Teaching Research Methods Courses in Human Geography: Critical Reflections

The growing volume of data generated by machines, humans, software applications, sensors and networks, together with the associated complexity of the research environment, requires immediate pedagogical innovations in academic programs on research methodology. This article draws insights from a large-scale research project examining current conceptions and practices of academics (n = 144) involved in the teaching of research methods in research-intensive universities in 17 countries. The data was obtained through an online questionnaire. The main findings reveal that a large number of academics involved in the teaching of research methods courses tend to teach the same classes for many years, in the same way, despite the changing nature of data, and complexity of the environment in which research is conducted. Furthermore, those involved in the teaching of research methods courses are predominantly volunteer academics, who tend to view the subject only as an “add-on” to their other teaching duties. It was also noted that universities mainly approach the teaching of research methods courses as a “service” to students and departments, not part of the core curriculum. To deal with the growing changes in data structures, and technology driven research environment, the study recommends institutions to reimage research methodology programs to enable students to develop appropriate competences to deal with the challenges of working with complex and large amounts of data and associated analytics.

To achieve better research outcomes, all countries, especially the developing countries, focus on improvement in the research skills of the academia, in particular that of novice students. Research Methods (RM) course is the common first step whereby students gain their initial skills in designing, conducting and reporting research. This research aims to significantly improve the way Research Methods course is taught in higher education settings. As part of this research, this study investigates the following research questions. First, can Lean-Agile practices infused in a Research Methods course help improve the research skills? Second, if so, what kind of customization is needed to make it a) acceptable to the Student Researchers (SRs) and Research Supervisors (RSs), and b) measurable and suitable for learning Research Methods? Finally, is there an additive causal influence on learning efficiency from Lean-Agile methods and Self-regulated learning methods? This research has designed an online educational platform for a Research Methods (RM) course that is infused with novel pedagogical approach / processes, to scaffold their learning processes with analytical solutions and interactive visualizations. The first iteration of this Design Science Research (DSR) commenced with a survey of SRs and RSs in a young university in India, as part of the Relevance Cycle; As part of Rigor Cycle, Systematic & Explorative Literature reviews are underway. Design Cycle to build an MVP based on survey inputs is also in progress; Evaluation Cycle is being planned. This DC paper elaborates on these research processes and identifies a few challenges facing a DSR-based approach.

Courses in research methods play a critical role in postgraduate education. However, postgraduate students face considerable challenges in learning the subject matter. The present paper introduces iMethod, a software application designed to track students' engagement with the content of research methods courses. iMethod harvested data, analysed students' engagement, and presented the outcome to a teacher through a dashboard rendered in real-time. As a proof-of-concept, a usability study on iMethod was conducted with a sample of postgraduate students and early career academics (n=37) at a research-intensive university in New Zealand. Key findings suggest that students and academic staff found iMethod a valuable application for enhancing research methods learning. In particular, students value its content for understanding fundamental concepts while valuing its inquiry facilitation and providing helpful information on research methods. Participants said iMethod could expand knowledge, offers guidance, and the content is accessible to a diverse range of students. Lastly, participants reported that iMethod facilitated easy knowledge sharing, and the interface design was user-friendly and intuitive. The paper contributes to the growing need to promote research into the curriculum design of research methodology programmes and the quality of teaching research methods courses.

A small number of LIS degree programs have adopted a diversified approach to research methods education, including offering an array of specialized research methods courses in addition to a general introductory course. The current study conducted an in-depth investigation of the diversified research methods curriculum of the LIS program at San Jose State University. The curriculum featured ten different research methods courses, and permitted students to make a selection to fulfill the requirement. Students tended to base their selections on individual interests, and reported a high level of satisfaction with their learning experience. The current study examined different aspects of the diversified curriculum from the student perspective, and reviewed the implications of this curricular model.

The aim of this study is to understand the relationships between critical theory-based approaches and its implementations in geography teaching departments in Turkey. Critical theory dates back to 1930s and has developed over time aiming to deal with institutions, culture and society through critical lens. Currently, critical theory-based research designs and research paradigms inspire a large number of books, articles especially in qualitative researches due to their beneficial outcomes for the vulnerable, the poor and the othered segments of society with which critical researches are mainly concerned.In the study, firstly it was described critical theory and critical research characteristics. Secondly, human geography and critical research relationships covered. Thirdly, human geography courses in geography teaching departments in Turkey explained in connection with critical theory. The relationships between these courses, critical theory and critical research were tried to explore. The study emphasized the importance of critical theory in courses in human geography considering far-reaching effects of critical theory on humanities, social sciences and art studies. Human geography has and should have close connections with other disciplines and sub-disciplines drawing on multiple theories, concepts and approaches.

Research activity is an integral component in the formation of professions. Evidence shows that business and technical communication specialists conduct research in both academic and practitioner career fields. In other disciplines, course work has been recognized as the primary means for preparing students to conduct and consume research. Yet, no publications document the status of research methods course work for U.S. students specializing in business and technical communication. This study provides a descriptive basis for assessing three areas in those courses: research methods topics, required readings, and teaching or assessment methods. An analysis of the results leads to a proposed agenda for preparing students specializing in business and technical communication for their future work roles in both academe and industry.

The provision of undergraduate statistics teaching varies across UK dental schools, but some challenges are faced in all schools. These include the need to (i) demonstrate the relevance of statistics to dentistry, (ii) address the phenomenon of statistical anxiety likely to be experienced, and (iii) deliver the teaching with a limited number of statistically trained staff. Our objective was to design a research methods course that combined epidemiology and statistics teaching for undergraduates at Bristol Dental School (University of Bristol) that was clinically relevant, focused on concepts and interpretation rather than calculation, and was sustainable, using new technology to enhance learning. The research methods course was introduced in 2008, extensively developed over the next two years based on student and tutor feedback, and has run with only minor updates ever since. The aim of the course is to introduce year 2 dental students to the skills needed to practice evidence-based dentistry, i.e. understand and critically appraise published research. Basic epidemiological concepts, different types of study design, summarising and interpreting data, and choosing appropriate statistical analyses are covered. The course is introduced by a face-to-face lecture. This emphasises the relevance to future careers, and pre-empts the feelings of statistical anxiety by presenting evidence that exam results for this course are not associated with having achieved an A-level in mathematics. The rest of the course is delivered using the flipped classroom approach. Didactic teaching is in the form of nine e-lectures, each lasting 20-25 minutes. These are split into chapters to allow easy navigation, and include pop-up questions. Small group (up to 10 students) structured tutorials (one per e-lecture) are used to reinforce the material covered in the e-lectures, drawing on real clinical examples from research publications. They are interactive, and also include e-voting quizzes to allow the tutors and students to gauge the level of understanding that is being achieved. At the end of the course there is a revision session and written assessment, which must be passed before students can progress to year 3 of the dental degree. Approximately 70 students take the course each year, split into eight groups, and tutorials are based on pre-prepared materials. Tutoring on this course provides an attractive opportunity to gain teaching experience, with only a modest investment in time. Therefore, it has always been possible to recruit enough statisticians or epidemiologists in the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Bristol to act as tutors. At least 89% of the students have passed the exam on first sitting each year, and all students have passed their re-sit exam. Marks ranged from 50-86% in 2019, and similar ranges were seen in previous years. Student feedback is consistently high, with virtually all students rating all components of the course at least satisfactory, and high percentages rating them good or excellent (e-lectures and tutorials were rated to be good or excellent by 72% and 95% of the students respectively in 2019). External examiners have been very complimentary, and only ever requested minor changes. Hence it has been possible to run a sustainable research methods course that engages students’ interest and produces excellent learning outcomes.

This article presents results from an evaluation of an online statistics lab as part of a foundations research methods course for master's-level social work students. The article discusses factors that contribute to an environment in social work that fosters attitudes of reluctance toward learning and teaching statistics in research methods courses. Students' evaluations (N = 25) suggest that implementing online statistics labs as a part of a foundations research methods course may help students form more positive attitudes toward statistics and improve their ability to read scholarly articles. Description of the course is provided, and challenges to implementation are discussed.

The way research methods course has been taught across disciplines was a combination of hands-on experience and research activities. The applied activities came in different forms such as conducting literature review, applying peer review, writing papers, etc. In class activities, which are outside the silo of research methods, are not widely popular. The activity in mind is the “Marshmallow Challenge” which gained popularity in domains such as Management, yet it has not been reported to be used in research methods courses. In this paper we report our experience in applying the “Marshmallow Challenge” in a research methods course taught to master students of Information Technology degree and discuss the lessons learned from this experience.

The undergraduate curriculum in Indonesia generally requires students to take a research methods course as a prerequisite course for the preparation of scientific reports. The objective of this course is to teach students how to present research results both orally and in writing using the styles and forms of each university. However, this course is not popular among students because the material is complex and technical. As a result, there is a gap between learning outcomes and their application when students prepare scientific reports. Improving pedagogy and teaching interventions through student-developed research projects is important in complementing lectures. The purpose of this study was to analyze the improvement of students' ability in writing scientific reports through research method courses using problem based learning (PBL). This research was a case study to report the integration of scientific report writing in research methods courses through PBL at the Universitas Islam Bandung in Indonesia. PBL was implemented by involving students in research-related tasks with the following stages: writing research questions, determining the research design, collecting data, analyzing data, and presenting research results. The research results showed that there was an increase in scientific writing skills in the good category. Normalized gain for indicators of increasing accuracy using research report formats, suitability for using literature and research methods is 0.064 and 0.209, including the low category, and the plagiarism level is 0.509, including the medium category. This finding implies that assigning students to write scientific reports using PBL in the research method classroom is useful for improving learning outcomes, presentation, reasoning, communication, ambiguous problem-solving, and reducing plagiarism. The findings of this study strengthen the findings of previous researchers, namely increase students' abilities in using formatting to prepare scientific reports, using appropriate literature, mastering research materials as well as reducing the level of plagiarism.

Climate change is an important theme which is addressed in many subjects nowadays in Finnish curriculum.  Young people are also very worried about and interested in climate change.  Understanding causes and effects of climate change is important as well is thinking about different ways to make a difference, what could be done and who should be doing it. Sustainable development is one important way of making the change towards cooler planet.I planned and held an online course of human geography with climate change point of view as part of a project Climate Change to Upper Secondary Schools. In this project three online courses were planned: 1,5 Degrees Life Skills for Young People, Human Geography (“in Climate Change Marinade”) and Climate Knowledge. The idea of online courses was to increase important future skills like critical thinking, problem solving, influencing the society, which would give strength to young people on their way to a better future.  My course Human Geography was the only one evaluated with a grade and directed only to older upper secondary school students. The other courses were evaluated only as approved or failed and they were open also to younger secondary school students.In my Human Geography course we studied the basics of human geography so that in every topic, were it population changes or natural resources, also how it is linked to climate change, was considered. Also, assignments that students did were linking together climate change and the topic studied.  During the time of corona pandemic part of students got accustomed to studying independently online, and interest in studying this way has increased. This is why, at least in Finland, online courses in schools seem to become more and more common. They are also cheap way to provide studying possibilities in a country where we have lot of small villages great distances apart one another.In my poster I’ll describe what kind of course my Human Geography was and how it was accomplished.

The current study compares a traditional “scientist-practitioner” and a “research-informed” approach utilizing a sample of students from a COAMFTE accredited master’s program. Students were enrolled in a research methods course with either a “scientist-practitioner” or a “research-informed” focus. Results from both self assessment of core competencies, as well as basic research knowledge, found that both course types led to significant improvements; however neither course emerged as more significant than the other. Implications for best practices in teaching research methods in MFT training programs are discussed.

This practical action research study reports how the doctoral-level Qualitative Research Methodology course offered by a Vietnamese university evolved over four years. Since the students were quantitatively oriented and of mixed disciplinary backgrounds, they struggled with the course immensely. In particular, they were highly skeptical of the qualitative research methodology. By assigning more discipline-appropriate reading materials and changing the material assignment mechanism over four intervention cycles, the students responded increasingly positively to the course and gradually overcame their prejudice against it. In addition, popular press books seemed to create a meaningful common space between the students and the instructor. While the interventions brought about more positive student learning experiences, the instructor found them painful, and some students remained skeptical of the course. This study is useful for those professors who teach research methods courses in Ph.D. programs, especially when the students struggle with the courses.

While simulations have become important pedagogical tools in many undergraduate political science courses, research methods courses seem to be an exception. This chapter explores an approach to teaching research methods that structures the course around a series of miniature simulations. These simulation exercises occur once every two weeks throughout the semester. Students are randomly grouped with two or three other students, given a fictional role (e.g., consulting firm) and scenario, and must use the entire 75-minute session to accomplish a specific research-related task or solve a research-related challenge. Each group simultaneously co-authors a report on its findings within a single Google Docs file. After briefly justifying this approach, the chapter focuses on the mechanics of these simulation sessions and reports on student learning outcomes in the Fall 2019 and Spring 2020 sections of my course, "Research & Writing in Political Science."

This paper examines the attitudes of student teachers in social studies towards an educational research assignment, undertaken in an educational research methods course given at the Fatih Faculty of Education at Karadeniz Technical University, Turkey. A questionnaire containing open-ended questions and an interview were used in the data-collection process of this research. 74 student teachers answered the questionnaire; 20 of these teachers were selected for interview through a random sampling method, and they then participated in a semi-structured interview. In the light of the data, it can be said that the majority of student teachers gained basic educational research skills as a result of the course, and specifically learned how to conduct a small-scale research project. By conducting a small-scale education research project and writing a report on it, student teachers learned important educational research skills, such as how to detect problems, construct hypotheses, review literature, select a suitable research methodology, choose data-collecting instruments, gather and analyse data, cite references and write up an educational research project.