Reproducibility in the Liberal Arts: a Conversation wth Geographers

Keywords: reproducibility; pedagogy; liberal arts
Abstract Type: Poster Abstract

Abstract

Geographers increasingly recognize the importance of our ability to repeat the procedures of prior studies and confirm their findings, and reproducibility is increasingly required of research grants and publications. However, a large percentage geographic research is not reproducible and most geography curricula do not prepare geography students to conduct reproducible research. Solutions do not come easily in a discipline with multiple research approaches and commitment to studying complex and uncontrolled systems. We three authors joined twelve other scholars from a variety of liberal arts colleges and academic disciplines at Middlebury College in July 2024 for a workshop on teaching reproducibility.

With a multidisciplinary focus on undergraduate education, we shared experiences and inspiration for advancing reproducibility at three levels of organization: classrooms, curricula, and institutions. In this presentation, we share the workshop structure and most salient outcomes. At the classroom level, we focused on syllabi and learning activities. At the curricular level, we focused on learning goals, course requirements, and sequencing; and at the institutional level, we focused on missions and programs for community engagement, research assistants and support, and STEM tutoring. Throughout the workshop, a recurring theme was a need to acknowledge complexity, uncertainty, and public distrust in academic research while also empowering students to reproduce prior studies and to conduct and communicate their own work with the organization and clarity required of reproducibility. To do so not only supports our educational missions to cultivate critical literacy, but also leads to higher quality and more impactful learning and student research.