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“From any training unit, it is possible to generate research ideas through reflection and analysis processes that arise in the classroom.”
There is a false belief that university research must always have solid economic investment, manifested in creating large laboratories where renowned researchers participate. Although having budget backing is accommodating, it is not enough if you do not have original ideas or real problems that are better understood through research. Can research be done without a big budget? The key to generating research in the universities is in the hands of its students, who, with the correct orientation, can trigger original knowledge, high-quality reflection, and educational value. This article explores how any teaching program can generate research ideas by developing reflection and analysis processes for ideas that arise in the classroom and are appropriated by the students.
What is Research-Based Learning (RBL)?
The RBL is a didactic technique that aims to connect the teachings in the classroom with techniques and research methodologies that allow students to develop competencies and analysis, reflection, and argumentation skills along with their training. This learning tool links the contents of the teaching units with theoretical and practical information collected directly by the students, allowing them to participate in the construction of knowledge.
“The classes were notoriously more enriching than those sessions in which the knowledge came only from the teacher.”
The effective practice of this didactic technique allows the students to identify the source of the information they learn, which, in the long run, develops in them a genuine interest in learning (Rivadeneira and Silva, 2017). Additionally, it allows them to discover new ideas, contends their opinions, applies acquired theories to practical problems, and discover new and more effective paths for their formative process.
In the text, Research-based Teaching-Learning: a pilot experiment in a diploma course on children’s motor skills (Poblete, and others, 2019), the authors discovered that when the students in a course become participants in their learning through research, they develop a shared responsibility with their teachers, becoming protagonists in generating new, co-constructed knowledge from their experiences, vision, and arguments. It promotes significant learning.
As an element of educational innovation, RBL can be seen as a didactic approach that connects research with teaching. It can be used to complement other teaching techniques in any discipline. What is relevant is how students develop their research processes, motivated by their questions, interests, and creativity, awakening their genuine interest in learning more about a topic, problem, or environment (Tecnológico de Monterrey, 2020).
“As educators, we must learn to leave our leading role behind and learn to share the teaching space with students, making them participants in their training through research processes that actively incorporate them into academic discussion.”
How to implement RBL in the classroom?
In the Diversity and Human Rights program for the Master’s degree in Humanistic Studies, our objective was not only to provide to the participants the knowledge and places for quality reflection but also to trigger their interest in research, where they develop a perspective and their own approach to some topics included in the course.
The course covered various topics such as migration, Afro descent, ethnic and racial diversity, speciesism, and homophobia. It gave students the freedom to reflect on these issues and develop perspectives and questioning to submit an article to an academic journal for publication.
Through a process of feedback and accompaniment, each course participant could follow their path, search information, read other texts, and develop a process to research and address the subject. As part of their first partial (a mid-term exam), each student had to argue their journey approach. They demonstrated that they could question a topic in different ways and that they made the knowledge their own, adding characteristics, experiences, and previous knowledge that no one else in the group had shared.
Some of the reflections put forth were:
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The inclusion of people of African descent. It analyzed the importance of developing training for future filmmakers of African descent as a fundamental element of authentic cinematic narratives in Mexico.
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Censorship is a means of making a group invisible. This reflected how censorship policies could manifest homophobia and discrimination against sexually diverse groups by making them invisible to the media and the cultural imagination.
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Diversity in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-Earth. This analyzed the relevance of racial-ethnic representation in literary works of fantasy, considering how these texts are space-time images of reality.
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Migrations due to climate. The impact of climate-driven migration in Latin America and its possible relationship with other regions’ social problems was examined.
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Pets. The impact that pets can have on people’s mental health was assessed, especially during isolation due to COVID-19.
As can be seen, the students developed the theme of their choice and made it their own by relating it to their particular training and establishing their path of approach. It is well known that the course participants included future professionals from the legal, literary, social, and humanities areas, who, based on their approaches, requested topics that addressed their particular interests.
This activity allowed the students to identify their interests to develop possible articles. Also, the sessions addressing the theory underlying these topics were notably more enriching than those classes in which the knowledge came only from the teacher. Each class became a seminar, and the classroom a collaborative space where knowledge was not provided but shared.
As a result of this process, all the course participants could generate an academic article, which is currently in arbitration in an indexed international journal.
An invitation to share
As educators, we must learn to leave behind our protagonism and share the teaching space with students, making them participants in their training through research processes that actively incorporate them into the academic discussion. Although the example provided here is from a graduate program, it can be implemented in any professional-level classroom where the teacher illuminates the path. The students are the ones who walk it.
I believe this example sheds light on the breadth of possibilities available to make the reflection and analyses carried out on theoretical subjects more enriching and sig
nify a new level of analysis for those who participate. The Tec21 Educational Model of Tecnológico de Monterrey invites us to innovate and be creative; well, research applied to teaching processes is an excellent opportunity to put this into practice.
Remember that we teachers and students share the same interest in knowledge, and research an excellent element that should not be outside the training process.
About the Author
Dr. José Carlos Vázquez Parra (jcvazquezp@tec.mx) holds an undergraduate degree in Psychology, a Master’s degree in Education, and a Ph.D. in Humanistic Studies. He has more than one hundred publications on topics of ethics, human rationality, and gender studies. He is a Professor-researcher in the School of Humanities and Education.
References
Poblete, F., Linzmayer, L., Matus, C., Garrido, A., Flories, C., García, M., & Molina, V. (2019). Enseñanza-Aprendizaje basado en investigación. Experiencia piloto en un diplomado de motricidad infantil. Retos (35), 378-380.
Rivadeneira, E., & Silva, R. (2017). Aprendizaje Basado en Investigación en el trabajo autónomo y en equipo. Negotium, 13(38), 5-16.
Tecnológico de Monterrey. (2020). Aprendizaje Basado en la Investigación. Obtained from Educational Innovation at Tecnologico de Monterrey: https://innovacioneducativa.tec.mx/aprendizaje-basado-en-investigacion/
Edited by Rubí Román (rubi.roman@tec.mx) – Observatory of Educational Innovation.
Translation by Daniel Wetta.
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This article from Observatory of the Institute for the Future of Education may be shared under the terms of the license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 
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