In the Research Methods course, students were assigned a research project to conclude the
course, where they were to generate a hypothesis, identify dependent and independent
variables, and use one of several readily available data sets to generate findings or to generate
a data set themselves. Students struggled mightily with the task of generating hypotheses and
appropriate variables. They had a very difficult time differentiating between dependent and
independent variables and understanding what they were testing for. In other words, they
were worried about the numbers without realizing they needed to be worried about what the
numbers were saying.
In discussion with colleagues, we concluded that students were encountering several different
types of problems. The first, their knowledge of a field of study was not sufficiently developed
at this stage in their coursework to be able to make the theory – hypothesis – variable linkages.
Secondly, they did not have sufficient theoretical depth in a field that correlated with the data
set to determine the relevance or meaning of the findings their data analysis was generating.
Third, data sets available to the students spread them across a number of fields (American
Government, Comparative Politics, International Relations), which frustrated the process of
hypothesis generation because each student was an ‘independent’ researcher with no one to
confer with regarding their research design.
Additionally, this structure placed tremendous hardship on the faculty member teaching the
course. Students needed individual guidance and without benefit of graduate research
assistants, the time demand was overwhelming. Surprisingly, the intellectual demand was
worse. Dr. Grove was faced with having to assist students in generating hypotheses over a
myriad of topics and was exhausting at best.
b.
Inability of students to understand research design
Although the failure rate for students in the Methods course was higher than average, we were
fairly confident that once students successfully completed the course they had the basics of
research design and statistical analysis. However, when we began tracking their work in the
Policy Analysis course, we found that very little was retained. Students could not generate
hypotheses, nor could they recount the difference between dependent and independent
variables. Operationalizing variables proved more difficult for them than it ought to have been
given the work conducted in the Methods course. Needless to say, we determined this was an
unacceptable outcome and we began searching for a solution.
Hunting for a Solution: Learning Communities
Given the fact that our students largely tracked through the three-course series together, we
speculated that students would greatly benefit in the Methods course by using a learning
community approach. The benefits we were hoping to acquire were: team building for learning
support, informed peer analysis and review of projects, and shared memory across courses.
To that end, we decided to use a well-established method of learning community-building at
Shippensburg: paired courses.
Convention