Building a Research Culture: The Education Department Experience By Arceli Rosario
H
igher education has a trilogy of functions— teaching, research, and community service. These responsibilities are more keenly felt, emphasized, and demonstrated in the education department of any higher education institution because of its role in training educators who will become key players in ensuring that these three functions are delivered.
Have these courses prepared our students for dissertation writing? I interviewed nine PhD students, and here I quote what two of them said:
Research is in my blood now. My training here at AIIAS has helped me see the broader and wider scope of research—both quantitative and qualitative.
The faculty of the AIIAS Education Department are intentional in training their graduate students in these three areas. The competencies of all the programs are anchored on seven essential learning points, two of which are service and scholarship. The two components of scholarship are teaching and research. This article focuses on research, specifically on what we do at AIIAS to build a research culture.
2. Designing research-oriented courses. Other courses (e.g., core, specialization, and cognate) are designed to intentionally provide students with research experience. Students have mentioned that they benefited from “doing small research studies in class,” and “critiquing research presentations.”
1. Inclusion of research courses in the curriculum. In the PhD Education curriculum, we offer seven research courses: advanced statistics, qualitative research, applied qualitative research or applied quantitative research, directed research in a selected topic, institutional evaluation, and disciplinary research, a total of 18 units.
3. Providing timely and relevant feedback. “I draw inspiration from the dedication and commitment of my adviser and panel members to provide me the necessary support. They set aside special time for consultation and updates, which goes beyond their duty.”
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