Cultivating a Soft-Landing Site in Graduate Classroom Environments

• In Event: Developing Capacity Through Projects, Bootcamps, and Community-Based Experiential Learning

Abstract

Several authors have called for research training to incorporate involvement in authentic research projects (e.g. Eisenhart & Jurow, 2011; Roth, 2011), and this is generally consistent with the nature of graduate education historically: apprenticeship (Walker et al., 2009). Just as one learns to walk by walking, one learns to be a researcher by doing things researchers do. However, learning to walk by walking necessarily entails falling down – and graduate classrooms are often dangerous spaces for this approach to learning (Martinez-Freeman, 2015). We report findings from a classroom that served as a ‘soft landing site’ for the inevitable stumbles that occur in an apprenticeship-oriented instruction model. We will also identify design principles for cultivating such an environment.

Authors

• Nate Wood, North Dakota State University

• Erika Beseler Thompson, North Dakota State University

• Danelle Klaman, North Dakota State University