UG course ‘Practical Introduction to Research Methods’ wins ENLIGHT Teaching and Learning Award 2021

Congratulations to Simon Dalley PhD and the course teaching team Roxana Bucur, Liga Klavina, Tom Downer and Laurent Krook on winning the very first ENLIGHT Teaching and Learning Award. The course “Practical Introduction to Research Methods” at the Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences received the award during the Teaching and Learning Conference in Ghent on 18 November 2021.

The ENLIGHT Teaching and Learning Award recognizes a course or programme which has implemented innovative, international pedagogical approaches and/or learning practices related to specific ENLIGHT educational aims. The criteria for this year’s award were:

• The use of activating teaching methods related to specific ENLIGHT educational aims(for instance: challenge-based or problem-based education)
• The use of peer learning
• The use of feedback
  

Simon Dalley: “This course reflects the idea that high quality relationships are fundamental to effective student learning and support. In this first year course we use a combination of peer mentoring and learning communities to establish and maintain such relationships. By doing so, we find that students learn more readily from each other and the peer mentor. They also more readily approach the peer mentor and each other for academic and/or social support. As a result students not only learn more about research methods but they also receive the support to help them transition more smoothly to life at university”.