How does completing a dissertation transform undergraduate students’ understandings of disciplinary knowledge?

Ashwin, Paul; Abbas, Andrea; McLean, Monica

Abstract

Dissertations are positioned as the capstone of an undergraduate degree, bringing together what students have previously learned from their programmes through a piece of independent research. However, there is limited research into the ways in which engaging in a dissertation has an impact on students’ understandings of disciplinary knowledge. In this article, we explore the relations between students’ accounts of sociological knowledge in their second and third years and how they engage with sociological knowledge in their dissertations. We argue that for the work of the dissertation to have an impact on students’ understanding of sociological knowledge, students need to see their discipline as providing a way of answering their research questions. We explore the implications of this argument for both our understanding of the role of dissertations and research-based learning in universities more generally.

Citation

Ashwin, P., Abbas, A., & McLean, M. (in press). How does completing a dissertation transform undergraduate students’ understandings of disciplinary knowledge?. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 42(4), https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2016.1154501

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 19, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Mar 7, 2016
• Deposit Date: Mar 24, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 24, 2016
• Journal: Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education
• Electronic ISSN: 0260-2938
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 42
• Issue: 4
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2016.1154501
• Keywords: Dissertations, academic knowledge, students, sociology
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/781138
• Publisher URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02602938.2016.1154501
• Additional Information: The Version of Record of this manuscript has been published and is available in Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02602938.2016.1154501 c2016 http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/02602938.2016.1154501
• Contract Date: Mar 24, 2016