What is pedagogical content knowledge for research methods education and training?
Speaker(s):
Bio: Melanie Nind is Professor of Education at the University of Southampton and a co-director of NCRM, leading on pedagogic research (https://www.ncrm.ac.uk/research/pedagogy.php) and methodological responses to Covid-19 (https://www.ncrm.ac.uk/research/socscicovid19/). Melanie is also a Deputy Director of the South Coast Doctoral Training Partnership. She was one of the guest editors of the 2015 special issue of International Journal of Social Research Methodology on the teaching and learning of social research methods and currently editor of the Bloomsbury Research Methods for Education book series and editor of the Handbook of Teaching and Learning Social Resarch Methods (Edward Elgar, September 2023).
Abstract:
Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) refers to the mixing of knowledge about a subject and knowledge about how to teach; it includes understanding the (mis)conceptions and difficulties of learners with the subject and powerful ways for making subject knowledge comprehensible. It is how we translate subject content for learners. This session sums up some of the findings of NCRM's pedagogical research, including the recent systematic review of pedagogic literature. I argue that there is distinctive PCK for teaching research methods and even domain-specific PCK within this. However, PCK is dynamic and by reflecting on our own PCK, engaging in dialogue, and appreciating the evolving literature on research methods pedagogy, we can make teaching and learning research methods a more informed and enjoyable endeavour.