CeAL Case Studis in Active Learning

1. Links with Maidstone Museum

2. Contact details

Name and address:
Professor Jackie Eales
History and American Studies
Canterbury Christ Church University
North Holmes Road,
Canterbury CT1 1QU.  Tel: 01227 454700
Email:  Jackie.eales@canterbury.ac.uk

3. Context

• Institution / Department: History and American Studies, Canterbury Christ Church University
• Title of initiative: Links with Maidstone Museum
• Level: (e.g. year 1) applicable to all years, currently running in year 1 (American Studies) and Year 3 (History).

4. Brief Description

The initiative is based on using the collections at Maidstone Museum to develop undergraduate research. Our aim is to extend the range and variety of research where it already exists in History and also to extend the experience of research into a wider range of American Studies courses.  Students are supported to research the context in which items from the museum’s collections were produced.

5. Issues of Department / Institution Organisation

The initiative started in October 2007 following a successful bid for HEFCE Research Informed Teaching funding. As the project leader I have developed a series of initiatives with Giles Guthrie, curator of human history at the Museum and Dr Mandy Cooper, my colleague in the department of History and American Studies. In the first phase of the project, students on my third year course ‘The English Revolution, 1603-1689’ have helped to curate an exhibition on The Battle of Maidstone 1648, which runs at the museum from 5th April 2008 until 5th July 2008. Twenty eight students worked together in seven groups to produce a series of texts used as labels and story boards for the exhibition. The texts have also been published as a brochure (see appendix). The students researched the historical context of the civil war battle of Maidstone using primary sources such as printed newsletters from the period. They also researched the historical significance of a selection of the exhibits, which include seventeenth century political tracts, petitions, manuscripts, and civil war weapons and armour. The research was organised in the same way that students would normally go about doing a group presentation, which forms part of the assessment on this third year course. The key difference was that they had unique  access via the museum’s collections to a variety of historical artefacts and primary sources from the seventeenth century. As the course leader, I asked students to volunteer to research one of seven topics, which I devised with the curator at the museum in order to contextualise the battle of Maidstone. The topics included Kent and the civil wars, the battle of Maidstone, arms and armour of the civil war,  and the trial and execution of Charles I. Students visited the museum in advance of the exhibition to see the civil war collections behind the scenes and were able to handle civil war armour. I drew up specialised reading lists for each group, which included both primary sources and specialist secondary reading, for example on civil war weapons. Students were asked to hand in an individual research paper of 1,500 words on their chosen topic for assessment and each group edited down their research findings to produce 500 words on their chosen topic for use in the exhibition and publication (see appendix). As part of the research into the civil war period, we held a study day in December 2007 with expert lecturers from Birmingham, Leicester and London Universities, who lectured to the students about Charles I, print culture during the civil wars and Sir Thomas Fairfax’s role as leader of the Parliamentarian forces at Maidstone in 1648. Dr Cooper’s students in American Studies have also been making use of the Museum’s North American Brenchley Collection, collected by the Kent explorer Julius Brenchley in the mid-nineteenth century. Year 1 students on the introductory Native Americans course visited the museum to see and handle some of the artefacts including pipes, tomahawks, masks and clothing. The students researched in groups to make presentations on the artefacts and the social and geographic contexts in which they were produced. The presentations were assessed in the normal way for the course and on both of our courses we have been able to use the curriculum and assessment tasks to provide practical opportunities for the students to develop graduate skills in research. Future plans include helping to produce modern labelling for the North American artefacts on display in the museum and in the longer term, an exhibition of the North American artefacts. Dr Cooper and I intend to continue the links with the Museum once the two year pilot project is completed. Next year, for example, I will use the permanent seventeenth century collections at the museum to encourage students to develop their own topics for research presentations. We also hope that colleagues within our department and elsewhere at the university will also use the Museum’s collections for their own research informed teaching projects in future. 

6. Issues of Student Selection and Support

The scheme has been run in two courses in the department so far and has been open to all students on those two courses. The use of the museum’s collections is integrated into the teaching on the courses and involves visits to the museum and visits to the university by the curator, Giles Guthrie. Because the museum’s collections are specialised, the students are mentored in their research into the collections by their course leaders (myself and Dr Cooper) who have specialist knowledge of the areas/time period being researched.

7. Issues of Student Reward

We have been able to integrate the scheme into existing courses very smoothly and the research that the students have done has been developed in line with exisiting coursework requirements ie  group presentations in the year 1 Native Americans course and in the year 3 course on the English Revolutions. Students are assessed on their research using existing criteria for knowledge, methodology, argument, referencing, presentation, writing style etc.

8. Does it work?

The response to the scheme has been a very positive one. The staff at the museum are pleased with the work done for the exhibition on the battle of Maidstone and the curator, Giles Guthrie, has commented to The Journal of Kent History that ‘it has been a fantastic project so far and it has been a real pleasure to work with Jackie Eales and her excellent students’ (Issue 66 March 2008). History students have been able to use their skills to show people in the community the type of work that is done in the department and student evaluation forms have been positive as well. One student commented that  ‘I have highly enjoyed the opportunity to be involved in the exhibition at Maidstone Museum. It has been a wonderful change from the inevitable essay-presentation-exam triad. I have been able to get enthusiastic about it’.   Evaluation forms from students on the Native Americans course has been similarly positive about the experience. I was particularly impressed by how motivated the students were by being able to handle the artefacts behind the scenes at the Museum.

9. Key advice

Approach local museums to see what use could be made of their collections as this generally fits well with museum outreach work. 2. This sort of relationship could work for other disciplines such as English/Geography/the Sciences etc. 3. If you are working towards an exhibition for the public, a lot of the work takes place just before the opening, so be prepared for a flurry of queries and label writing at the end of the project.

10. What leadership issues have arisen?

The project is seen as a research informed teaching initiative in which the research of the students is integral to the teaching. Very little effort was required to persuade colleagues and students to get involved as no changes needed to be made to the validation documents. Students normally make presentations onthese courses and it was simple to direct students towards researching the artefacts at our disposal.

29/05/2008

Appendix 2 Selected brief examples of undergraduate research at department and institution level

Department and institutional research resources support undergraduate history research at Virginia, US
This case study demonstrates how the research resources of a research-intensive university department can support undergraduate research in a large course. The course leader, Edward Ayers, is Dean of Arts & Sciences at the University of Virginia and a leading researcher on the American South. The School hosts the Virginia Center for Digital History. The resources of this Center including its research archives, research librarians, and a postgraduate research and teaching team, support a range of undergraduate research programmes, including research in an undergraduate course with an enrolment of c180 students. The course involves undergraduate student teams using university archives to research a specific time or place and then publish their research to a web site for use by current and future students and other researchers nationally.
Sources: www.vcdh.virginia.edu/SHD/howtobegin.html; www.sunysb.edu/reinventioncenter/conference2006/edayers/summary.htm; www.virginia.edu/cue/urn/; www.virginia.edu/cue/urn/; and artsandsciences.virginia.edu/edayers/#employment

Arts of Citizenship Program at the University of Michigan, US
In this program students combine learning and research with practical projects that enhance community life.  Each year Arts of Citizenship directly sponsor eight to twelve projects, and award grants for another eight to twelve projects: e.g. the Broadway Park Design project (a collaboration with the Ann Arbor Department of Parks and Recreation) proposes designs for public art, public history, and cultural amenities in the historic park on the Huron riverfront. (www.artsofcitizenship.umich.edu/broadway); Arts of Citizenship has collaborated with Michigan Radio on a series of student-created radio documentaries, including award-winning pieces on the 1967 Detroit riots and on Arab-American youth.
Source: www.artsofcitizenship.umich.edu/about/program.html

Department Undergraduate Student Biology Research Journals at Chester, Leeds and Nottingham, UK
The biology departments at Chester University College, Leeds University and Nottingham University have developed undergraduate research journals to publish research by undergraduates in their departments. They are explicitly based on US practice of undergraduate research journals (Kinkead, 2003). Origin (www.chester.ac.uk/origin/) at Chester is paper based and generally involves selected students rewriting their dissertations or research projects for external publication. Biolog-E at Leeds (www.biolog-e.leeds.ac.uk) is an electronic journal, as is BURN from Biosciences at Nottingham University (www.nottingham.ac.uk/~sbzml/). These showcase first class undergraduate research and support those undergraduates seeking academic research careers from these research-intensive departments. Drawing on the expertise of these department journals there are plans to develop a national E—journal for Biology Undergraduate Research.
Sources: www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk/projects/tdf/potter.htm; Knight (2006)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (http://mit.edu/urop/)
The Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) supports research partnerships between MIT undergraduates and academic staff.  Formed in 1969, it is one of the earliest such programmes.  “UROP projects take place during the academic year, as well as over the summer, and research can be done in any academic department or interdisciplinary laboratory.  Projects can last for an entire semester, and many continue for a year or more. UROP students receive academic credit, pay, or work on a voluntary basis.”  For the class of 2004, 82 per cent of graduating seniors had participated in UROP at least once during their undergraduate careers (personal communication, 2005).

Students at Roskilde University, Denmark, spend half their time on projects (www.ruc.dk/ruc_en/about/)
At least 50% of student time in the assessed curriculum in five years from BA to MA is taught through project work. The projects involve students working in groups guided by staff. “Problem-orientated project work ... [is] participant directed indicating that it is the group members that collectively ... take the responsibility for the project. … The result is a body of knowledge owned for the most part by the students that produced it and not borrowed from the teachers who taught it” (Legge, 1997, p.5).  The first two years are interdisciplinary group projects, later projects tend to be within one discipline and sometimes may be undertaken individually.

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