A Study Of The Actualities And Strategies Of Research-based Learning Among Postgraduates In The Context Of Information Technology

Since the late1990s, research-based learning has been developed in China over15years. This pedagogical method initially appeared in the field of elementary education, and then started to be popular in the domain of higher education from2000. More and more scholars pay their attention to the study of research-based learning of undergraduates. However, researches on the learning method of postgraduates are rare. In the context of information technology, postgraduates’research learning will be greatly facilitated by educational technologies and online resources. It’s necessary to make clear the actualities of research-based learning among postgraduate in IT context so as to popularize such learning method and make best use of information technology to assist such leaning. Therefore, this research tries to find the existing problems of research-based learning based on survey and interview and put forward quick resolutions to those problems. Besides, the paper wishes to make due contributions to boosting learning efficiency of postgraduates, and to provide the authorities of higher education administrative divisions with reasonable, detailed and objective basis for making policies.The layout of the thesis is as follows:The first chapter is an introduction. At first it introduces the background, purpose, significance and methodology of the research briefly. The next part of the chapter is literature review, which reviews the achievements of previous study on research-based learning at home and abroad, and the present status of the learning strategy among postgraduates as well as of research-based learning integrated with information technology. This chapter finally defines some important terms in the paper, including information technology, research-based learning, research-based learning in the context of information technology and research-based learning of postgraduates.The second chapter mainly deals with theoretical basis of the research. It dwells on the theories on which the research grounds. The theories of constructivist learning, contextual learning, multiple intelligence, and communication science are included.The third chapter states the design and the process of the research. The subjects of the research are selected from three universities in Guilin, namely Guilin University of Technology, Guilin University of Electronic Technology and Guangxi Normal University. Those subjects are required to fill in questionnaires and some of them will be interviewed to learn about the current situation of research-based learning of postgraduates.The fourth chapter devotes to analyzing the current situation of research-based learning and finding the root of those problems. The problems to be discussed in the chapter cover discontent with learning achievement, lack of information technology competence, imbalanced distribution of learning resources, absence of supervisor’s instructions and insufficiency of research features. A concise analysis will be made to trace the immediate origins of those problems.The fifth chapter elaborates on strategies. According to the problems found in survey, the paper comes up with strategies to enhance research-based learning of postgraduates from three perspectives. The key to achieve the goal is to develop the competence of information technology. Its bedrock is to enrich information resources and its core is to update learning strategy.The sixth chapter is a conclusion. It draws a conclusion of the findings of the research, analyzes the limitations of the research and prospects the orientations of future study.