Interpreting undergraduate research posters in the literature classroom
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.4.1.8Keywords:
Undergraduate Research, English, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Research Posters, LiteratureAbstract
This essay explores the use of undergraduate research posters in English literature classrooms; at the same time, it argues for a scholarship of teaching and learning responsive to how meaning is constructed in the arts and humanities. Our scholarly practice requires interaction with texts and with each other, yet the undergraduate research paper typically does not involve much interaction between peers. The posters disseminate preliminary interpretations of research projects to peers; they are a way to make visible some of the cognitive, affective, and aesthetic aspects of literary research. This essay analyzes student reflections on both the process of creating and the process of presenting research posters before providing “close readings” of several posters. Reading the posters reveals key elements of students’ interactions with literary texts: close reading, integration, negotiation, theoretical generalization, and aesthetic judgment. As the students explored a less familiar genre, disciplinary processes of knowledge creation were defamiliarized and made visible.
References
Bass, R. (2009). The visible knowledge project. Retrieved Feb 8, 2014 from https://cndls.georgetown.edu/about/grants/vkp/
Bass, R., & Linkon, S. (2008). “On the evidence of theory: Close reading as a disciplinary model for writing about teaching and learning.” Arts and Humanities in Higher Education 7, 245-61.
Behling, L.L. (Ed.). (2009). Reading, writing, and research: Undergraduate students as scholars in literary studies. Washington, DC: Council on Undergraduate Research.
Bernstein, J.L. (2008). Introduction: Making learning visible to whom? The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning at EMU 2(1), Article 2.
Brammer, C., & Rees, M. (2007). Peer review from the students’ perspective: Invaluable or invalid? Composition Studies, 35(2), 71-85.
Chick, N. (2013a). Beyond the essay: Making student thinking visible in the Humanities. Retrieved Feb 8, 2014 from http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/teaching-guides/assessment/beyond-the-essay/
Chick, N. (2013b). The competing metaphors of SOTL: The big tent and the family table. In K. McKinney (Ed.), The scholarship of teaching and learning in and across the disciplines (pp. 15-33). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Chick, N. (2011). A humanities SoTL poster: Representing humanist meaning-making. Poster presented at ISSOTL, Milwaukee, WI.
Council for Undergraduate Research. (2011). Retrieved July 8, 2014 from http://www.cur.org/
Donald, J. G. (2009). The Commons: Disciplinary and interdisciplinary encounters. In C. Kreber (Ed.), The university and its disciplines: Teaching within and beyond its disciplinary boundaries (pp. 35-48). New York, NY: Routledge.
Fish, S. (1980). Is There a Text in This Class: The Authority of Interpretive Communities. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Grauerholz, L., & Main, E. (2013). Fallacies of SOTL: Rethinking how we conduct our research. In K. McKinney (Ed.), The scholarship of teaching and learning in and across the disciplines (pp. 152-168). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Head, A. J., & Eisenberg, M. B. (2010). Assigning inquiry: How handouts for research assignments guide today’s college students. Project Information Literacy Progress Report. Retrieved Feb 8, 2014 from: http://projectinfolit.org/pdfs/PIL_Handout_Study_finalvJuly_2010.pdf
Kyd, J. (2010). What is the difference between research and scholarship? Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIrUWOfEy7w
Linkon, S.L. (2011). Literary learning: Teaching the English major. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Manarin, K. (2015, February 11). Exploring common ground? [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://sotlcanada.wordpress.com/2015/02/11/exploring-common-ground/
Mulder, R., Pearce, J., & Baik, C. (2014). Peer review in higher education: Student perceptions before and after participation. Active Learning in Higher Education, 15(2), 157-171.
Reichard, D.A., & Takayama, K. (2013). Exploring student learning in unfamiliar territory: A humanist and a scientist compare notes. In K. McKinney (Ed.), The scholarship of teaching and learning in and across the disciplines (pp. 169-185). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Schroeder, C., & Ciccone, A. (Eds.). (2005). Making learning visible. Milwaukee, WI: University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee.
