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Graduate STEM Students Can Enhance Research Skills By Teaching
By Catherine Groux
Posted August 25, 2011 07:42 AM
Graduate STEM students can improve their research skills by teaching, according to a new study.Students who pursue a master's degree in science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) are often encouraged to engage in research opportunities to enhance their studies. However, a new report published in the journal Science indicates that these individuals can also bolster their research skills by teaching.
To examine this topic, a group of professionals compared the methodological skills of students who had both teaching and research experience and those who only participated in research. Their findings revealed that students who taught others and engaged in research were able to formulate better hypotheses and create higher quality experiments.
"These results indicate that teaching experience can contribute substantially to the improvement of essential research skills," David F. Feldon, an assistant professor at the University of Virginia and one of the report authors, told The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Faculty at many intuitions hope these results will end the belief that students should spend more time researching and less time teaching. Mark R. Connolly, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, told the Chronicle that science professionals are usually known for their research, which makes many professors place more emphasis on these experiences than teaching.
