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BE FREE TO TEACH
Teaching Effectiveness Program (TEP)
The Teaching and Learning Center
The Collaborative Research Model: Student Learning Teams in Undergraduate Research |
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Teaching Effectiveness Program (TEP)
The Teaching and Learning Center
The Collaborative Research Model is a flexible model for collaborative student research in coursework across the curriculum. The foundation of the model lies in its cooperative stance, which supports students in working together toward informed decision making on a common research problem.
Many variations on the model are possible, but successful implementations include collaborative research projects in lieu of individual research papers. For instance:
In a sociology class, students might work together to explore issues relevant to population growth, create issues briefs focused on a common resolution with common claims and counterclaims that represent multiple perspectives, and then engage in a cooperative debate.
Students in an early-childhood education class might decide to examine various perspectives on reading instruction, working together to create a common resource bank, and then engage in a round table discussion for pedagogical decision making.
The Collaborative Research Model works well in both small and large undergraduate classrooms, and has the potential to result in interesting and innovative research by lower-division students, as well as sophisticated research products by upper-division students.
A successful collaborative research project will:
Interest and engage all course participants—students and instructors.
Provide a realistic rhetorical context to motivate students toward creating and presenting their research.
Encourage consensus decision-making, small-group collaboration, cooperative learning, and critical thinking.
Increase student abilities for locating, gathering, and synthesizing diverse perspectives.
Heighten student awareness of how research is valued and assessed.
