What is the effect of a first year seminar on students’ use of research resources?
Natasha May
The March Journal Club took place on March 13th and involved a discussion of the article Changes in First-Year Students’ Use of Research Resources: Impacts of an Interdisciplinary Seminar Program on Research and Literacy Learning Outcomes. This article focuses on the interdisciplinary first year seminars at the University of Guelph and an investigation into how their first year seminars affect students’ research skills. In particular, the research question is “Do seminars help students to become more selective in their research, better able to seek out and assess more suitable, relevant, and authoritative sources?” (Murray & Lachowsky, 2017, p. 2). This study was motivated by an observed paradigm shift in information and communication. The authors note that the university classroom was once one of the major sources of information, but with the internet now being a major source of information, the role of a university class needs to shift. Students need to learn how to use the internet effectively. Specifically, students need to develop critical thinking and close reading skills “…to analyze and synthesize information and transform it into knowledge and wisdom.” (Murray & Lachowsky, 2017, p. 1). The study used pre- and post-surveys to determine students’ evolution in the research resources they used. In particular, the study compares the research resources students report using at the beginning of the semester with those they report using at the end to examine broadly how their research activities change over the duration of a single, one-semester first year seminar course. The surveys were anonymous so there were no individual comparisons for a single student. There were four comparisons made: pre- and post-surveys of students in semester 1 courses, pre- and post-surveys of students in semester 2 courses, pre-surveys of semester 1 versus semester 2 and post-surveys of semester 1 with pre-surveys of semester 2. In each comparison, there was a decrease in search engine and other lower level resources and an increase in use of higher level resources like library search engines and journal articles. There was some difference between the post-surveys of semester 1 first year seminar courses and the pre-surveys of semester 2 first year seminar courses to suggest the effectiveness of the first year seminar above and beyond the experience of one semester of university.
As academics, we took a critical approach to reviewing the article. During our conversation we discussed the difference between correlation and causation, noting that this study demonstrated correlations. We also noted that there are so many other factors that could influence the results of the study. For example, is there one or more first year seminars on information literacy that skews the results? What about the assessment requirements for the first year seminar courses, as well as other first year courses? For example, as part of these assessments, are students required to use certain types of references? Are they reporting what resources they were required to use and does this mean that they have embraced this practice, or given the option would they resort back to lower level research resources? Maybe explicitly requiring the use of specific research resources as part of the evaluation of the assignment is the best way to help students adopt this practice. What do you think? We agreed with the authors that future work is needed taking a qualitative approach to determine when and how students learn and discover the various research resources to use.
We also discussed how this framework of interdisciplinary first year seminars to teach research skills compares with the supports available at York. We imagine there are similar supports available for students at both institutions, but specifically at York we identified multiple ways that students can access support with research. This is naturally supported within each discipline, across elective and required courses, in tutorials and labs, through online resources like SPARK and the libraries website as well as library site visits and having librarians come into the classroom. We wondered what the effect of duplication has on students. Is repetition necessary and effective to make this learning stick or could it be damaging, particularly if students receive mixed messages? One way to get a clear picture of the amount of duplication and purpose of duplication in the curriculum is to create a curriculum map.
Finally, we discussed the purpose of a first year seminar, citing some of the characteristics of the first year seminars at the University of Guelph, including smaller class size, interdisciplinary experiences and the focus on teaching skills. If you are interested in learning more about first year seminars at York, Glendon recently developed a first year seminar with an AIF grant, which will be featured in an upcoming event “Forum on Student Success: Making the case for an integrated approach” on Thursday April 25, 9am to 4pm in Vari Hall A. Come experience this first year seminar and connect with faculty, TAs and staff from across campus.
Reference List
Murray, J., & Lachowsky, N. J. (2017). Changes in first-year students’ use of research resources: Impacts of an interdisciplinary seminar program on research and literacy learning outcomes. The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 8(3), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.5206/cjsotl-rcacea.2017.3.13
About the Author
Dr. Natasha May is an educational developer with the Teaching Commons and a contract faculty member in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics (Science) who has taught a variety of mathematics courses, from problem solving, communicating and teaching mathematics to mathematical logic and discrete mathematics for computer science and information technology.