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Rethinking the dissertation: avoiding throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
The document discusses the need to rethink traditional undergraduate dissertations and final year projects to better accommodate diverse student needs and modern educational contexts. It advocates for greater flexibility in dissertation formats, assessment methods, and project types, including collaborative and community-based approaches. The text emphasizes that while traditional dissertations have value, alternative forms should be explored to enhance student engagement and learning outcomes.
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Rethinking the dissertation: avoiding throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
- 1. Rethinking the dissertation:avoiding throwing the baby out with the bathwater Mick Healey HE Consultant and Researcher University of Gloucestershire, UK www.mickhealey.co.uk “new models of curriculum … should all … incorporate research-based study for undergraduates” (Ramsden, 2008: 10-11)
- 2. Brief biography • HEConsultant and Researcher and Emeritus Professor University of Gloucestershire, UK • Economic geographer and previously Director Centre for Active Learning • Director HE Academy projects on ‘Undergraduate research’ and ‘Rethinking final year projects and dissertation’ • Ex-VP for Europe International Society for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning • National Teaching Fellow and Principal Fellow HE Academy • Advisor to Canadian Federal Government ‘Roundtable on Research, Teaching and Learning in post-Secondary Education’ (2006) • Advisor to National Academy for Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (Ireland) (2007-11) • Advisor to Australian Learning and Teaching Council / Office of Learning and Teaching Projects on the ‘Teaching-research nexus’ (2006-08), ‘Undergraduate research’ (2009-10); ‘Teaching research’ (2011-13 ); and ‘Capstone curriculum across disciplines’ (2013-14) • Advisor to League of European Research Universities on research-based teaching (2009) • Adjunct Professor Macquarie University; Visiting Professor University of South Wales (2010-13) • Research interests: linking research and teaching; scholarship of teaching; active learning; developing an inclusive curriculum; students as change agents
- 3. Developing and enhancing undergraduate final-year projects anddissertations http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/
- 4. Final year projectsand dissertations We value highly the traditional dissertation as a potentially transformational experience, but we feel one size does not fit all. Argue need for greater choice in the form the dissertation may take, the nature of the end product, and the ways in which it is assessed. Additional or alternative experience?
- 5. Our working definition “Projects,which are wider than the traditional honours dissertation, that students undertake towards the end of their undergraduate degree, usually in their final or senior year, in which they engage in a significant amount of independent research or inquiry.” Capstone – term commonly used in North America and Australasia to refer to integrative final year projects
- 6. Rethinking the dissertation NTFSfunded two year project based at University of Gloucestershire (2010-12) Rethinking Final Year Projects and Dissertations: Creative Honours and Capstone Projects
- 7. Final year projectsand dissertations In Australia: Holdsworth et al. (2009) reported on Developing Capstone Experiences. In Europe: The reshaping of the length of the undergraduate degree through the Bologna process has forced rethinking about whether, how and when to ensure a research emphasis.
- 8. Final year projectsand dissertations In US: The Boyer Commission (1998, 27) recommended that all undergraduate programmes should “Culminate with a capstone experience. The final semester should focus on a major project and utilize to the full the research and communication skills learned in the previous years.”
- 9. Final year projectsand dissertations In Britain: The final year dissertation, which has traditionally been seen as the gold standard for higher education, is coming under pressure for reform as student participation rates have increased, the numbers studying professional disciplines have grown, and staff-student ratios have deteriorated.
- 10. Final year projectsand dissertations: Line-up I want you to position yourself on a line according to the extent to which you agree or disagree with the following statements Talk to the person next to you about why you have positioned yourself where you have and as a consequence you may need to ‘move’
- 11. Final year projectsand dissertations: Line-up The nature of the final year undergraduate dissertation or capstone project in my discipline / institution needs rethinking. Strongly ----------------------------- Strongly Agree Disagree
- 12. Final year projectsand dissertations: Line-up ALL undergraduates should undertake a research-based dissertation or capstone project in their final year. Strongly ------------------------------ Strongly agree disagree
- 13. Final year projectsand dissertations Our project is about rethinking the dissertation. We feel that we can learn much from the experience of running capstone courses. Our focus is on students undertaking research in their final year, but it is wider in its conception, function, form, location and how it is disseminated and assessed than the traditional dissertation.
- 14. Contrast with traditionalhonours dissertation Wider in their: • conception (e.g. collaborative projects as part of a research group; consultancy projects); • function (e.g. synthesising capstone projects; preparatory projects for transition into a profession); • form (e.g. student group projects); • location (e.g. employer and community based projects); and/or • how they are disseminated and assessed (e.g. through exhibitions, undergraduate research conferences and other forms of public engagement)
- 15. Final year projectsand dissertations Alternative research-led projects in Biosciences at Durham a) Laboratory-based project b) Biology enterprise c) Biology into schools
- 16. Final year undergraduatedissertations and capstone projects MIT@Lawrence is a university-community partnership that connects faculty, students and staff at MIT with communitybased organizations and civic leaders in the City of Lawrence, Massachusetts.
- 17. Key characteristics offinal year dissertations and projects Though we argue that there should be a variety in the conception, function, form, and location of final year projects and dissertations and how they are disseminated, all should deliver a set of core learning outcomes. In small groups discuss whether you agree with the ten key characteristics on pp1-2 and are there any missing.
- 18. Final year projectsand dissertations Draw on wide range of literature • Linking research and teaching • Undergraduate research and inquiry • Employment and community based projects • Capstone projects and integrative learning • Independent, creative and transformational learning • Equity and widening participation issues • Graduate attributes and standards • Assessment of individual and group projects • Disseminating and celebrating undergraduate work
- 19. Final year projectsand dissertations Alternative or additional projects, some of which may be employment or community-based, are required to meet the needs of all students regardless of background, discipline or life goals.
- 20. Final Year projectsand dissertations Case studies 1. Arts, Design, Media and Humanities 2. Business, Hospitality, Law, Sport and Tourism 3. Interdisciplinary 4. Education, Social and Environmental Sciences 5. Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
- 21. Final year projectsand dissertations In groups of 3-4s each of you should look at least one different mini-case study from groups 1-3 (pp7-24) and identify interesting practices which you can then share with others in your group. Be ready to report back on ONE interesting idea from your group Time: 10 minutes
- 22. Final year projectsand dissertations In groups of 3-4s each of you should look at least one different mini-case study from groups 3-5 (pp19-38) and identify interesting practices which you then share with others in your group. Be ready to report back on ONE interesting idea from your group Time: 10 minutes
- 23. Dimensions of finalyear projects and dissertations Additional to honours project Campus based Undertaken at the University Research preparation Student learning centred Discipline based Student initiated Individual Original to the student University audience In-depth analysis Assessed by academics Individual supervision Alternative to honours project Employer / community based Distance learning Professional / employment preparation Outcome product centred Multi- or interdisciplinary Teacher / supervisor initiated Group Original to the discipline Professional / public audience Synthesis of knowledge/skills Assessed by peers / professionals Group / peer supervisions
- 24. Final year projectsand dissertations Discuss with a colleague Table 2 on p5 ‘Alternative possibilities for dissertations’. What are its strengths and weaknesses? What is missing? Time: 10 minutes
- 25. “I cannot thinkof anything more unfair than … to treat all students as if they are the same, when they so manifestly are not” (Elton 2000: 1).
- 26. Student experiences ofthe dissertation We asked some broadcast journalism students what they thought about traditional dissertations and whether some 'rethinking' was needed.
- 27. Final year projectsand dissertations In small groups make a list of the different ways in which you could reduce the staff time taken in organising and supervising final year projects and dissertations 5 minutes
- 28. Final year projectsand dissertations • • • • • Joint briefings Group supervision Development of peer support opportunities Employment of the VLE Better preparation in years 1 and 2
- 29. Action planning In yourgroup individually write down on post-its your ideas for making the dissertation more flexible in your university. “Doing things better versus doing better things.” Please put each idea on a separate post-it.
- 30. Action planning In around each of you should read out one idea and without elaboration or comment add it to the flip chart. Keep going until all the ideas have been added.
- 31. Action planning As agroup allocate each idea to one of: a) Common and feasible (yellow); b) Innovative and feasible (green); c) Innovative but not yet feasible (red). Discard any ideas you feel are common but not feasible.
- 32. Action planning Feasible Common Innovative Feasible Feasible Innovative Common Innovative Not yetfeasible Not yet feasible
- 33. Prioritising Each person shouldindividually mark with a pen the THREE ideas that they would most favour prioritising.
- 34. Action planning In around each team should outline, in no more than 30 seconds, ONE idea (perhaps the one prioritised by the most team members) that you are going to develop in the next year.
- 35. Conclusion It is tooearly to write the obituary for the dissertation. But to maintain its health and prosperity greater flexibility is needed in the forms it may take and students should be given a choice.
- 36. Final year projectsand dissertations An invitation to participate and send us a case study Source: UCLAN 2010
- 37. Final year projectsand dissertations Let’s be creative and go beyond the traditional dissertation and capstone project
- 38. THE END For morepictures of Tess and a 1.5 min movie see: www.mickhealey.co.uk
Editor's Notes
- #26 Inclusivity involves recognising difference, providing flexibility and choice not uniformity and treating everyone identically.