From Student to Researcher (in one Term!) Post 12: Transferring CURE Principles into ‘non-CURE’ Courses: The ART

(This blog series is authored by USask denizens Harold Bull, Dawn Giesbrecht and Sheryl Mills) Harold is Assistant Professor Biochemistry, Microbiology & Immunology. Dawn is Laboratory Instructor Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology; Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology. Sheryl is Associate Director, Academic Programs & Interprofessional Education)

In Post 11 we outlined the transferrable, reproducible, generalizable scientific aspects of the CURE course design… and then we realized that this, perhaps, wouldn’t fit for every instructor. Why not???

In this post we explore the commitments related to getting at the heart of teaching as it relates to the CURE.

Some of us might require a small paradigm shift. For us, the CURE structure is already in alignment with how we prefer to teach and interact with learners. This was highlighted for us when we did the 16 Personalities inventory and discovered that we (the authors) ALL had the SAME ‘rare’ personality type! … go figure…(be in touch if you are interested in knowing what our ‘rare’ personality type is 🤣). This could perhaps explain why it is so easy for our team to come to agreement on how to navigate different ideas, approaches, punch lines, etc. We have also discovered that we share certain commitments toward teaching and learning.

Here are OUR 15 Commitments^[1]

We commit to:

1. Moving from ‘my’ course to ‘our’ course
2. Thinking of learners as competent, creative, responsible, and fun to work with! (i.e. thinking of learners as colleagues)
3. Providing freedom to choose and explore further in an atmosphere of benign neglect^[2] within clearly defined boundaries
4. Framing failures in a positive light—especially when these new discoveries are unanticipated!
5. Moving from rescuer to coach, suppressing the urge to ‘snowplow’^[3]
6. Allowing space for learners to discover their own answers
7. Working beside and with learners; being learners ourselves^[4],[5]
8. Being open to new answers
9. Prioritizing the process over the product
10. Doing the bulk of our work ‘upfront’, before the course starts
11. Believing that learners can do research and, that, by doing research they ‘come to know’
12. Learning by doing
13. Productive, positive, and energizing teamwork
14. Teaching teamwork skills and actively supporting teamwork
15. Providing time to reflect; taking the time to reflect is worth the time it takes to reflect^[6]…

Oh, and one more commitment—the MOST important one:

We commit to seeing ‘new researchers’ as the outcome of the CURE course process.

The research proposals, project management details, weekly reports, research presentations, and research articles are merely process-guiding artifacts and not the primary focus of our (the instructors’) attention. That said, these ARE the primary foci of our learners when they are ‘in the research zone’ and the transformation is a delightful surprise at the end of the process of the CURE course when we reflect on our journey together…from students to researchers…in 3 cu’s!

We invite you to consider what your commitments are and how they align with the commitments we have offered above. As instructors we all have beliefs, values, commitments, and ‘signature pedagogies’^[7] that we fall back on. We might want to try something new. We even know that the something new might be better. There might be even be overwhelming evidence for the efficacy of the new way. But still, we find ourselves falling back to the ‘tried and true’…OLD, BORING, and RELIABLE (well, at least predictable). Some might even say “same old, same old.” Why is that??? In the next episode we explore ideas that address this.

Find ALL BLOG POSTS IN THIS SERIES HERE. Find the PREVIOUS POST HERE. Find the NEXT POST HERE.

Podcasts: 

All About CURE: 

The MightyChondria Team: 

[1] This is modeled after the Conscious Leadership Group’s 15 Commitments. We are providing our ‘above the line’ commitments in this episode – see us for coffee for below the line examples!

[2] Benign neglect is defined as: Non-interference that is intended to benefit someone or something more than continual attention would. https://www.lexico.com/definition/benign_neglect

[3] See an earlier episode in the series … the one with a footnote on snowplowing…🤔

[4] Sheryl feels the need to introduce the idea of the three main models of teaching: Transmission, transaction and transformation. As the theme of this blog series is ‘the transformation of student to researcher’ we felt it important to at least mention the transformation aspect here in Episode 12…🙄. We are certain that the structure of CUREs takes us into the realm of transformation. Sheryl has a theory that in a transformational learning situation instructors and learners learn together. This is mere speculation based on decades of unpublished observations. However, Harold was wondering if in fact we are moving from ‘Transformation’ to ‘Transmogrification’? We cannot with assuredness, claim that transmogrification actually takes place, but we hypothesize that this may be the case for the learners as it seems to be true for the instructors 😉.

[5] Changing the course structure to a CURE facilitates transforming your teaching approaches (and your perspectives on learning), if that is what you are looking for (see Episode 3 to see how learner comments/evaluations differ relative to other ‘situations’ i.e. transmission style courses)  “Transformational Learning: Creating Attitudinal Shifts in Online Learners” https://read.aupress.ca/read/teaching-health-professionals-online/section/d2175f8d-c54c-47e3-89e3-9e58020fe8fe.

[6] More GMCTL Bling?

[7] Signature pedagogies are those teaching approaches that are most commonly used and felt to be unique to individual disciplines. We teach as we’ve been taught because we haven’t been taught how to teach (makes a great T-shirt slogan! GMCTL-swag😎). When ideas are transferred from one discipline to another there are basically two responses: Eureka! or you-reek-ugh! The CURE architecture arises from pedagogies related to experiential learning. We think that the transfer to undergraduate science courses sides on the “Eureka!”

[8] Inspired by Gollum and his precious ring.