Doug Hamilton is a Professor in the School of Education and Technology at Royal Roads University, Victoria BC Canada (doug.hamilton@royalroads.ca).

Rationale

University students often have fears and anxieties about taking research courses and learning about research concepts and methods (Bartolic, 2015; Earley, 2014; Harder, 2010). This fear can be exacerbated in practitioner-oriented graduate courses where working professionals have not taken research courses for a relatively lengthy time since their undergraduate studies. One way of reducing fear and anxiety about research is to help students explore their own understandings and conceptualizations of research, how these might have been shaped through experience, and how they might be relevant to their own professional contexts (Ross et al., 2017). Ross et al. (2017) further argue that helping professionals explore their own conceptualizations of research is an invaluable means of seeing important connections between research and their own practices as opposed to viewing it as an activity performed only by academics.

The overall objective of the activity is to help new graduate students demystify the term “research” and to help them explore their perspectives, assumptions, and previous experience in engaging in research activities. By the end of the activity, I expect that students are able to discern research is not just “about numbers and experiments” (Ross et al, 2017, p.73) and, therefore, have a broadened conceptualization of how research can be defined, enacted, and applied within their own professional lives.

In this activity, I employ the use of Visual Explorer® which “uses images to facilitate conversations, creating new perspectives and shared understanding” (Palus & Horth, 2010, p.i).  The Visual Explorer® package includes 300 photos representing a diversity of images and genres of expression. At the beginning of a course, students choose a photo from the Visual Explorer® photo bank that, for them, makes a compelling connection to the term ‘research’. After quiet solo reflection on why they chose the image, they share their images and discuss their reflections in small groups. Finally, as a class, we examine some of the themes that arose in the discussions and explore their implications for conducting applied research studies.

Using the Visual Explorer® activity serves as a way for students to generate metaphors that relate to their own conceptualizations of research. Using metaphors can be a powerful vehicle to help students surface and express tacit understandings and relationships (Pitcher, 2011; Steger, 2007; Moser, 2000; Lackoff & Johnson, 1980). A limited number of studies have explored the use of written metaphors to learn about students’ conceptualizations of research (Pitcher, 2011; Meyer et al., 2007; Meyer et al., 2005). Helping participants describe visual metaphors has been an integral part of the practice of visual research methods such as Photo-Voice (Wang et al. 2004; Wang & Burris, 1997) and has been employed in previous studies of participants’ conceptual understandings of research-based phenomena (Childs & Hamilton, 2014; Hamilton, 2014; Warren, 2005).

The Visual Explorer® process helps students to unpack their previous experiences, fears, and assumptions about engaging in real-world research by providing a supportive environment for exploring different perspectives towards designing and conducting applied research projects. By examining and sharing their own predispositions, students often learn that fears about engaging in research are natural and an integral part of the learning process (Ross et al, 2017; Pitcher, 2011). The small group sharing sessions also give the instructor a sense of the level of fear and anxiety in the class as well as the level of previous experience of students in engaging in research. This diagnostic information is very helpful for determining the approach to debriefing the activity as well as planning follow-up activities.

Overview

The Visual Explorer activity takes place at the beginning of the first class in a Research Methods course. The following steps are taken to plan, organize, and implement the activity:

1. In preparation for the activity, 300 Visual Explorer® photos are scattered on a large table that can be accessed by all students.
2. To initiate the activity, I explain to the class: “We’re going to start at an important starting place on your pathway through this course—your own impressions or views of research.”
3. Students are asked to come to the table, look over the 300 photos and “select one image that makes connections for you to the word “Research.” I elaborate by explaining:
   You can select an image that reminds you of, stands for, or is a metaphor for your connections to research. These could be literal, figurative, emotional connections or past, present, or future connections. It doesn’t have to a positive connection and there are no right or wrong responses. It is up to you. Take your time and think about the image that really resonates with you. (15 minutes)
4. I adapt the Liberating Structures 1-2-4-All activity to structure the debriefing and reflection process (Lipmanowicz & McCandless, 2014). Once all students have selected an image, I invite them, individually and quietly, to reflect on why they chose their specific image using the following questions as prompts:
   • What attracted you to the image?
   • What are the connections between the image and the term “research?”
   • What kind of story does the image tell about your own perspectives on “research?” (10 minutes)
5. Then students form groups of approximately four or five participants. They take turns sharing their photos and sharing their reflections on the three questions above (20 minutes).
6. After each person has shared, the groups are invited to explore the following questions:
   • What were some of the common themes, if any, that emerged?
   • What new perspectives or insights did you discover as a group?
   • What “a-ha moments” did you have either collectively or individually? (20 minutes)
7. As a final debrief, we re-convene as an entire class. Students are invited to share some of themes discussed in the groups as well as some of the diverse conceptualizations of research that emerged from the activity (20 mins).
8. The exploratory work in this activity leads nicely into another activity, conducted later in the course, that helps students understand different research orientations, paradigms, and methods.

Notes about the activity

I have collected feedback from students using the minute paper technique described by Angelo and Cross (1993). At the end of the activity, students are asked to write one insight from the Visual Explorer® activity on a large file card and to submit it to me at the end of the class. They are encouraged to take a photo of their file card to keep as their own reflection. My review of the themes has revealed that pre-conceptualizations of research as a set of clinical activities performed by “people in white coats” are often dispelled, and more personally relevant (and therefore more broadly defined) understandings of research emerge.

In conducting this activity, I have also learned the follow-up plenary-wide debriefing is critical to the success of the activity and demands a highly intentional facilitation approach. Consequently, I have found it helpful to plan the kinds of inquiry-oriented questions that I will raise in the class that will help deepen students’ explorations of their own conceptualizations of research as well as their classmates’ views.

Although there is no direct assessment of this activity, the reflective explorations undertaken by students help them prepare for their final assignment in the course which includes a short proposal for a research study related to a leadership issue relevant to their professional role. In designing their study, students are asked to consider a research approach that will be meaningful and relevant to their own professional context and which is consistent with their own, potentially evolving, conceptualizations of research.

This activity can be adapted to an online learning environment by having students select their own image in advance and posting it to a Padlet or Flipgrid board. They can post their individual reflections generated in Step 4 alongside the image they have chosen. The group-based discussions could occur asynchronously in a discussion forum or synchronously using breakout groups in Blackboard Collaborate Ultra, Zoom, or another application.

Reflection

This activity has become a core course activity since I began to use it 11 years ago. Over that period, I have made a few enhancements to strengthen its delivery. For example, incorporating a modified version of the 1-2-4-All activity (Lipmanowicz & McCandless, 2014) as a debriefing tool has given the process more structure and permitted more equitable sharing of perspectives and views. Furthermore, I have added clearer instructions to better guide the students’ selection of suitable Visual Explorer® images.

Starting the course with this activity has changed the way I approach the course. The activity has enabled me to begin the course with the key message that students, as professionals and individuals, bring different experiences, beliefs about the world, and research-related competencies to their own conceptualizations of research. It also supports an underlying principle of the course: that differences should be both acknowledged and respected as students develop their own capacities to engage in research-related activities in their unique professional settings. Furthermore, the Visual Explorer® activity appears to help some students reduce their own anxiety about engaging in research and improve their level of confidence in their abilities to design and carry out research projects.

References

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Bartolic, S. (2016). On overcoming fear of research methods. Institute for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC. https://isotl.ctlt.ubc.ca/2016/03/29/on-overcoming-fear-of-research-methods/

Childs, E., & Hamilton, D. N. (2014). The influence of learning and teaching frameworks in an international educational leadership master’s program: Challenges and possibilities for faculty members. Proceedings of the Tri-Nations Conference, University of British Columbia, March 29-31, 2014.

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