Do your students carry out research projects as part of their placement learning?

 

If so, the 2013 HEA Social Sciences Annual Conference (23 May 2013 – 24 May 2013) may be of interest.

The conference will be themed around the following areas:

• Embedding research methods into the curriculum
• Communicating quantitative methods
• Teaching mixed methods
• Assessment for learning in research methods
• The use of open educational resources (OER) in research methods teaching
• Developing a pedagogical culture
• Researching for ‘work’ and at ‘work’

The last theme will be relevant to colleagues with responsibility for placement learning.

The conference call highlights how, while placement project work can involve using research-related skills, links to research methods teaching are sometimes left implicit. Furthermore, while the benefits of placement/work-based learning in terms of developing students’ employability skills are recognised, the benefits of academic input into developing workplace practice are less often articulated.

The HEA has invited contributions that discuss projects that incorporate research methods teaching with work-based or placement learning projects and which seek to demonstrate the benefits of this type of learning for students and/or a level of knowledge exchange between educators and employers/placement providers.

By providing a space in which to communicate insights and examples from practice, it promises to provide an environment in which both challenges can be discussed and possible solutions shared.

Further details are available at: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/events/detail/2013/SocSciConf13