Redefining academic teaching practice in terms of research apprenticeship

Abstract

In the changing context of higher education, which has seen the growth of online technologies and use of the vast resources of the internet, three challenges to academic teaching and assessment practices are identified: information overload, student diversity and student plagiarism. The current literature in higher education tends to address these issues in isolation from each other. A common thread towards embracing the challenges holistically is highlighted by reviewing the concept of academic integrity and specifically its role within the process of research, in order to focus on the underlying purpose of undergraduate education. By drawing on the Boyer Commission’s 1998 manifesto and examples of evidence-based learning and teaching practices derived from the literature, undergraduate education is redefined in its entirety in terms of an apprenticeship into the culture and practice of research.