are able to recognize and address misconceptions of science research which students hold when entering undergraduate study. For students who do not encounter explicit teaching of research in their undergraduate studies, these misconceptions may remain unaddressed, and could possibly be reinforced if students participate in undergraduate research experiences.
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/89464
note: AN EXPLORATION OF HOW SCIENCE FACULTY CONSTRUCT “SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH” IN FIRST YEAR UNDERGRADUATE TEACHING by Vanessa Lawrence B.A., The University of Guelph, 2011 M.I., The University of Toronto, 2014 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Educational Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) October 2024 © Vanessa Lawrence, 2024 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the thesis entitled: AN EXPLORATION OF HOW SCIENCE FACULTY CONSTRUCT “SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH” IN FIRST YEAR UNDERGRADUATE TEACHING submitted by Vanessa Lawrence in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Educational Studies Examining Committee: André Mazawi, Professor, Educational Studies, University of British Columbia Supervisor Marina Milner-Bolotin, Professor, Curriculum and Pedagogy, University of British Columbia Supervisory Committee Member Cynthia Nicol, Professor, Curriculum and Pedagogy, University of British Columbia Additional Examiner iii Abstract This thesis investigates the construction of “scientific research” in first-year undergraduate natural science courses. Building on literature examining the research-teaching nexus, this study focuses on research-oriented teaching, where the research process is the focus of instruction and students are not actively participating in research. The researcher examines how faculty explicitly and implicitly construct “scientific research” for students entering the academy, and how that construction is impacted by assumptions about teaching, research, and students. This is achieved through a multiple-case study of three courses, allowing comparison between teaching in the mainstream science curriculum and in specialized programs for first-year science students. The study concludes that the constructi…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2024-11
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0445616
language: eng
degree discipline: Educational Studies
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Mazawi, André Elias
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/89464