Activity Plan

1. Outline the activities you wish to undertake with your partner institution during this pre-project phase. For each activity list who will do what, giving names and designations of those who will be responsible.

2. Elaborate (separately) on the sorts of areas you might go on to develop in a full partnership, for example the development of new course materials, development of teaching staff, seminars or workshops for the teaching staff of your institution, purchase of teaching materials for adaptation to your institution, etc.

As you have learned from the above study visits can be arranged as individual and partnership scheme and there can also be collaborative research. What are the core principles for the collaborative Research model?

The Collaborative Research Model is a flexible method for engaging student learning teams in research.

Strategies for Development and Implementation

How you’ll set your project up depends on the particular factors of your course such as:

• course content;

• duration of the course;

• number of students;

• course learning outcomes;

• other crucial assignments and activities and their time allotted;

• developmental level and perceived prior experience of students.

A successful adaptation of the Collaborative Research Model for your course will depend on your careful planning to predict how those variables will interact with model features. Which features will work for your course? Which will need to be modified? For instance, you'll need to make decisions about:

• how to establish the problem for exploration (whether to use a single, common problem or an umbrella topic with related problems);

• how learning teams will be established and maintained;

• what deliverables best support your students" success—oral, written, or a combination of both;

• which features of Blackboard will be most useful in supporting the project;

• what kind of assessment process you will use and how you will prepare your students for it.

Further follows information supplied by a former post-graduate student who shares his experience in doing research at one of the British universities.

I did my research on the REAP scientific exchange programme. I arrived in Britain in February for a 3-month visit. It was my first experience in the country. I couldn’t help thinking of what my stay in Britain would be like and whether my knowledge of English would be sufficient.

At Gatwick airport I was met by Prof. Flowers, the programme’s coordinator from Kingston University.

From Gatwick airport the car brought us to the very center of London where we had a very pleasant walk, then we drove to the hotel where I was to stay.

The next morning Mr. Flowers arranged for me a visit to the University. He introduced me to the staff of the Law School. I was shown round, visited local library.

Mr. Flowers himself, is an excellent man and capable and competent researcher. We spent a lot of time discussing different problems of mutual interest.

Law School was not very large, but resourceful. I found our research topics almost identical, but we used a different approach. On the whole it was the case of doing the same by different means. Though I was practically given a free hand in the research, I tried to maintain permanent contacts with the Law School staff.

I must say I had very busy time there. I was totally absorbed in my work. Time and efforts were necessary for writing, reports and articles getting the material ready for publication.

During the final weeks of my stay in England I worked against time trying to solve the remaining problems.

On the last day of my stay there my British colleagues gave a little farewell party for me. My supervisor made a speech. He spoke in a very flattering terms about our collaboration.

I was glad to hear about the prospects of a series of exchange visits between our two Universities.

At the end I expressed my deep gratitude to all the people who had worked with me for their valuable advice and assistance.

Notes:

REAP – Regional Academic Partnership Programme;

to have (to give) a free hand – иметь (предоставить) полную свободу действий;

to speak in flattering terms – лестно отзываться о ком-либо;

to work against time – стараться завершить работу к определенному сроку.

Check your knowledge of the useful vocabulary on the topic in question.

научная стажировка

программа обмена

достаточные знания

останавливаться в отеле

организовать посещение

представить коллегам

компетентный исследователь

работать в сотрудничестве (с)

проблемы, представляющие взаимный интерес

проводить совместные исследования

применить иной подход

предоставить полную свободу действий

быть поглощенным работой

тщательно анализировать

готовить материал к изданию

просматривать периодические издания

работать не покладая рук

прощальная вечеринка

лестно отозваться

выразить благодарность

Any research visit is finalized with a report on the visit’s outcomes. Here is one of them taken from the Internet. You will see that Victor is not a native speaker of English and his language skills are not perfect. Try to notice mistakes in his report. Rewrite the sentences so as to avoid his mistakes. Write down words and expressions which can be used while writing analogous reports.