Systematic review of pedagogic literature

As part of NCRM's pedagogic research in the centre's current phase, Professor Melanie Nind and Angeliki Katramadou conducted a systematic review of pedagogic literature published between 2014 and 2020.

The review aimed to identify:

• the pedagogic approaches and strategies employed in the teaching of social science research methods that are discussed in the literature
• the rationale for the selection of approaches and strategies, including what teachers and students value about them
• evidence of the effectiveness of those approaches and strategies

Findings

Published in July 2022, the review shows that there is a growing pedagogical culture in research methods education within UK universities. It found that that there has been a recent increase in the volume of published papers on how research methods are taught and learnt, particularly qualitative methods.

The authors reported that, within the latest literature, there is more theoretical discussion of practices, rationale and reflection on the teaching process. In previous years, researchers had flagged underdevelopment of a pedagogical culture and a lack of an effective body of knowledge to guide methods teachers.

The review, Lessons for teaching social science research methods in higher education: synthesis of the literature 2014-2020, was published in the British Journal of Educational Studies. Read the full paper