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Article: Teaching research methods: an experiential and heterodoxical approach. (The Teacher)
- Article from:
- PS: Political Science & Politics
- Article date:
- March 1, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 Cambridge University Press. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Given that most students who enroll in undergraduate research methods courses will not go on to conduct original research, such courses should primarily train students to be intelligent consumers of research. Unfortunately, in my experience, most undergraduates dread research methods courses. Generally, they tell me that they find them irrelevant and difficult. Irrelevant, in that many of them are unconvinced that a course in research methods is anything more than a hollow, academic exercise, and difficult, in that "many students suffer from mathematical phobia" (Hy and Hughes 1988, 61).
A teacher of research methods must address these concerns. To be more relevant ...