TITLE:
Students’ Views for a Research-Intensive School Curriculum in Psychology: Research-Teaching Nexus
AUTHORS:
Maria Limniou, Rosie Mansfield, Christos Petichakis
KEYWORDS:
Research-Teaching Curriculum, Student Expectations and Experiences, Research Skills Development, Teacher-Student Relationships, Student Research Engagement
JOURNAL NAME:
Creative Education,
Vol.10 No.4,
April
28,
2019
ABSTRACT: The aim of this investigation was to gain an insight into how the curriculum of a Psychology School at a research-intensive university could be enhanced based on cross-sectional student views from all years of study. The School curriculum was framed under the research-teaching nexus and 272 undergraduate students completed online questionnaires regarding their research expectations and their learning experiences. The parallel questionnaires were distributed to the three distinct cohorts of students (1st, 2ndand 3rdyear of students) at the beginning of the first semester of the 2016-2017 academic year. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the cohorts and summarize the data collected. Chi-square tests were used to make comparisons and identify differences between student research expectations and experiences from the School curriculum. The main findings of this investigation concur with other studies in identifying significant differences between entry level students (Year 1) and those who have experienced learning in second and third years of study. However, the aim of these questionnaires was to study the School curriculum under the perspective of 1)The role of teaching staff in research, 2)Research skills obtained or expected to obtain by students and 3)Research connected with learning process and real-world applications. Potential reasons of the differences of learning experiences amongst students in different years of study and their implications are related to research activities and students’ interactions through dialogue and collaboration with their teachers and amongst their peers in the context of community by studying real-example applications.