Consider the types of sources valued in your discipline: Primary sources? Books (how vetted?) Journals – peer review?

Help students understand the distinctions between accepted disciplinary sources of information and resources they are familiar with: Why are we down on Wikipedia (if we still are)? Why is Google inadequate for our disciplinary knowledge base? Why is peer review so important to us (and what are its limitations?) What exactly do we mean by “academic literature” in our discipline?

Metanarrative as culture is exceeding difficult to teach in a short period of time. Some suggestions: Focus on what excites you about the discipline. Model the values of the discipline as you discuss issues and grade research. Emphasize the importance of consensus on ways of thinking about subject matter and method, even as you recognize the role of diversity in moving the culture forward.

While modular assignments (assignments done in portions, each of which is submitted and assessed before the student can move on), using the module approach as a tool for teaching research processes is less common. While content is important, this type of faceting gives most weight to the student’s process, that is to the student’s understanding and exercise of the methods required in the discipline.

The Assignment: A number of studies have shown that students are baffled by their professors’ research assignments. E.g. A typical assignment might be: Write a research paper of 2000 words on [a topic relevant to the course; one of the following 10 options]. Use critical thinking and proper APA format. A minimum 3 books and 3 peer reviewed articles are required. No Wikipedia articles or websites.

Refocus the assignment on explanation rather than demand: Write a research paper of 2000 words on [a topic relevant to the course; one of the following 10 options]. Deal with a problem or issue. Here’s a tutorial: For your bibliography, choose 3 books relevant to your topic. Also include 3 peer reviewed journal articles. Here’s a tutorial on peer reviewed articles: reviewed-articles.html Use APA 6 th edition format: APA Guide: APA Sample Paper: experiment-paper-1.pdfhttp:// experiment-paper-1.pdf

Make the Assignment Modular: Instruction on research questions/theses Part One: Research Question/Thesis and Preliminary Outline Instruction on finding books and articles Part Two: Preliminary bibliography + journal Further instruction on the nature of research papers in the discipline Part Three: Paper summary (based around outline) Instruction on evaluating resources for quality and relevance Part Four: Annotated bibliography Part Five: Final paper

Sample modules: Research question or thesis: 1. Choose your topic as set out in the course instructions. 2. Look up your topic in Wikipedia and in an established reference source. Write a half page working knowledge summary of the main features of your topic. Do not, at this point, argue your case or even state a research question. You just want to get the facts straight with regard to your topic. 3. Identify three possible research questions that you might ask. Then choose the best of these as the question you will use for this project. For this part of the assignment, I will offer comments in my grading, and it is likely that you will get your chosen question back for revision before a final grade is set. [See a full set of modular assignments at

Grading of modules must be process-driven Focus on how the student did the module rather than merely on its content or format: Here is an actual assessment of research questions submitted for an assignment (my comments in orange): Your questions below could each work, but you need to ensure that they need enough analysis to make a solid project. See comments below. a. Why do normal, healthy people suffer from anxiety? Here you are looking for an overall cause, which may be a problem if there are multiple possible causes. It would work if you could focus on a small cluster of the most significant cause factors while weeding out less likely suggestions. For example, you could ask why stress causes more anxiety in some people than in others, leading, perhaps to clues for anxiety reduction. b. What can be done to prevent anxiety attacks from happening? Could work if there are some new techniques that could be evaluated. You want, with this kind of question, to look at options and provide evidence why some are better than others. Ask what the research is saying about the effectiveness of a certain stress reduction technique.