What do students gain by doing research?

1. What do students gain by doing research? Dr. Linda Rueckert Department of Psychology Northeastern Illinois University

2. What do we want students to gain from their research experience? • What do they actually gain? • Indirect assessments • Direct assessments

3. Research Benefits: Faculty Response • Learning a topic in depth • Ability to work and think independently • Ability to read scientific literature • Oral and written communication • Problem solving skills • Appreciation of science • Practical application of course work • From Lopatto, 2003

4. Research Benefits: Student Response • Enhancement of credentials • Clarification of career path • Understanding the research process • Learning a topic in depth • Relationship with faculty member • Learning to work independently • Learning laboratory techniques • From Lopatto, 2003

5. Direct and Indirect Assessment • Direct = direct observation of the objective • Indirect = indirect measure of the objective (e. g. subjective report, retention)

6. Objective Indirect Assessment Direct Assessment Ability to write a research report. Do you feel your ability to write a research report has been enhanced by your research experience? Write a research report. Ability to use computer software to analyze data. Rate, on a scale of 1 to 5, your ability to use SPSS to analyze data. Enter this data and use SPSS to determine whether the two groups differ significantly.

7. Indirect Assessments of Learning • Nagda et al. U. of Michigan minority retention study • Bauer & Bennet, U. of Delaware alumni survey • NEIU Capstone survey

8. Student Retention: Method • UROP program designed to increase minority student retention. • 613 freshmen and sophomores compared to a randomly-assigned matched control group. • Nagda et al., 1998

9. Student Retention: Results • Significantly lower attrition for African-American and White UROP students, compared to matched controls. • No significant effect for Latino students. • UROP made a bigger difference for students with low GPA. • UROP made a bigger difference for sophomores than for freshmen.

10. UROP: Other Results • UROP students had higher GPA’s • UROP students were more likely to pursue graduate education • UROP students were more likely to utilize faculty for job recommendations • Underrepresented minorities participating in UROP felt more supported by the University

11. Alumni Perceptions: Method • Compared alumni who participated in their URP program , those who had other research experience, and those with no research experience. • GPA used as co-variate • Major, gender, honors experience and graduation year were additional indep. vars. • Bauer & Bennett, 2003

12. Alumni Perceptions: Results for Skills and Abilities • URP > other research > no research for: • Science, math, logic, & problem solving • Literature, language, and mastery of contexts • Personal initiative and communication • No group differences in Personal and social skills • No effects of gender or major

13. Alumni Perceptions: Other Results • Those who participated in research were more likely to pursue a graduate degree, and were twice as likely to pursue a Ph.D. • They were more likely to be employed in a career related to their field of study. • They reported greater satisfaction with their overall undergraduate experience.

14. NEIU Psychology Capstones • Independent study research project • Field experience • Enhanced upper-level class

18. Indirect Assessment Summary • Students participating in research: • Have lower attrition rates • Are more likely to pursue further education • Are more satisfied with their education • Report greater increases in a variety of cognitive and personal domains

19. Direct assessments of learnng • Bauer, U. of Delaware, critical thinking and reasoning in science majors. • Northeastern Illinois University analysis of capstone papers.

20. Critical Thinking and Reasoning - Method • 4 year longitudinal study • 266 science majors • Watson Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (WGCTA) • Reasoning About Current Issues (RCI) • Examined changes in these tests as a function of major and amount of research experience • Bauer, 2002

21. Critical Thinking and Reasoning - Results • Those engaged in more research showed a greater increase in Reasoning About Current Issues • For sci/math/nursing and chemistry/engineering, those engaged in research showed greater increase in critical thinking • For psych/other those engaged in research showed a decrease in critical thinking

22. NEIU capstone analyses • Students do independent research, field experience, or enhanced class as capstone project. • All are required to write a final APA-style paper.

23. Content Theoretical basis Breadth and depth Creativity Design Statistics Conclusions Relate to intro. Broader implications Style Flow Spelling & grammar Clarity APA format Capstone scoring rubric

24. Capstone scores for content and style

25. Capstone scores on content subscales

26. Conclusions • Indirect measures strongly suggest students feel they learn a great deal from their research experience. • Direct measures of learning show similar results, but more work needs to be done.

27. Questions for Further Study • Can the results obtained in large-scale undergraduate research programs generalize to smaller-scale projects? • Which aspects of the research experience are most crucial? • What makes the difference between successful and unsuccessful programs?