Decoding and Disclosure in Students-as-Partners Research: A Case Study of the Political Science Literature Review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15173/ijsap.v1i1.3061Keywords:
Student partnerships, decoding the disciplines, political science, literature reviews, SoTLAbstract
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
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References
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Ridley, D. (2008). The Literature Review: A Step-by-Step Guide for Students. London: Sage.
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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.
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.
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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
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