How does completing a dissertation transform undergraduate students’ understandings of disciplinary knowledge?

Ashwin, Paul William Hamilton and Abbas, Andrea and McLean, Monica (2017) How does completing a dissertation transform undergraduate students’ understandings of disciplinary knowledge? Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 42 (4). pp. 517-530. ISSN 0260-2938

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Abstract

Dissertations are positioned as the capstone of an undergraduate degree, bringing together what students have previously learned from their programmes through a piece of independent research. However, there is limited research into the ways in which engaging in a dissertation has an impact on students’ understandings of disciplinary knowledge. In this article, we explore the relations between students’ accounts of sociological knowledge in their second and third years and how they engage with sociological knowledge in their dissertations. We argue that for the work of the dissertation to have an impact on students’ understanding of sociological knowledge, students need to see their discipline as providing a way of answering their research questions. We explore the implications of this argument for both our understanding of the role of dissertations and research-based learning in universities more generally.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education
Additional Information:
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education on 07/03/2016, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/02602938.2016.1154501
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3304
Subjects:
?? dissertationsacademic knowledgestudentssociologyeducation ??
ID Code:
78724
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
15 Mar 2016 16:08
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
26 Mar 2024 00:40