Qualitative Research Skills Acquisition within Social Work Doctoral Education using Project-Based Learning

Project-Based Learning (PBL) is a widely used teaching strategy in various levels of education that allows students to learn by doing. Current PBL literature within social work education focuses on the utility of PBL in practice skill attainment, rather than research skill attainment. Considering that the ultimate goal of social work doctoral education is to generate scientists who conduct research with the purpose of real-world application, PBL might be an effective teaching and learning approach in social work doctoral education. This study used a phenomenological research approach to explore key attributes of using a PBL exercise within two consecutive social work doctoral courses aimed at encouraging qualitative research skill development. At the completion of two doctoral research courses, students, instructors, and external team members participated in idea writing and focus groups to assess the effectiveness and utility of PBL within doctoral education. Initial open coding occurred independently by three researchers, which led to the development of and consensus on a codebook. Second round coding was conducted by one researcher and examined by the other two. The feedback provided by the participants suggests that integrating PBL into doctoral level qualitative and mixed methods research courses is an effective way to help students gain practical research skills within doctoral education. In addition, participants reported that the success of PBL relies on group dynamics and instructor characteristics. Finally, integrating a PBL activity as an organizing task in research methods courses may encourage authentic professionalization to the research and manuscript generation processes.