Teaching the New Research Paper

Creating an inquiry-based assignment

Learning and Unlearning

Que scais-je? What do I know?

Montaigne

Answers, not questions

“I have to know my thesis before I start” (60%)

“I’m supposed to use my own opinions” (22%)

“Writing a research paper is like an atheist going to church”

Avoid confusion“When students are presented with the idea that

successful mastery of the writing process produces a smooth voyage to clarity, they come to understand that anything that stands in the way of clarity must be expunged: ambiguity, obscure references, contradictions, paradoxes, tangential thoughts--the fundamental material, one might say, of lived experience and of one’s mental life. ‘Making one’s point’ then becomes the highest value.’”

Miller, Richard. “What does it mean to learn.” JAC 16.1 (1995): 57.

Evade Responsibility

“(Research papers) have to look objective. You may be shading the facts, or cutting off the right part of what an author said to make it come out the way you want it to…As long as everything looks kosher, everybody’s happy. Theoretically, you could get information to support any opinion you want.”

Michael

Experts have all the answers

“A fact is a fact. Whom am I to argue with it?”

Truth is relative...

“That’s one thing I’ve always felt strong about. I don’t think anybody’s opinion is wrong. When I was growing up in the CCD…I was killed …for my opinions and I was going to hell for it…An opinion is just an opinion. It’s not a fact. No one can tell you an opinion is wrong because who is to say that their opinion is right?”

Carrie

The Process is close-ended

Students view the research paper as a close-ended, skills-oriented exercise written for anexpert audience by novices pretending to beexperts…Academics, on the other hand, viewthe research paper as open-ended and inter-pretive, written for an audience of fellow inquirers…(Schwegler and Shamoon 820)

Inquiry-based Assignments

Create dissonance Put students in charge of their

investigations Encourage reflection on the process of

coming to know Model knowledge-making Are driven by questions, not answers

Learning the Spirit of Inquiry

Five Stances or Beliefs to Cultivate in Student Researchers

1. Learning to love confusion

Suspending judgment is an invitation to discovery, and uncertainty and ambiguity are a normal condition of inquiry

2. Inquiry is driven by questions, not answers

3. Knowledge is a product of conversation, and inquiry a way

of entering the dialogue.

4. Researchers seek truth by assuming two contrary stances.

Believer and doubter

Generator and judge

Observer and interpreter

5. Assume Responsibility

By assuming responsibility for one’s own ideas, the writer accepts both the credit for and consequences of putting them forth for dialogue and debate.

How to Design Inquiry-based Assignments and Encourage

These Beliefs?

Alternative Research Assignments

Ethnography Historical Research Multi-genre Research Theme-based or Controlled I-Search Research Essay