Julie Kendall (Chiropractic) teaches research methods to final year chiropractic students, in a clinical context. Like many research methods teachers, her main challenge is to engage students with a core, compulsory subject which can be seen as difficult, irrelevant and inauthentic. This is made even more difficult without physical access to the research laboratory space and clinic which houses much of the equipment (and humans!) needed to support student inquiry projects.
Over several years, Julie has worked creatively to embed a research culture in her course and she believes this has been crucial to support students in the transition to online learning. She has developed a curriculum which puts students at the centre of the research process, giving them opportunities to both do their own research and critically analyse the work of others. Her aim is to give students a good grounding as ‘consumers of research’, giving them the respect and confidence they need to access, interpret and apply new knowledge/evidence to their work as practitioners.
In this session, Julie reflected on the adjustments she has had to make to support students outside of the physical clinic space. She shared the feedback she has received from students and give examples of the work they have produced (including datasets, research critiques and posters). We are hoping that one of her students will come along and join the conversation!
The session will be of interest to anyone involved in teaching research methods or supporting undergraduate research!
The video below is an edited version of the webinar Julie conducted, technical glitches and questions and answers removed.
The following resources were used in Julie’s presentation which she has generously shared for others to adapt:
Additional Resources
- Dawson, C. (2016). 100 activities for teaching research methods. London: SAGE Publications. Available from RMIT Library Swanston Street.
- Seligman R.A. (2020) Teaching Research Methods Online. In: How to Teach a Course in Research Methods for Psychology Students. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42878-5_9
- Leone, J. E, & Maurer-Starks, S. (2007). Innovative Teaching Strategies In Research Methods For Health Professions. Californian Journal of Health Promotion, 5(3), 62–69. https://doi.org/10.32398/cjhp.v5i3.1251
- Peachy, A., & Baller, S. I. (2015). Ideas and Approaches for Teaching Undergraduate Research Methods in the Health Sciences. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.
- Teaching Research Methods – An Occassional Paper, University of Queensland 2017.
- Teaching Research Method Using a Student-Centred Approach? Critical Reflections on Practice, J Barraket, University of Melb.
- Research Methods Handbook – The Research Methods Handbook is available for use under a Creative Commons CC-BY-4.0 licence
