Preparation for research: instruction in interpreting and evaluating research

ABSTRACT

Traditional curricula have concentrated on teaching students the content of a subject; however, it has recently become apparent that effective education needs to include explicit instruction in many of the auxiliary skills and attitudes needed for the content to be useful. This applies just as much at advanced levels as at introductory ones, though the impact on teaching practice is not yet widespread. This paper describes an innovative module taught to students who are about to commence research, in which these students are given explicit guidance on how to judge the work of others (or their own work). The module is provided to undergraduates intending to perform an "Honours" research project in their final year; however, the material would also be relevant to students in a graduate program or senior seminar.

REFERENCES

• 1: CORPORATE Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, Academic careers for experimental computer scientists and engineers, Communications of the ACM, v.37 n.4, p.87-90, April 1994 [doi>10.1145/175276.175285]
• 2: Ian H. Witten , Timothy C. Bell, Getting research students started: a tale of two courses, Proceedings of the twenty-fourth SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education, p.165-169, February 18-19, 1993, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.3 COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION

General Terms:
Theory