Towards coherent SGDEs for Students Part 1 Your experiences of SGDEs Articulating the skills of the SGDE Part 2 Knowing the progression and standing of students prior to designing and implementing a new SGDE.

Survey Monkey: Positives of SGDE

Positives Research skills for students high quality written work from students student opportunities Greater student engagement We get to work with students more … get to know our students a little better

Positives consistent language and discourse across courses and programs Support for the importance of inquiry based learning approaches already being practiced.

Challenges

Challenges enough time to spend with each student the cultural shift that 1st year students need to make group work and student resistance to it selling it to the students who are very vocationally focussed large classes - which not all students are happy with

Challenges Resources; handling group work issues; Staffing so that there is enough time to spend with each student, allowing individual feedback and true collaboration The complexity of managing and organising more substantial SGDEs; staff engagement with this complexity and general buy-in; Finding the resources (i.e. the academic staff) to run the SGDE.

Surprises

Surprises nothing. students and staff are totally disengaged. I think the idea is actually very good but when it is supported only by rhetoric and not resources then the outcome is fairly obvious the broad range of expectations of the mentors in terms of student ability at level II how excited the students get when they reflect back on the experience

Surprises how diverse the implementations of it are across the University. The broad range of expectations of the mentors in terms of student ability at level II How excited the students get when they reflect back on the experience the reluctance students have in engaging with an academic and the fear they have in sharing their ideas… …but at the other extreme - how deeply they consider the issues when they do engage.

Problem Definition & Specification Facets of Research When in doubt, go to the centre… Find & Generate What do I need? Communicate & Apply How do we relate? What should I trust? Problem Definition & Specification Identify Patient needs Embark & Clarify Evaluate & Reflect What is my purpose? Organise & Manage Analyse & Synthesise How do I arrange? What does it mean? Based on www.rsd.edu.au and OPS designed by Mechanical Engineering Communications Tutors, University of Adelaide, 2014 john.willison@adelaide.edu.au

Facets of research (cont) Progressive revisiting the same skills: in varying contexts with increasing degrees of rigour, conceptual demand ‘Thinking routine’ Embark clarify Find generate Evaluate reflect Organise manage Analyse synthesise Communicate apply Embark Generate Evaluate Organise Synthesize Communicate Embark clarify Find generate Evaluate reflect Organise manage Analyse synthesise Communicate apply Embark clarify Find generate Evaluate reflect Organise manage Analyse synthesise Communicate apply

Why Research Skill Development? SGDEs with shared explicit skills may form a spine across the degree Variety, nuances Coherent spine for students to generalise the learning experience as a whole RSD

Facets of Research ‘consistent language and discourse’ ‘already being practiced’ ‘managing and organising more substantial SGDEs’ ‘diverse the implementations’ ‘broad range of expectations’ ‘When reflect back on the experience’ ‘handling group work issues’ When in doubt, go to the centre… Find & Generate What do I need? Communicate & Apply How do we relate? What should I trust? Embark & Clarify Evaluate & Reflect What is my purpose? Organise & Manage Analyse & Synthesise How do I arrange? What does it mean? Based on www.rsd.edu.au and OPS designed by Mechanical Engineering Communications Tutors, University of Adelaide, 2014 john.willison@adelaide.edu.au

OPS pentagon RSD terminology didn’t work in 1st to 3rd year EEE for 8 years Tutors in Mech Eng were briefed with re-engineering the RSD for use with1st Years (n=300). OPS pentagon is ‘owned’ by tutors and into third year of implementation Influencing 3rd year course in Mech Eng

Change terminology Facets of ……………. Reconfigure  shape  centre When in doubt, go to the centre… Reconfigure  shape Find & Generate  centre What do I need? Maintain the idea behind each of the six facets Communicate & Apply How do we relate? What should I trust? Embark & Clarify Evaluate & Reflect What is my purpose? Organise & Manage Analyse & Synthesise How do I arrange? What does it mean? Based on www.rsd.edu.au and OPS designed by Mechanical Engineering Communications Tutors, University of Adelaide, 2014 john.willison@adelaide.edu.au

Chad’s Version for Inquiring Mind SGDE: Diverges then converges The Stakeholder Position Model note: Evaluate and Reflect is like an intestine throughout

Cate J’s Evaluation Starfish Cate J used the pentagon shape, but placed ‘Evaluate and reflect’ in the centre She changed the centre shape to a starfish, so all of its 5 legs reached into the other facets.

Towards coherent SGDEs Part 1 Your experiences of SGDEs Articulating the skills of the SGDE Part 2 Knowing the progression and standing of students prior to designing and implementing a new SGDE.

Knowledge about the progression and standing of students’ prior to designing and implementing a new SGDE. Would be good if previous SGDEs provided that knowledge More realistic if SGDEs share a common conceptualisation Simple reporting according to eg 6 facets If not, is a diagnostic needed? Eg Mech Eng First year pre-test give out survey?

Knowing the standing of students prior to implementing First year Mechanical Engineering Course 300 students 16 tutors Communication workshop of 3 hours every fortnight Small group work forever ‘SGDE’ recognises its practice

14 Likert Scale Questions on Problem Solving Skills in keeping with OPS (n=198/300) -3 strongly disagree 0 neutral/agree and disagree equally + 3 strongly agree

I am good at solving problems … Q 1… generally Q2 … in mechanical engineering Q1 Generally Av: 1.63 Q2 in Mech Eng Av: 1.02

One Q: Importance of problem solving skills Q 15 The ability to optimise solutions to engineering problems will be important in my career Q15 The ability to optimise solutions to engineering problems will be important in my career Av: 1.9

3 Qs: I am good at communicating… Q 12 … orally what I understand when solving problems in engineering Q13 … in writing what I understand when solving problems in engineering Q14… graphically what I understand when solving problems in engineering Q12 …orally Av: 0.4 Q13 in writing Av: 0.55 Q14 graphically Av: 0.80

Q4 Up to now, what has what has been a barrier for you to develop your problem solving skills? (n= 179)

Graphic Design outcomes so far Students (n=300): Engaged in oral presentations week 4 and week 6. Showed data (from above) ~ Week5 Much more serious in the week 6 presentations Tutors (n=16): Strong sense of ownership of OPS and keen interest in teaching it We will have focus groups and interviews, but the pre-post questionnaire data will be substantial.

Knowing the standing of students prior to designing

Why RSD or OPS or …? Chance to explicitly use your knowledge of student skills in previous SGDEs skills to inform the design of new SGDEs Knowledge of student performance Coherent spine for teachers to gain prior and just-in-time knowledge of students’ skills RSD

Interested in further discussion? I am happy to chat (have some time for this) with you with a group of colleagues Formal presentations Workshop to get things done eg: Map skills across a program Discuss a specific SGDE Evaluation strategies/research with ethics approval Some PVC $ for lunch for Schools

Questions and Comments

RSD use at UoA Health Sciences 2004 Human Biology Nursing, Medical Science Honours, Oral Health, Public Health ECMS EEE 2006 Petroleum, Civil , Mechanical, ECIC Sciences Animal Science 2008 Agriculture Food and Wine, Vet Science Arts Media (2008) Education Professions Business 2014

Simultaneous potential expansions of ‘RSD’ use Library/academic collaborations Monash Library-run W/S PASS program (Peer assisted study support) Formulating a framework for the PASS tutors and student Sessional tutor training and co-design (eg DG&C) Staff continuing professional development (eg RSD module at Monash) Flipped Learning design SGDE community of practice exploring the RSD especially for program-level thinking

U Alberta Queens TrCol Dublin W’gong QUT Uni S.A. MonashUni Uni Adelaide Maquarie Uni Uni Melbourne USQ JCU S.Pacific Ngee Ann Poly Uwiscon U Georgia Jersey

References Missingham, D., Cheong, M., Tonkin, M., Matulessya, S., Lowe, S., Cook, T., & Ashby, R. (2014). Workshop: Thinking like an engineer. In 25th Annual Conference of the Australasian Association for Engineering Education: Engineering the Knowledge Economy: Collaboration, Engagement & Employability (p. 646-647). School of Engineering & Advanced Technology, Massey University. Parange, N. & Marks, K. (in press). Teaching clinical diagnostic reasoning and research-mindedness in obstetric and gynaecologic sonography online using Research Skills Development Framework. Sonography. Ritchhard, R. and Perkins, L. ( 2008). Making Thinking Visible. Educational Leadership, February 2008, p 57-61. Willison, J., & O’Regan, K. (2007). Commonly known, commonly not known, totally unknown: a framework for students becoming researchers. Higher Education Research & Development, 26(4), 393-409.

Extent of Autonomy in Research Educator Initiated Student Initiated P r e s c i b d B o u n d e S c a f o l d e S e l f a c t u d O p e n s c o

Autonomy vs Time (Nursing) L 5 L 4 L 3 L 2 L 1 Extent of Autonomy 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th Semester at Uni

Level of Autonomy in a Degree? There is no rule Raises teaching questions E.g. the move from first year to second year ... Rigour Conceptual Demand Depth of background knowledge Student Autonomy?

Autonomy vs Time (Medical Science) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th L 5 Extent of Autonomy 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th Semester at Uni