The Need for Discipline-Based Education Research in Archaeology

Abstract

Over the last few decades, scholars have recognized the importance of discipline-based education research (DBER). As outlined by the National Research Council of the National Academies, DBER aims to 1) understand how students learn discipline concepts, practices, and ways of thinking; 2) understand how students develop expertise; 3) identify and measure learning objectives and forms of instruction that advance students towards those objectives; 4) contribute knowledge that can transform instruction; and 5) identify approaches to make education broad and inclusive. Physicists, chemists, engineers, biologists, astronomers, and geoscientists have been among the first to adopt DBER. Given research that demonstrates the effectiveness of instructional strategies developed through DBER, I call for archaeologists to adopt this approach to archaeological education, while developing infrastructure that supports and advances such research and derived instruction practices.