Analysis of Questions Posed by Graduate Students During an Introductory Research Workshop
Abstract
Students' questions are a valuable formative assessment that can guide your next steps. This is true at all levels, including the graduate level, and is particularly true in specialized workshops on topics that may not be covered in the standard disciplinary graduate curriculum. Even at this level, it is important for the instructional approach to incorporate techniques that are responsive to students' needs. The Boulder Space Weather Summer School—a two-week workshop for students just starting out in space physics research—uses a variety of techniques to elicit student ideas and questions, including end-of-lecture question cards. At the end of each daily lecture series, we ask students to submit anonymous written questions. The instructors respond to these at the beginning of the next session. These questions can vary from simple definitions (including acronym definitions) to questions about an area of ongoing research. During summer schools over the last two years, we collected over 500 such questions generated by 63 students. We have divided these questions into four categories: identify, process, causation, clarify/elaborate. Additionally, we have investigated the complexity of these questions using text analysis techniques. Understanding the types of questions students are asking helps guide future course development.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFMED21C1045G
- Keywords:
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- 0820 Curriculum and laboratory design;
- EDUCATION;
- 0840 Evaluation and assessment;
- EDUCATION;
- 0850 Geoscience education research;
- EDUCATION