Undergraduate Research Experiences for STEM Students Successes, Challenges, and Opportunities (2017) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
9 Conclusions and Recommendations
9 Conclusions and Recommendations
Pages 211-232
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 211... ...
(Some of these topics are addressed in Chapter 8.) Colleges and universities that offer or wish to offer UREs to their students should undertake baseline evaluations of their current offerings and create plans to develop a culture of improvement in which faculty are supported in their efforts to continuously refine UREs based on the evidence currently available and evidence that they and others generate in the future.
|
From page 212... ...
In addition to the specific research recommended in Chapter 7, in this chapter the committee provides a series of interrelated conclusions and recommendations related to UREs for the STEM disciplines and intended to highlight the issues of primary importance to administrators, URE program designers, mentors to URE students, funders of UREs, those leading the departments and institutions offering UREs, and those conducting research about UREs. These conclusions and recommendations are based on the expert views of the committee and informed by their review of the available research, the papers commissioned for this report, and input from presenters during committee meetings.
|
From page 213... ...
URE STEM faculty and • Use appropriate methods Conclusions 1, 4, designers and instructors; faculty to measure URE outcomes. and 5 implementers in education • Base URE design on sound Recommendations evidence.
|
From page 214... ...
UREs add value by enabling students to understand and contribute to the research questions that are driving the field for one or more STEM topics or to grapple with design challenges of interest to professionals. They help students understand what it means to be a STEM researcher in a way that would be difficult to convey in a lecture course or even in an inquiry-based learning setting.
|
From page 215... ...
Many of these studies report positive outcomes from engagement in a URE. • a small number of studies have employed research designs Only that can support inferences about causation. Most of these studies find evidence for a causal relationship between URE participation and subsequent persistence in STEM.
|
From page 216... ...
These studies are encouraging; a few of them have generated evidence that a URE can be a positive causal factor in the progression and persistence of STEM students. The weight of the evidence has been descriptive; it relies primarily on self-reports of short-term gains by students who chose to participate in UREs and does not include direct measures of changes in the students' knowledge, skills, or other measures of success across comparable groups of students who did and did not participate in UREs.
|
From page 217... ...
Conclusion 3: Studies focused on students from historically underrepresented groups indicate that participation in UREs improves their persistence in STEM and helps to validate their disciplinary identity. Various UREs have been specifically designed to increase the number of historically underrepresented students who go on to become STEM majors and ultimately STEM professionals.
|
From page 218... ...
Attention to research design as UREs are planned is important; more carefully designed studies are needed to understand the ways that UREs influence a student's education and to evaluate the outcomes that have been reported for URE participants. Appropriate studies, which include matched samples or similar controls, would facilitate research on the ways that UREs benefit students, enabling both education researchers and implementers of UREs to determine optimal features for program design and giving the community a more robust understanding of how UREs work.
|
From page 219... ...
While these evaluations are not designed to be research studies and often have small sample sizes, they may contain information that could be useful to those initiating new URE programs and those refining UREs. Increasing access to these evaluations and to the accumulated experience of the program providers may enable URE designers and implementers to build upon knowledge gained from earlier UREs.
|
From page 220... ...
, and available resources. Disciplinary societies and other national groups, such as those focused on improving pedagogy, can play important roles in 1 Personal knowledge of Janet Branchaw, member of the Committee on Strengthening R esearch Experiences for Undergraduate STEM Students.
|
From page 221... ...
CURRENT OFFERINGS Conclusion 6: Data at the institutional, state, or national levels on the number and type of UREs offered, or who participates in UREs overall or at specific types of institutions, have not been collected systematically. Although the committee found that some individual institutions track at least some of this type of information, we were unable to determine how common it is to do so or what specific information is most often gathered.
|
From page 222... ...
An integrated institutional system for research opportunities could facilitate the creation of tiered research experiences that allow students to progress in skills and responsibility and create support structures for students, providing, for example, seminars in communications, safety, and ethics for undergraduate researchers. Institutions could also use these data to measure the impact of UREs on student outcomes, such as student success rates in introductory courses, retention in STEM degree programs, and completion of STEM degrees.
|
From page 223... ...
when offerng UREs so that they align with their institution's mission i and priorities; • Consider whether current UREs are both accessible and welcom ing to students from various subpopulations across campus (e.g., historically underrepresented students, first generation college students, those with disabilities, non-STEM majors, prospective indergarten-through-12th-grade teachers) ; and k • Gather and analyze data on the types of UREs offered and the stu dents who participate, making this information widely available to the campus community and using it to make evidence-based deci sions about improving opportunities for URE participation.
|
From page 224... ...
. Engagement in quality mentored research experiences has been linked to self-reported gains in research skills and productivity as well as retention in STEM (see Chapter 5)
|
From page 225... ...
Recommendation 6: Administrators and faculty at colleges and universities should ensure that all who mentor undergraduates in research experiences (this includes faculty, instructors, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and undergraduates serving as peer mentors) have access to appropriate professional development opportunities to help them grow and succeed in this role.
|
From page 226... ...
Departments, institutions, and individual faculty members influence the precise nature of UREs in multiple ways and at multiple levels. The physical resources available, including laboratories, field stations, and engineering design studios and testing facilities, make a difference, as does the ability to access resources in the surrounding community (including other parts of the campus)
|
From page 227... ...
.5 Recommendation 7: Administrators and faculty at all types of colleges and universities should work together within and, where feasible, across institutions to create a culture that supports the development of evidence-based, iterative, and continuous refinement of UREs, in an effort to improve student learning outcomes and overall academic success. This should include the development, evaluation, and revision of policies and practices designed to create a culture supportive of the participation of faculty and other mentors in effective UREs.
|
From page 228... ...
In g addition, professional development opportunities specifically designed to help improve the pedagogical and mentoring skills of instructional staff in using evidence-based practices can be important for a supportive learning culture. Recommendation 8: Administrators and faculty at all types of colleges and universities should work to develop strong and sustainable partnerships within and between institutions and with educational and professional societies for the purpose of sharing resources to facilitate the creation of sustainable URE programs.
|
From page 229... ...
For those institutions that have not yet established URE programs or are at the beginning phases of establishing one, mechanisms for achieving success and sustainability may include increased institutional ownership of programs of undergraduate research, development of a broad range of programs of different types and funding structures, formation of undergraduate research offices or repurposing some of the responsibilities and activities of those which already exist, and engagement in community promotion and dissemination of student accomplishments (e.g., student symposia, support for undergraduate student travel to give presentations at professional meetings)
|
From page 230... ...
. Cultur ally diverse undergraduate researchers' academic outcomes and perceptions of their research mentoring relationships.
|
From page 231... ...
. Faculty perspectives on developing and teaching course-based undergraduate research experiences.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.