Pilot Study to Establish the Nature and Impact of Effective Undergraduate Research Experiences on Learning, Attitude, and Career Choice

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AbstractA three-year research project is proposed whose overall goals are to:Clarify the nature of authentic undergraduate research experiences-and their variations-in a sample of science disciplines from the viewpoints of participating and non-participating undergraduates (both as seniors and one year from graduation), from faculty, and from their institutions;Identify and categorize the essential elements of "good" undergraduate research experiences, the learning gains (cognitive, behavioral, affective, social, and professional) that they produce over time; the conditions and processes by which, these occur; and their relative significance in the achievement of outcomes valued by students and faculty;Identify variations in undergraduate research participation, experiences, and outcomes, and the factors that shape them, for women and men; and for white students and students of color. Hypothesize and test linkages between aspects of undergraduate research experiences and desired outcomes in the shorter and longer term. The research design controls for variations in undergraduate research models, institutional contexts, and academic disciplines by limiting the inquiry to one common type of program (mentored summer research for entering seniors requiring a senior thesis, and/or presentation and publication of scholarly work) in a sample of institutions of similar type, with a limited range of science disciplines. Investigation will begin with entering seniors in summer, 2000 programs in four liberal arts colleges with a strong history of engagement in undergraduate research. Methods of sampling and inquiry allow for discovery of variations in the experiences and outcomes reported by female and male participants, by students of color compared with white students, and by female participants in single-sex versus mixed-sex research contexts. Samples will also include two comparison groups of non-participants who either chose not to participate in research programs as undergraduates, or who applied, and were not selected. A comparative ethnographic exploration of faculty goals and pedagogical methods, and student accounts of their experiences and benefits over time, will ground the development and testing of instruments to assess the impact of undergraduate research opportunities on the education and post-graduate lives of undergraduates. Interview and survey data from the student cohorts will be compared with those from faculty in order to establish, compare, and rank what each group perceives as the benefits of the research experience, and what factors influence their achievement. Interviews with students who do, and do not, participate in undergraduate research, with faculty research mentors, and with engaged senior faculty and administrators will be conducted in real time. Alumni who do, and do not, participate in undergraduate research will be interviewed one year after graduation to discern longer-term effects. Pilot study findings will also provide a research base for the design of comparable, cross-program evaluation strategies for common models of undergraduate research. Findings and instruments will be disseminated for use by colleagues interested in the development of evaluation strategies for undergraduate research projects through a workshop, presentations targeted to relevant audiences, selected web-sites, and published work.