| A&A: Assignment - Teaching Research Skills |
During the first three weeks of class seminar students spend the majority of their time doing research on their topic to uncover necessary background information and to help them develop ideas for possible solutions. Students will need guidance during this time. They will benefit greatly from a presentation or activity that introduces them to the concept of developing a research strategy. To reinforce presentation develop an assignment that requires students to work in groups to develop their own research strategy based on one of the models. Then, let students know that the class will be interdependent. Each group will depend on the other groups research. Share with them a set of performance standards for research , this will help students understand what you expect and lead to stronger research presentations.
In the electronic age, the knowing how to access information is not as important as knowing how to evaluate facts and information efficiently. As a result many information technology departments at universities and secondary schools are putting together strategies for teaching students to move efficiently through the research process.
For a brief introduction to the reasoning behind the curriculum work being done on the research cycle check out this short article, "BEFORENET and AFTERNET" by Jamieson McKenzie.
Bellingham School District in Washington has put together a unit designed to teach students how to research effectively. The unit consists of four parts:
1. The Steps of the Research Cycle
3. Sorting, Analyzing and Synthesizing Information
4. Assessment, Teamwork and Essential Student Learning
In addition to the Washington school district site, Ithica University has also put together a well thought out mini-unit on developing a research strategy on their site. Their research plan is broken up into two parts, Before you start and the Search Strategy. The site also includes a flow chart that will help you walk students through the process.
The topic of research skills is directly related to six topics:
Library of Congress Classification System This site gives students a basic introduction to the library of congress system. It is organized as a mini-lesson plan and includes a quiz.
Shields Library also offers a variety of one hour classes on using the library and other topics. There is a schedule on their Web page.
Sandra Vella, the Academic Personnel Coordinator for Shields library would be happy to schedule special course for your seminar. Just give her a call two or three weeks before the date you would like the course and she will set up all the details for you. Her number is 752-1138 or savella@ucdavis.edu.
Teaching Students to use the Web for Research: Cooperative Learning Strategies and Resources. This Power Point presentation by Carol Hansen of Weber State University, Utah gives a brief overview of cooperative learning strategies and introduces pros and cons of using the Web for research.
1. The Clark State Community College Library Web page give a short explanation of how to critically evaluate any resource. This short summary would make a great handout for your students.
2. Web Page Evaluation
The Weidner University Library site is a very well organized site that has a great deal of information on:
- Teaching students to research using the Web
- Evaluating Web sites
- This link will take you directly to the Web page evaluation checklist.
The ICYouSee Guide to Critical Thinking About What You See on the Web Writing a research paper. A catchy title is not all you will find on this page, it has criteria for Web page evaluation and a lesson that students can use to test their evaluation skills. This could be a useful site to go through together with your class.
Web Page Evaluation Worksheet 1996 by Dr. Nancy Everhart. This site includes the worksheet that can be reprinted with permission.
Asking Questions by the University of Minnesota teaching resource center. Covers an approach for helping instructors ask better questions.
1. Referencing Sources - electronic
On-Line Guide for Turabian Style Bibliography
2. UC Davis Resources
Hidden in the depths of the UCD Shields Library web page is a great collection of links to research related sites. Most of them are listed other places on this page, but sometime the original list page is a helpful place to send students to start.
Guidelines for Writing a Research Paper from Andrew Waterhouse, Viticulture and Enology. This is a copy of a handout he uses in his classes that would be useful for many seminars.
Beyond the Essay Form: A Checklist for Real-World Writing Tasks - John Stenzel has put together this useful handout. He says, "In my Advanced Composition classes I try to teach other forms besides the essay, since essay-writing skills in themselves don't serve much purpose in the non-academic world. I urge students to examine each different writing task according to following categories, and thus understand how the task dictates the kind of writing and the nature of the finished product. Good writers do a lot of things at the same time, often unconsciously, making any scheme somewhat artificial, but the following categories and subsidiary questions have proven useful in analyzing writing tasks and in refining intermediary drafts."
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