Abstract
At a regional comprehensive university, teaching is the bulk of my position, but research is still required. It makes sense, given these circumstances, to look more at how my teaching can translate into research. There are many ways we can leverage our teaching and turn it into research. In some cases, these are pre-planned research projects to assess the effectiveness of new course activities with a pre/post survey, but not all my research starts out as purposefully. Even small activities and classroom “experiments” can inspire research ideas. However, it may be a month, semester, or year later when you realize how and what you are doing could translate into a research project. Along these lines of a more gradual or inductive approach, this chapter offers insights based on an evolving senior capstone assignment for international studies majors that inspired a research project on campus and community engagement opportunities. The chapter offers suggestions for how others can similarly use their teaching to generate new research ideas.
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Notes
- 1.
Short of a full-fledged SoTL project route, or as a stop along the way, instructors could consider sharing their early-stage work via professional newsletters, relevant blogs, “reflection” sections in some academic journals, or APSA Educate.
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Humphreys, C. (2023). Campus & Community Engagement of Student Research: The Evolution of a Senior Capstone Project. In: Butcher, C., Bhasin, T., Gordon, E., Hallward, M.C. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Teaching and Research in Political Science. Political Pedagogies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42887-6_27
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