Seeing is believing: Developing research skills in international maritime students through authentic learning

Increasingly, globalisation generates a requirement for employees to be adaptable, informed and able to assimilate and report on complex business contexts. This demand has stimulated an increasing internationalisation of postgraduate management education, particularly on programmes which serve the needs of dynamic industries such as maritime business, challenging tutors to find ways to develop research skills effectively in international students. This paper focuses on authenticity within the context of research informed teaching, which involves a basic relationship between teaching and research as the interdependent core activities in higher education. This study investigates how authentic learning may be used to enhance students’ research skills, and reports on a project which aimed to develop the research skills of international maritime business students enrolled on Maritime Business Masters awards at Plymouth. A teaching strategy designed to expose students via field visits and visiting speakers, to practical business contexts significantly enhanced their research skills. As an empirical study, this work contributes to the understanding of authenticity in higher education and confirms the importance of research informed teaching. Findings will be of interest to many programmes which seek to develop the research skills of postgraduate international students in management.