Abstract
A Masters student in the geosciences shares her perspectives and views based on personal experience and the experiences of student peers about the incorporation of research into teaching. Including research publications like journal articles, and research projects in which students can participate, into the structure of courses, has positive impacts on student engagement and on learning outcomes. Reported learning outcomes attained as a result of incorporating research into teaching ranged from learning the techniques of scientific inquiry and gaining a better grasp and better knowledge of the subject matter to exploring the role of researcher as a potential career. Research articles included in their courses forge a link between what students learn and how such learning is obtained through conducting research. The article also considers instances where lecturers do not incorporate research into teaching and what students think about why this might not be done. The standard status quo of teaching practice in the geosciences and the challenges that the research-teaching nexus pose to it are considered as well as how these challenges can and have been addressed.
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Acknowledgments
I wish to thank Prof. Douglas Jerolmack for letting me tell the world about Advanced Earth Surface Processes and for the ways that he incorporated his research and involved students in the research process for this course. I would also like to thank Prof. Ilya Buynevich, Dr. Raleigh Martin, and Ms. Mengdan Jiang.
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McNutt, B. (2014). Incorporating Research into Teaching Geosciences: The Masters Student Perspective. In: Tong, V. (eds) Geoscience Research and Education. Innovations in Science Education and Technology, vol 20. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6946-5_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6946-5_4
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