Decoding and Disclosure in Students-as-Partners Research: A Case Study of the Political Science Literature Review

Authors

  • Mary Rouse At the time of this research, Mary was a fourth year political science student at Elon University. After graduating in May 2015, she spent a Fulbright year in the United Kingdom obtaining her MSc. She now works as a special assistant at the Atlantic Council, a think tank in Washington, D.C.
  • Julie Phillips At the time of this research, Julie was a fourth year history student at Elon University. She is currently a juris doctor candidate at William & Mary Law School in Williamsburg, VA.
  • Rachel Mehaffey At the time of this research, Rachel was a fourth year undergraduate at Elon University majoring in dance performance and choreography. Since graduation she has worked as a professional dancer, actor, and choreographer.
  • Susannah McGowan King’s Learning Institute, King’s College London, London, UK
  • Peter Felten Elon University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15173/ijsap.v1i1.3061

Keywords:

Student partnerships, decoding the disciplines, political science, literature reviews, SoTL

Abstract

The Decoding the Disciplines (DtD) methodology has been used to study bottlenecks to student learning in a range of disciplines. The DtD interview process involves conversations between faculty regarding disciplinary practices. This article analyzes the use of the DtD approach in a student-faculty partnership to explore questions about disciplinary learning in political science. The research team compared how faculty and two cohorts of undergraduates decode a specific disciplinary bottleneck—the task of writing a literature review in political science. Results from the interviews reveal fundamental differences in how faculty and undergraduates conduct literature reviews in this discipline, including a troubling disjuncture as undergraduates become more expert in this process. Because the research team included both students and faculty, we also explore issues of disclosure and power in student-faculty partnerships in SoTL research.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Susannah McGowan, King’s Learning Institute, King’s College London, London, UK

Dr Susannah McGowanis a Teaching Fellow in the King’s Learning Institute at King’s College London. Prior to this position she worked at the University College London Arena Centre for Research-Based Education and the Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship at Georgetown University. Her research interests include fostering engagement in educational development, digital learning and the scholarship of teaching and learning.

Peter Felten, Elon University

Peter Felten is assistant provost for teaching and learning, executive director of the Center for Engaged Learning and the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning, and professor of history.  His recent publications include the co-authored books Transforming Students: Fulfilling the Promise of Higher Education (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014) and Engaging Students as Partners in Learning and Teaching (Jossey-Bass, 2014). From 2010-2011, he served as president of the POD Network, and in 2015-2016 he is president-elect of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. He also is a co-editor of the International Journal for Academic Development.

References

Adler-Kassner, L., Majewski, J., & Koshnick, D. (2012). The value of troublesome knowledge: Transfer and threshold concepts in writing and history. Composition Forum, 26. Retrieved From: http://compositionforum.com/issue/26/troublesome-knowledge-threshold.php

Allin, L. (2014). Collaboration between staff and students in the scholarship of teaching and learning: The potential and the problems. Teaching and Learning Inquiry: The ISSOTL Journal, 2 (1), 95-102.

Bovill, C., Cook-Sather, A., Felten, P., Millard, L., & Moore-Cherry, N. (2016). Addressing potential challenges in co-creating learning and teaching: Overcoming resistance, navigating instutional norms and ensuring inclusivity in student-staff partnership. Higher Education, 71, 195-208. DOI 10.1007/s10734-015-9896-4

Bransford, J., & Schwartz, D. (2009). It takes expertise to make expertise: Some thoughts about why and how and reflections on the themes. In K. A. Ericsson (Ed.), Development of Professional Expertise: Toward Measurement of Expert Performance and Design of Optimal Learning Environments (pp. 432–448). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Chi, M. (2011). Theoretical perspectives, methodological approaches, and trends in the study of expertise. In Li, Y. & Kaiser, G. (Eds.), Expertise in Mathematics Instruction. New York: Springer.

Cisco, J. (2014). Teaching the literature review: A practical approach for college instructors. Teaching and Learning Inquiry: The ISSOTL Journal, 2 (2), pp. 41-57.

Coate, K., & Howson, C. K. (2016). Indicators of esteem: Gender and prestige in academic work. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 37(4), 567-585.

Collins, A., Brown, J. S., & Holum, A. (1991). Cognitive apprenticeship: Making thinking visible. American educator, 15(3), 6-11.

Cook-Sather, A., Bovill, C., & Felten P. (2014). Engaging students as partners in learning and teaching: A guide for faculty. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches 4th edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Díaz, A., Middendorf, J., Pace, D., & Shopkow, L. (2008). The history learning project: A department “decodes” its students. The Journal of
American History, 94(4), 1211-1224.

Felten, P. (2013). Principles of good practice in the scholarship of teaching and learning. Teaching and Learning Inquiry: The ISSOTL Journal, 1(1), 121-5.

Goldschmidt, M. (2014). Teaching writing in the disciplines: Student perspectives on learning genre. Teaching and Learning Inquiry: The ISSOTL Journal, 2(2), 25-40.

Healey, M., Flint, A., & Harrington, K. (2014). Engagement through partnerships: students as partners in learning and teaching in higher education. Retrieved from: https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/sites/default/files/resources/engagement_through_partnership.pdf

Huber, M. T., & Hutchings, P. (2005) The advancement of learning: Building the teaching commons. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Middendorf, J., Mickuté J., Saunders, T., Najar, J., Clark-Huckstep, A., Pace, D., Eberly, K., & McGrath, N. (2015). What’s feeling got to do with it? Decoding emotional bottlenecks in the history classroom. Arts & Humanities in Higher Education, 14(2), 166-180.

Middendorf, J., & Pace, D. (2004). Decoding the disciplines: A model for helping students learn disciplinary ways of thinking. In D. Pace and J

Middendorf (Eds.), New directions for teaching and learning: No. 98. Decoding the disciplines: Helping students understand disciplinary ways of thinking (pp. 1-12). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Miller-Young, J., Dean, Y., Rathburn, M., Pettit, J., Underwood, M., Gleeson, J., Lexier, R., Calvert, V. & Clayton, P. (2015). Decoding ourselves: An inquiry into faculty learning about reciprocity in service-learning. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 22(1), 32-47.

Pace, D. & Middendorf, J. (2004). Decoding the disciplines: Helping students learn disciplinary ways of thinking. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 98.

Ridley, D. (2008). The Literature Review: A Step-by-Step Guide for Students. London: Sage.

Saldaña, J. (2015). The coding manual for qualitative researchers. Sage.
Shopkow, L. (2010). What ‘Decoding the Disciplines’ has to offer ‘Threshold Concepts.’ In J.H.F. Meyer, R. Land, & C. Baillie (Eds.), Threshold Concepts and Transformational Learning (317-32). Rotterdam: Sense Publications.

Shopkow, L., Diaz, A., Middendorf, J. & Pace, D. (2012). The history learning project “decodes” a discipline: The union of research and teaching. In K. McKinney (Ed.), Scholarship of Teaching and Learning In and Across the Disciplines, (pp. 93-113). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Takayama, K. (2015). Cultivating learning cultures: Reflective habits of mind and the value of uncertainty. Keynote delivered at EuroSoTL Conference, University College Cork, Cork Ireland.

Werder, C., Pope-Ruark, R. & Verwoord, R. (2016). Students as co-inquirers (Special section). Teaching & Learning Inquiry: The ISSOTL Journal, 4 (2).

Zhu, C., Rehrey, G., Treadwell, B. & Johnson, C.C. (2012). Looking back to move ahead: How students learn geologic time by predicting future environmental impacts. Journal of College Science Teaching, 41(3), 60-66.

Downloads

Published

2017-05-08

How to Cite

Rouse, M., Phillips, J., Mehaffey, R., McGowan, S., & Felten, P. (2017). Decoding and Disclosure in Students-as-Partners Research: A Case Study of the Political Science Literature Review. International Journal for Students as Partners, 1(1), 53–66. https://doi.org/10.15173/ijsap.v1i1.3061

Issue

Section

Research Articles