How does completing a dissertation transform undergraduate students’ understandings of disciplinary knowledge?
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 studen...
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| Format: | Article |
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Taylor & Francis
2016
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32500/ |
| _version_ | 1848794423228366848 |
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| author | Ashwin, Paul Abbas, Andrea McLean, Monica |
| author_facet | Ashwin, Paul Abbas, Andrea McLean, Monica |
| author_sort | Ashwin, Paul |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | 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. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:15:57Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-32500 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:15:57Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | Taylor & Francis |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-325002020-05-04T17:42:34Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32500/ How does completing a dissertation transform undergraduate students’ understandings of disciplinary knowledge? Ashwin, Paul Abbas, Andrea McLean, Monica 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. Taylor & Francis 2016-03-07 Article PeerReviewed Ashwin, Paul, Abbas, Andrea and McLean, Monica (2016) How does completing a dissertation transform undergraduate students’ understandings of disciplinary knowledge? Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 42 (4). pp. 517-530. ISSN 0260-2938 Dissertations academic knowledge students sociology http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02602938.2016.1154501 doi:10.1080/02602938.2016.1154501 doi:10.1080/02602938.2016.1154501 |
| spellingShingle | Dissertations academic knowledge students sociology Ashwin, Paul Abbas, Andrea McLean, Monica How does completing a dissertation transform undergraduate students’ understandings of disciplinary knowledge? |
| title | How does completing a dissertation transform undergraduate students’ understandings of disciplinary knowledge? |
| title_full | How does completing a dissertation transform undergraduate students’ understandings of disciplinary knowledge? |
| title_fullStr | How does completing a dissertation transform undergraduate students’ understandings of disciplinary knowledge? |
| title_full_unstemmed | How does completing a dissertation transform undergraduate students’ understandings of disciplinary knowledge? |
| title_short | How does completing a dissertation transform undergraduate students’ understandings of disciplinary knowledge? |
| title_sort | how does completing a dissertation transform undergraduate students’ understandings of disciplinary knowledge? |
| topic | Dissertations academic knowledge students sociology |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32500/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32500/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32500/ |