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ToolsMcDermott, Paul, Palmer, Leoni, Beekman, Andrew, Ganesan, A., Macdonald, Simon and Hatley, Richard (2023) An Exercise in Constructive Alignment: A Bespoke Undergraduate Research Programme Designed to Assess Students Development Throughout the Process (Not Just at the End):Oral Presentation. In: Assessment in Higher Education (AHE) Annual Conference 2023. Assessment in Higher Education Network, GBR.
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Research and teaching are linked by the act of learning (Brew and Boud, 1995), and there’s no reason why mutual benefit cannot be attained though a combined act of discovery AND teaching scholarship led inquiry. We have seen significant developments in the way teaching and research work together, but there remains a vast ocean of possibility in the study and progression of this fascinating “nexus”. So herein we present our own initial contribution to this field of scholarship. As a collection of Teaching and Research (TnR) and Teaching and Scholarship (TnS) academics, we have developed a novel undergraduate science research module for our Pharmacology and Drug Discovery degree. The primary aim of the module is to aid the transition of undergraduates from the more prescriptive learning culture of their first and second years, to the conventional research environment they experience in their fourth-year projects. Toward this end we have devised a group research module focused on the development and testing of novel HDAC6 inhibitors as potential cancer chemotherapeutic agents. The design philosophy for this module was to create a program that inculcated discipline specific skills, as well as work based, professional and life-long learning skills (Biggs, 1996). Key to the success of this endeavour was the constructive alignment of assessments to the intended learning outcomes (Howitt and Wilson, 2014). We designed our assessment methods to measure the students’ development throughout the process as opposed to the products obtained at the end of it (Ruge et al., 2019, Wilson et al., 2016a). In doing so, we were capturing the bulk of the work carried out by the students as well as the thinking processes and understanding developed in obtaining their results. It was after all our objective to expose our students to an authentic experience of the research process with all of its’ “failure, messiness, uncertainty, contingency, collaboration and serendipity that they simply can’t appreciate by reading textbooks and scientific papers” (Wilson et al., 2016b). We will share insights gained from the design, delivery and evaluation of this module, with a key focus on our assessment strategy, which included: A data management portfolio A continuous reflective discussion of research progress An observed practical session A group presentation and peer evaluation A mock job interview in front of a panel chaired by our industry consultants
| Item Type: | Book Section |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | sdg 3 - good health and well-being ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/good_health_and_well_being |
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Science > School of Chemistry, Pharmacy and Pharmacology |
| UEA Research Groups: | Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Innovations in Pharmacy Education |
| Related URLs: | |
| Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 16 Sep 2025 14:30 |
| Last Modified: | 16 Sep 2025 14:30 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/100415 |
| DOI: |
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