Title: Using constructive alignment to improve student research and writing skills: a case study of a master's program in real estate management

Authors: Samuel Azasu; Björn Berggren

Addresses: School of Construction Economics and Management, University of Witwatersrand, Braamfontein 2000 Johannesburg, South Africa ' Department of Real Estate and Construction Management, Royal Institute of Technology, SE-10044 Stockholm, Sweden

Abstract: The purpose of the paper is to describe and analyse efforts to integrate research into teaching in a postgraduate degree program in real estate management. The long term goals of the changes were to increase graduation rates as well as the quality of dissertations. In order to validate our findings, the data for this paper emanate from a three main sources, namely; students' course evaluations, students' grades and a qualitative assessment of the students' thesis proposals made by senior lecturers. The results show that the first cohort of students found it stressful when individual research writing was introduced towards the end of their studies. With a more gradual and earlier introduction of writing in a series of courses in the program, coupled with changes in assessment tasks, the second cohort found individual research writing less stressful and more beneficial. Performance in the second cohort improved in appreciable ways.

Keywords: constructive alignment; learning improvement; Masters degrees; real estate management; research skills; task times; writing skills; student research; case study; postgraduate degrees; higher education; dissertation quality; graduation rates; student performance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLC.2015.069076

International Journal of Learning and Change, 2015 Vol.8 No.1, pp.83 - 100

Received: 25 Sep 2014
Accepted: 15 Jan 2015
Published online: 26 Apr 2015 *

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