Friday. May I6. lm

SCARLET AND BLACK

Page Fly.

 

Prof limes drive, hart'tipatory Educaton

Editor‘s Note: This article con-
sists of selections from a report to
the National Science Foundation by
Prof. Robert Voertnran. The report,
which discusses “undergraduate re-
search participation" as an altema—
tive approach to the more conven-
tional course system, heavily re-
ilects experiences in the ACM pro-
gram in Costa Rica.

By ROBERT VDERTMAN
Professor of Economics

The case for intensive research ex~
periences for undergraduates is based
upon recognition that the functional ob-
jective of a college education is to de-
velop a serviceable capacity for con-
tinued learning. The most critical aspect
of an intensive research experience is
its parallel to selfaeducation. Ability to
engage in active learning, to pursue new
knowledge independently of the guid-
ance and i‘emfarcement of a teacher's
personality, is acquired by learning and
practicing a full sequence of the pro-
cess of inquiry,

Research is a term which is used to
cover a wide range'ot types of inqnlry.
It may only mean a search or literature
intended to reveal in an orderly way
the present state of knowledge on a par
ticular problem or phenomenon. It may
encompass a sequence of activities in-
volving primary observations in the
field or observations of an experience of
on experimental order, organization of
the observations. their interpretation or
analysis and preparation of reports. Al-
ternatively, research may consist of the
application of procedures to available
primary data leading to a new lnfer<
ence or meanillg. Nevertreless, all of
these different types of research share
the quality of being active inquiry. Re
search, as active inquiry, necessitates
the exercise of critical judgment in male
ing decisions. It is an active learning
process in which inquiry is conducted
to discover what is not known, and to
attempt to present accurately what has
been discovered. Critical judgment is
required at many points in the process
and the development of this capactity is
decisive in the transition from passive or
directed learning to that form of active
learning which is characteristic of in-
tellectual independence. To set the oper-
ational goal for undergraduate educa-
tion requires that the program of ex-
periences involve the development of
critical judgment essential to intellectual
indepedetrce.

Development of capacity for crltical

judgment is not precluded in the con-
ventional course or classroom pattern
of relationships, but a classroom is not
all efficient social arrangement for this
purpose. Learning experiences in a
classroom setting tend to cluster at the
passive end of the range rather than at
the active end. Students roles in class-
rooms are those of spectators most oi
the time even if the Class is conducted
using a discussion or a recitation fore
mat. In the most common case where
the professor lectures the mles of the
students are essentially passive. It is
sometimes possible for an audience of
students to be prompted into some cre-
ative thought by a skillful] lecturer.
This becomes a more reliable expecta-
tion if the students have already en-
gaged in some independent thought on
the subject. The overwhelming aspect of
all classroom situations, however, is the
presence oi the authority of the teacher
who, as both expert and judge is in con—
trol. Critical judgments about signifi-
cance and meaning even when students
participate in discussion are expected of
the teacher, and this is, of course the
logic of the classroom, or the lecture
hall as an educptional setting.

IMPROVED LEARNING

Beyond the classroom, the extension
oi control or direction by the professor
who is teaching a course may be quite
variable on the scale of passive to active
roles for the students who are taking the
course. The most typical Situation is for
the major decisions to be made by the
professor. Reading selections, usually
Contained ill a textbook or an edited col-
Iection, along with study guides, ques-
tions. problems and the like are handed
out by the professor. It is the mark of
a "good course” that it be well pro-
grammed, and indeed it we take B. F.
Skinner’s experimental evidence ser-
lously (and i do accept most of what he
has reported) a well designed program
can function very eificiently in master-
ing a well—defined body of knowledge.
Here is the essence of the customary cri-
teria for courses: that the learning of
the subject be so well programmed that
students can’t fail to learn. Or, to put. it
another way, a well programmed course
is one in which the way is so well mark-
ed that at each step the learner ls as
sured that he is on the right path (that
is what I understand is meant by posi-
tive reinforcement).

Independent study may be said to lie
at the opposite extreme of the active~to-
passive scale from programmed leam-
ing. True independence implies the task
oi creating a program. independent in-

 

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quit-y is not simply the absence of a
classroom, bltt the absence of a road
map and a preordained (or professor
ordained) destination. Intellectual inde-
pendence is achieved when an investi-
gator has developed the ability to dectdc
which “authority” is useful; to decide
which eVldence, which procedure.
which hypothesis and which inference Di‘
Conclusion is appropriate to the inquiry.

I believe the gap between dependent
or passive learning and independent in-
quiry to be substantial. We have a vast
and growing number of highly “edu~
cated” people who do not bridge this
gap. While many do make this transition
to intellectual independence, the bridg-
ing is largely left to chance in the sys-
tern of higher learning. The crucial role
oi research participation is to provide
for his transition. As participating ap-
prentices in a research undertaking,
students can be involved in the process
at “cieating a program.” By participat-
ing with the professor in the crltical
judgments which must be made in the
design and conduct of original inquiry
all of the processes of inquiry may be
experienced by the student. This is a
very diilerent activity from retreading
the achieved results of inquiries past and
synthesized into the textbook or the well
taught course. it is, 1 think, a crucial
type of experience in preparation for
intellectual independence,

TEACHING VSi RESEARCH

Scholarly achievement is the para-
mount qualiﬁcation ior holding oihce as
a college faculty member. Creative
scholarship is encouraged and supported
by institutions of higher learning both as
a valid independent function and as a
condition of continuing competence to
teach. A presumption that superior scho«
lurs ate superior teachers is built into
the system of faculty ranks by relating
promotion in the hierarchy oi pay, priv-
ilege and power to evidence of scholar-
ship, and the sciences successful careers
in academia are most apt to reflect re-
search periormance. in short, tlle model
ior the academic bureaucracy is con-
struclcd on a premise of mutual rein-
iorcement of scholarship and teaching.

Operational realities are typically
poorly adjusted to the model, and ten-
sions arising irom conflicts between
teaching and research functions are
sources of continuous and often intense
pressure within the system. “Teaching
loads" are burdens, and those who can
establish claims to superior research
competence, especially by obtaining re
search grants, are most successiul in
shifting their loads to others who are
either less active in research, or at least
at a lower level in the hierarchy. What-
ever the plausibility of the model, the
pressures within the system tend to the
paradoxical result of rewarding schol<
arship with minimum teaching respon-
sibilties and by punishing ineptitude, in<
experience or dedication to teaching with
the bulk of the teaching burden.

Conflict between teaching and re
search is most overtly and seriously a
matter of the allocation of time. Teacllc
lng activities occupy time, and mean-
ings and measurements ascribed to
teaching loads onen stress basic work-
time concepts; class hours. studcnicon-
tactrhours, and the like. Scholarship n1-
so occupies time, and those tensions
which have become serious pressures in-
ternal to academia are most directly re-
flected in these competing claims for
time. Long standing defense of the com-
plementarity of teaching and scholar-
slnp emphasizes the contributions or re-
Search to teaching performance. but the
characteristic problem for the professor
is to arrange for his teaching activi-
ties to contribute to his scholarship.

This non-reinforcement of research from
teaching duties tends to be most marked
at the undergraduate level. Hence, it is
not surprising that a common view of
progress in academics is the shift from
undergraduate to graduate level teach-
ing.

A course. as a program designed to
teach students what the professor alrea-
dy knows, features the behavior of the
professor as the authority. By contrast
a research project places the professor
in the role of inquirel'.

In the authority role when he ls asking
questions, they are understood to be
rhetorical. When he is a scientist Iead<
ing a research team he is asking ques-
tions which do not yet have answers.
These two styles of behavior are quite
different. Students continuously observe
and respond to professional behavior
models, and the model or the professor
as inquirer ls surely an excellent one
to have in full View. This exposure is
apt to be most clear alld useful if stu.
dents are accepted as genuine collabor«
ators in the research. As collaborators
they can, and Will engage in discussions
of strategies and methods for the in<
vesttgatiore. They will welcome involve-
ment in making critt’cal judgments of
alternative courses of action. Questions
which are discussed in this relationship
are not those designed simply to test:
the understanding of the statements. but
questions which are open in the mind
of the professor; questions for which he
is seeking answers.

This shift in role from authority to
Inquirer also modifies the order of pref~
crences in interacting with students as
co-researchers. Lecturing becomes a less
fruitful activity in ’ this relationship.
While the teacher. as scientist, must
still exercise final judgment in the pro-
gramming of research, the experiences
of students as rescal‘ch associates be-
come essential information in this pro-
cess. What studenc say becomes in-
teresting and useful and listening is
made easy. Conversations become au-
thentic exchanges. Specific information
supplied by students in the form of
written reports, data schedules and the
like are read with interest. The process
of criticism and evaluation of students'
works has the vital purpose of improv-
ing performance relative to the success
of the inquiry, Errors are no longer the
stuff from which poor marks are fash-
ioned. Rather. the effort toward Cloris
fication of the Source of difficulty of
misunderstanding takes clear proce-
dence over “grading." Grade A per-
formances by the entire “class" may not
be realized, but this is obviously an at.
tractive functional goal. Professional de-
tachment or disengagement in the face
of “failure" turns out to be a much less
acceptable posture.

DISCOVER WORKAELE PROJECTS
FOR RESEARCH PARTICIPATION

While it does not seem to me that
there is a single or best formula. there
are some guidelines for the identification
oi projects suitable to the intellectual col-
laboration of undergraduates and profes<
sors which I have Called research parti-
cipation. It is critical that the activities
of students not be limited simply to per-
formance of routine precedures, but ex-
tended to include analysis, interpretation
and the writing of reports. Nevertheless,
the most obviously suitable projects are
those which do involve the collection of
primary data from either iield observa-
tions or laboratory experiments. Simi-
larly suitable projects may be based up-
on examination, organization and analy-
sis of information contained in statisti-
cal collections, historlcal documents,

EDUCATION—
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