Teaching and Research: Implications for Active Learning in Higher Education

The paper presents practical execution of a course The Qualitative Research Methods at the two-year master’s programs 3+2 (MA) in pedagogy at the Faculty of Education of University of Białystok, conducted according to premises of research-based learning (RBL). The aim of The Qualitative Research Methods is to develop research competence of students in the area of designing, conducting and reporting qualitative research. During classes the students prepare team projects of qualitative research dealing with their everyday life. The paper presents the results of analysis of 161 projects of qualitative research done over three-year period (2017–2020). Methodological premises done by the students at the stage of research planning were reconstructed: 1) the topic of research; 2) the subject and the goals of research; 3) motivation of a subject choice; 4) research problems. The analysis allowed to establish that linking research with teaching enables students to gain knowledge of: 1) conducting scientific research; 2) the scientific field they study as well as the fields related to it; 3) team work (including one dealing with executing and presenting the scientific research); 4) themselves as researchers.