McMaster University - case study

Eliminating the research and teaching divide: McMaster University’s iSci program

At McMaster University, teaching and research are not seen as mutually exclusive activities competing for attention, but two sides of the same coin.

Its Honours Integrated Science Program – called iSci – is a recent example of how the university is combining engaging teaching and learning with research opportunities for both students and faculty. Heading into its third year in 2011, the four-year program exposes undergraduate students to big scientific questions right off the top, in a bid to introduce them to the challenge and excitement of scientific research, encourage them to think about those problems from a range of disciplinary perspectives, while also equipping them with a strong knowledge foundation along the way.

“The program has surpassed our expectations. It’s very exciting,” says John Capone, McMaster’s dean of science, and the main driver behind iSci’s creation.

At iSci there is less focus on traditional lectures and more opportunity for problem-solving and experiential learning. Admittedly an elite crop of highly-motivated, high-performing students (this year’s first-year class is 43; the program expects to accept up to 60 students in future), beginning iSci students go through an initial six-week primer on core content and skills in six scientific disciplines. They move on to their first in a series of research-focused modules, such as planning a “Mission to Mars,” or designing cures for cancer. Students are exposed to all of the same content a first-year student carrying a traditional science course load would, only in an integrated fashion.

There are frequent teaching seminars throughout the week, guest lectures, field trips, labs, as well as scientific literacy sessions designed to give students oral and written skills so they can become good scientific communicators and facility in the use of scientific literature. As they move through the program and learn what interests them, iSci students are able to take more elective courses in specific disciplines in upper years.

The program has not required a significant amount of extra money – although the university is spending funds to build it an interdisciplinary science lab. It has been accommodated on a floor of McMaster’s science library – a strategic move in itself, emphasizing the library’s teaching value – and is considered to be a component of every science department, each of which is expected to contribute to it.

ISci teaches through research, says its director, Carolyn Eyles. While students do much of their learning through research, the program is also stimulating new research into teaching pedagogy, and iSci teaching staff use their research in their instruction, integrating new research initiatives into their teaching.

That’s part of the McMaster way, and iSci is not the only program striving to combine research with student-centred learning, says Ilene Busch-Vishniac, McMaster’s provost and vice-president academic. The university, known as a pioneer in problem-based learning, has also made changes to how it assesses faculty’s teaching contributions and has embarked on discussions involving its teaching award winners to look at how the university can further recognize and promote the importance of high-quality teaching.

“Best practice says teaching and research should be integrated,” says Dr. Busch-Vishniac, adding that a limited amount of literature on the subject shows that, “most of the time, the people who are stellar teachers are also stellar researchers.”

And experimenting with new approaches to teaching students is all a part of that piece.

“We are very interested in playing, and seeing what works,” she says. “We will certainly have failures. But we will also have some whopping successes, like iSci. That’s okay. That’s the way research is done and that’s the way we make progress.”

For more information: go to the iSci website.