International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
Volume 3, Number 1, January 2009
Return
to current issues pageResearch Article
Excerpt
Academic Skill Development - Inquiry Seminars Can Make a Difference:
Evidence from a Quasi-experimental Study
This paper examines whether a single first-year inquiry-based
seminar can have a lasting impact on students’ academic skills.
Fifty-four Inquiry students and 71 comparable students participated
in three performance tests: a research skills exercise; an evaluation
of oral presentation ability; and a test of critical reasoning and teamwork
skills. In addition, participants completed a questionnaire focusing
on learning approaches and experiences. The study demonstrates the feasibility
of measuring long-term effects of relatively small educational interventions.
Findings indicate that although universities may not be developing the
skills they assume, a single first-year inquiry seminar can have far
reaching effects on academic skill development and these skills are
typically lasting
View
Full ArticleBios
Christopher Justice
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
justice@mcmaster.ca
I am an anthropologist and health social scientist with a wide variety of research experience in global and multicultural health issues. I am the author of the book Dying the Good Death: the pilgrimage to die in India’s Holy City (SUNY Press, 1997). Recent research included the evaluation of inquiry-based pedagogy and I have led a team of researchers in the McMaster Innovative Education Study. Part of a team who developed a first year inquiry seminar, I received the 2000 McMaster University’s President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and the 2001 The Alan Blizzard Award for Collaborative Course Design, from the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.
James Rice, Professor Emeritus
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
I was primarily responsible for teaching in the School of Social Work
graduate social policy program. My research interests include teaching
and learning and the impact of self directed education. At present I
am working on research regarding the impact of self-directed learning
on knowledge transfer. I am also interested in social housing and the
elderly and I am researching the way older people view moving into a
retirement residence. I have earned four teaching awards and along with
the Inquiry team, received the 2000 McMaster University’s President’s
Award for Excellence in Teaching and the 2001 The Alan Blizzard Award
for Collaborative Course Design, from the Society for Teaching and Learning
in Higher Education.
Wayne Warry
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
McMaster University
warrywa@mcmaster.ca
I am an applied medical anthropologist whose work concerns culturally appropriate Aboriginal health programs, cross cultural awareness training, and educational research. I am author of Ending Denial: Understanding Aboriginal Issues (Broadview Press, 2007) and Unfinished Dreams: Community Healing and the Reality of Aboriginal Self Government (University of Toronto Press, 1998). I am a co-investigator in the Indigenous Health Research Development Program (www.ihrdp.ca), a CIHR IAPH funded Network Environment for Aboriginal Health Research. Along with social science colleagues I was awarded the 2000 McMaster University’s President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching (Excellence in Course or Resource Design) and in 2001 The Alan Blizzard Award for Collaborative Course Design, from Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.