An Effective Technique for Reading Research Articles - The Japanese KENSHU Method

Abstract

In this paper, we outline a method that teaches students how to study research literature. The method aids in developing a student's confidence by posing a simple set of steps with questions. The method has been used successfully for developing literature skills with high-school, undergraduate and graduate students in U.S. engineering curriculum. The method, which has the Japanese name, KENSHU, was developed by modifying a system used at a top Japanese national university. KENSHU is Japanese for research understanding. The basic steps of KENSHU are: (i) take a recent foreign (English) scientific article and divide it into sections, (ii) read and discuss a single section with a more experienced classmate, (iii) translate the section, (iv) continue step iii until all sections are finished, (iv) prepare a one page summary of the article with key graphs and tables, and (v) present the findings of the article at a miniconference. In this work, we have put into words, the aspects of reading a scientific article that incorporates the KENSHU framework. We applied the method to U.S. university juniors and seniors, graduate students as well as junior and senior high-school students. We conclude that the method is effective for not only learning how to read scientific articles, but also for learning how to write scientific articles.

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