1. Research Problem In one sentence, describe the problem that is the focus of your classroom research project about student learning: That students do not interpret the results of a journal article, but instead use the author’s interpretations.

2. Research Question What is your research question? Does specifically training and assessing the students in interpretation of results from primary journal articles change their attitudes towards and confidence in reading journal articles? Sub-questions: Does this differ depending on their intended career direction? Does this correlate with their overall engagement, and is this reflected in their actual skill at the end of the course? What is the context (e.g. class setting, student audience) in which you will conduct your research? Final year class in Developmental Genetics, ~80 students, majority Bachelor of Science, some Bachelor of Biomedical Science, ~1/2 in genetics Major. Intervention: 1. Journal article lectures – lecturers pull apart papers 2. journal article discussions – students interpret and discuss journal article results 3. Students assessed on interpretation of journal article results in exam

3. Research Methods My primary research methods include: Survey, measuring attendance and embedded assessment of skills in results analysis. I will collect these data: pre- questionnaire (paper, in class, ~95% participation) post- questionnaire (paper, at the end of the final discussion sessions ~70-80% participation) attendance data, data analysis question in the final exam. I will analyze the data by: Statistical methods to see if there is a change in their answers to matched questions on their attitudes, approaches and confidence in reading primary literature. Qualitative methods of open-ended questions to see students opinions about reading primary articles, and their confidence with this skill. Statistical correlation of attendance, future career plan, skill in data analysis, and attitudes and opinions at the end of the course.

4. Alignment of Research Question and Methods This is why I think it aligns: I am interested in changes in their attitudes, approaches and confidence, and so I will see these in pre- and post- questionnaire data from quantitative and qualitative data. I will use the attendance data as a measure of overall engagement, and the survey questions on future career path to see how this influences their attitudes. I will see if their changes in attitudes are reflected by actual skills (although not changes in skills). The data will help me answer my question by: Showing if there are changes in the attitudes of students due to this class, and finding out if their confidence has changed. – allowing me to see if there are specific other influences too