Scholarship as a Conversation

The Threshold Concept “Scholaorship as a Conversation” The Framework defines Scholarship as a Conversation as “communities of scholars, researchers, or professionals engaging in a sustained discourse where every researcher brings some new insight to the scholarly conversation and new theories or perspectives arise through negotiation.
 
Scholarship is like a conversation where ideas are created, debated, and weighed against one another over time. Published articles and dissertations form a discussion that involves critiques, arguments, and additions to our understanding of the world. Information users and creators come together to discuss meaning, with the effective researcher adding his or her voice to the conversation. I have learned in “Scholarship as a conversation” that no idea stands alone, its multiple people writing and publishing their ideas and hoping that others will pick up and use this information to form new conversations. There are many conversations happening at once and not everyone agrees. As you research, it is necessary to evaluate the work of others -- but also try to see yourself as a producer and as a consumer of information. As a student, you can contribute to the scholarly conversation.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ATnbfzQsGo
https://youtu.be/LT86Np7NW1Q

 A teaching scenario for the Frame “Scholarship as a Conversation”
The Topic:

An investigation into the challenges that students experience in seeking for information.

The following will be investigated:

1. What are students’ information seeking skills when entering a University?

2. What are the challenges for students when searching for information?

3. How will information seeking training courses improve students’ information searching competencies?

Learning outcomes 

Learners should be able to:

Articulate the similarities in the arguments of the authors in the two provided articles and identify research questions; translate questions into keywords for searching

Critically evaluate contributions made by others.
Identify the contribution particular articles, books, and other scholarly pieces make to disciplinary knowledge.
Activities
1. Identify and write two brief paragraphs of the similarities presented in the two authors arguments in the articles.

2. Select a seminal work on a topic, and then identify two sources that reference that work from different perspectives.

3. Read the results or findings section of both articles. Do you think that the main research questions were sufficiently addressed? Why?.

Show how each activity relates to a “knowledge practice” or “disposition”.

1. The first activity relates to knowledge practice, as the student will develop abilities and proficiencies to identify similarities in debates of authors. Students will also look at the dominant arguments presented in the field of knowledge. Therefore, students recognize that they are often entering into an on-going scholarly conversation, not a finished conversation.

2. The second activity relates to knowledge practice, as students will develop the abilities to identify the sources that reference that work from different perspectives. Students will summarize the changes in scholarly perspective over time on a particular topic within a specific discipline.

3. The third activity relates to knowledge practice, as students will develop the ability to critically examine the results in relation to the main research questions. They will also develop an understanding of how results should address the main research question. In addition, students will critically evaluate the contributions made by others.