Introducing students to ways of thinking and acting like a researcher : a case study of research-led education in the sciences

The concept of research-led education is gaining increasing attention in higher education. However, the concept may be interpreted in different ways, some more feasible within an undergraduate curriculum than others. The approach described in this paper aims to introduce students to ways of thinking and acting like a researcher through engaging in research-like activities during lectures, tutorials, practical sessions, and assessment. This case study models an approach to research-led education that involves identifying key research skills, then designing learning activities that encourage the development of those skills, such as collecting small amounts of data in laboratories, using data analysis, and writing weekly practical exercises and reports; presenting findings to peers; interpreting and writing results and conclusions to accompany data drawn from the research literature; exploring the literature in a research field and finding gaps in the research; and producing a mock research grant application. We conclude that this approach to research-led education can be integrated into the general undergraduate curriculum with relative ease.