Innovation to Improve Undergraduate Students’ Engagement and Expertise in Research

Research method courses are often perceived as the least exhilarating by social science undergraduate students, particular those in social work. This primarily attribute to the traditional research pedagogy, which centers on structured and theoretical knowledge while overlooking practical engagement and globally-informed perspectives essential for students’ career and professional development. Moving beyond traditional pedagogy, the project redesigned the introductory research course by bridging theoretical knowledge and frameworks with real-world applications through experiential learning for social sciences students at the University of Hong Kong.

With the objective of delivering fresh and captivating hands-on learning experiences, the redesigned course collaborated with the local non-government organizations and international expert from the University of Wollongong, in which local and international mentors share their experiences and provide guideline throughout the social research projects and service learning to cultivate students with international perspectives and insights of societal impacts in conducting research, especially social work practices. In addition, the assessment paradigm has transitioned from summative to formative to enrich learning experiences and recognize students’ needs, integrating short quizzes for participation over performance.

Aiming to assessing and improving the effectiveness of the revamped course, a sequential mixed-methods research paradigm (QUAN > qual) was leveraged. With the quantitative part, a total 29 students were matched between the pre-test (N=38) and post-test (N=31). The questionnaire entails 3 constructs, including global competency by Liu et al. (2020); research self-efficacy used in Unrau & Grinnelll, 2005; an item for assessing the use of research in future career by Yoon & Lee (2022). Drawing on the paired t-test results, the research self-efficacy and the overall score of global competence have statistically significant change among students, respectively. Nonetheless, no significance of the use of statistical skills in future employment was found. In addition to the paired analysis, the additional scale by Wong et al. (2023) was adopted, revealing a relatively positive self-efficacy in career development. For the qualitative phrase, semi-structured interviews were conducted with mentors (N=3), whereas no students were successfully recruited, largely owing to contextual factors. As to student reflective journals (N=22), transformative impacts were underpinned, such as reflexivity, changes in attitude towards research and developed a sense of vocation in social work.

In summary, these triangulation of findings deliver deeper insights into the redesigned course’s effectiveness and student needs, refining pedagogy for future research courses.