Approaches for educators to effectively teach research and research methods

Research and research methods courses are an integral part of undergraduate and graduate curricula across science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and non-STEM disciplines. However, research methods courses can be daunting and challenging for students because of the complex content and the students' perceived fears of mastering practical skills and apply the learnt content in practice.1 2 Many students also find research methods content dreary, uninteresting, anxiety-provoking and irrelevant.3 4 Educators also encounter challenges in effectively teaching research methods due to diversity in methodological content, fragmented expertise, lack of consistent curricula, unavailability of resources to support research teaching and linguistic difficulties in understanding jargon-laden research language.5 6 In this paper, we outline some strategies that can be valuable for educators to effectively teach research and research methods at both undergraduate and graduate levels.