Developing Research Skills Across the Undergraduate Curriculum

Abstract

Founded in 1962, the Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA) is a consortium of 13 private liberal arts colleges in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The colleges of the GLCA approach liberal arts learning as an extended engagement with knowledge and lived experience that reaches beyond the notion that education is about the acquisition of practical skills for employment or career advancement. Liberal arts education celebrates the value of learning, nurturing a sense of wonder while developing in students the capacity for inquiry, critical thinking and analysis, and creative expression needed to ask and pursue interesting questions and to share newly acquired knowledge within and beyond the academic community.There is a conviction within the schools of the GLCA that Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities (URSCA) and other experiential learning opportunities are especially effective vehicles for preparing students to be creative problem finders and problem solvers. With variations in program implementation, all GLCA campuses have committed significant resources to the design of learning environments that support students as they develop expertise with the cycle of "inquire-research-publish." A significant expression of this conviction at several GLCA schools is the requirement that all students complete a senior project ("capstone"). Typically completed in the student' s major, the senior project has the essential hallmarks of a mentored undergraduate experience: finding a question, acquiring and applying disciplinary knowledge and methods, working independently with responsibility for the project' s design, and communicating the project' s results. These experiences provide the benefits associated with

Undergraduate research in nursing and health sciences: Curriculum design from first principles

“…[30] The research process includes developing the capacity to ask investigative questions, apply an appropriate methodology and disseminate findings to a wider student, scientific, clinical or patient population. [31] Innovative curriculum for engaging first year health science students have involved active learning and team-based approaches to increase student satisfaction with learning research methodologies. [30,32] Working in teams and collaborating could also increase first year sense of belonging and inclusiveness, in addition to fostering collaborative working across multiple disciplines.…”

“…With the exponential growth of information and digital technologies, undergraduate pedagogical ideals have shifted away from instilling a body of discipline-specific knowledge with students, towards a need to prepare students to become creative problem solvers in continuously changing, evolving environments. [31] Gray et al [31] report on an institution policy to shift students from knowledge consumers to knowledge producers throughout their curriculum by instilling students with a 'inquire-research-publish' cycle of learning. The scaffolds required to prepare students for this cycle was extensive and embedded within the whole course curricula.…”

An examination of undergraduates’ perceptions on faculty members’ and institutional support and its effects on their appreciation of scientific skills and research endeavors

“…Goodwin et al , 2004; Hupcey, 1998), there are other factors that deserve more attention such as faculty members’ performance (Escamilla, 2015; Estrada-Hollenbeck et al , 2012; Harrison et al , 2011), the epistemic communities (Ghee et al , 2016; Rand, 2016; Savedra et al , 2015), academic mentors (Aikens et al , 2016; Ream et al , 2014; Urquhart et al , 2016) and peers’ influence (Gregoric and Wilson, 2015; Toven-Lindsey et al , 2015). Thus, the current body of literature suggests undergraduates’ interest in conducting research is primarily associated to both faculty members’ performance and their exposition to research activities over college experience (Gray et al , 2015).…”

The Value of Collaborative Research Before Independent Research in Undergraduate Music Education

“…I believe that carefully chosen, well-designed daily research activities were partly responsible for students’ positive involvement and their success in developing research skills. Students frequently commented on the value and importance of the research in which we engaged (Cuthbert et al, 2012; Gray et al, 2015) and noted the connection between advocacy and research (Kruse & Taylor, 2012).…”

“…The program included “a multidisciplinary course at the junior level to provide students with the best practices necessary to properly conduct undergraduate research” (p. 23). Gray, Coates, Fraser, and Pierce (2015) described efforts among 13 undergraduate institutions to incorporate research into the curricula. At one school, students took prerequisite courses to scaffold the writing, speaking, and critical thinking skills they would need for their senior project.…”