Chairing Research Design Sessions

Effectively designing one’s research is key to its successful execution. Likewise, solid presentation skills are critical to success as an academic (or in almost any field). Talking about research design also gives all participants an opportunity to think about new applications of the methods they are learning at the Institute.

Accordingly, all Institute participants are required to write and submit prior to the Institute, and present at the Institute, a research design – either a shorter, more tentative overview of their research plans or a formal research design. (You can see the research design instructions provided to participants on this page.)

Unless you have actively opted not to do so, we will ask each instructor to chair a research design discussion session on each day that they teach. We will try to assign you to sessions in which the work presented overlaps methodologically or substantively with yours. We typically run seven or eight such sessions in parallel, each with an instructor as chair. (We may not need all of the instructors who are in Syracuse on any particular day to chair the sessions, but we will need most!)

In each research design session, three to five participants (depending on the type of design) each briefly present their design and then receive constructive critique and comments from other Institute participants. We anticipate that there will be about 15 participants in each group (not including the paper authors), although the numbers can vary.

The presumption (and we will reinforce the expectation) is that everyone in the room has already read the session's designs. The participants are typically exceedingly generous in these sessions, ready to engage and offer constructive feedback.

Most of the heavy lifting is done by the participants. The faculty chair’s main job is to keep things on track so each presenter gets their fair share of time and to ensure the conversation remains constructive. Of course, participants are thrilled if the faculty chair also weighs in with some comments on their designs.

We suggest that you organize the session around the following guidelines, and that you announce the guidelines at the start of the session.

• The designs will be discussed consecutively rather than concurrently (i.e., each design will be presented and discussed before the next design is considered)
• Each design should get an equal amount of the available time (75 minutes divided by the number of authors presenting).
• Suggestions and questions for authors
  • Encourage authors to give a very brief (2 minutes for shorter designs, 3-5 minutes for longer designs) summary of their design, focusing on questions or issues on which they would like advice, as the understanding is that everyone has read the designs in advance of the session.
  • Encourage authors not to engage in extended discussion of any particular comment as the idea is to maximize feedback
  • Ask if authors would like to have a notetaker / or would like ro record the session.
    • If an author prefers the latter, please ask the gathered participants if they are all right with an audio recording being produced.
  • Ask if they would like to take their own questions or would like you to moderate
• Participants should take the lead in offering constructive criticism.
  • The faculty chair will offer suggestions only towards the end of the discussion of each design.
• Ask if everyone is familiar with the “two-finger” type of hand raise (signaling a question or comment very similar to the previous one).

It is very helpful if the faculty chair manages the conversation a bit, perhaps highlighting the connections – or tensions – among the different comments and critiques offered, asking commenters to clarify if they have been unclear, trying to encourage those who have not yet spoken to offer comments, and not calling on someone for a second time until everyone who wishes to comment has done so.