Mentorship of undergraduate research experiences: Best practices, learning goals, and an assessment rubric.

Abstract

Student engagement in research is a principle of quality undergraduate psychology education. Research experiences can take many forms, but they all should ideally lead students to achieve American Psychological Association (APA) undergraduate major goals and prepare them for the workforce and graduate study. Therefore, research mentors should ensure high-quality research experiences that yield positive outcomes. There is expert consensus on what constitutes best practices in mentoring undergraduate research experiences and quasiexperimental evidence that research experiences are associated with positive student outcomes. However, researchers have not directly established a relationship between mentorship best practices and student outcomes, nor have they aligned outcomes with APA undergraduate major goals. The absence of such research is attributable to the lack of a common outcome measure and the small number of students who engage in research at single institutions. To facilitate assessment and research on best practices, mentors require a common measure of learning that is specific to undergraduate psychology research. Thus, the current paper proposes a new analytic rubric that synthesizes best practices in mentorship and the APA undergraduate major goals. The rubric's design will allow for assessment of APA undergraduate major goals related to research. In addition, the rubric could become the foundational element in a national assessment effort to determine the impact of varied research experiences and to evaluate the efficacy of mentorship best practices.

A structured rubric for evaluating the many systemic variables that can contribute to parent–child contact problems (PCCP)

“…Rubrics are quite common in psychology, although seldom referenced in the family law literature specifically. They have been proposed as a means of standardizing and improving editorial peer review (Howard et al, 2021), guiding student research efforts (Boysen et al, 2020), and assessing new child welfare workers' competence (Havig et al, 2020). Educators and educational psychologists have established rubrics to standardize classroom observations (Allison et al, 2022), to conduct reading assessments (Roduta‐Roberts et al, 2022), and for the identification of at‐risk students (Burkhardt et al, 2020).…”

Methods of engaging with psychology’s best students: A survey of teachers at 4-year colleges and universities.

“…The methods teachers use to engage their best students are likely to include high-impact educational practices that are known to produce positive outcomes (Kuh, 2008; Kuh et al, 2017). Examples of high-impact practices commonly used in psychology include undergraduate research, field experiences, and capstone courses (Boysen et al, 2020; Christopher et al, 2020; Kretchmar, 2001; Landrum et al, 2003; Ruscio et al, 2001), and these are exactly the types of activities that attract the best students (Martin, 2015). The methods that teachers use to facilitate high-impact practices should also benefit students.…”

Desarrollo de competencia investigativa de estudiantes universitarios de ingeniería en proceso de titulación

“…Así, por ejemplo, se recomienda que se consideren como propósitos de esta formación en investigación el desarrollo de: competencias investigativas, no sólo habilidades concretas; la ética de la investigación; el espíritu de equipo y la colegialidad; la identidad profesional; la difusión de resultados; la investigación de campo; la formación en técnicas avanzadas [23][24]. Del mismo modo, se aconseja que la tutoría sea planificada mucho antes de que inicie la experiencia de investigación; que contribuya a la progresiva independencia, motivación y adecuación; mantener reuniones periódicas, brindando tutorías personalizadas y proporcionando retroalimentación [25]. Así también [26], como estrategias generales de tutoría, recogen la de desarrollo de proyectos, la de desarrollar la investigación en equipos [27]; la de las co-autorías en las publicaciones, las subvenciones a los proyectos y publicaciones de los estudiantes, entre otras.…”