The Benefits of Multi-Year Research Experiences: Differences in Novice and Experienced Students’ Reported Gains from Undergraduate Research

Abstract

This mixed-methods study explores differences in novice and experienced undergraduate students’ perceptions of their cognitive, personal, and professional gains from engaging in scientific research. The study was conducted in four different undergraduate research (UR) programs at two research-extensive universities; three of these programs had a focus on the biosciences. Seventy-three entry-level and experienced student researchers participated in in-depth, semi-structured interviews and completed the quantitative Undergraduate Research Student Self-Assessment (URSSA) instrument. Interviews and surveys assessed students’ developmental outcomes from engaging in UR. Experienced students reported distinct personal, professional, and cognitive outcomes relative to their novice peers, including a more sophisticated understanding of the process of scientific research. Students also described the trajectories by which they developed not only the intellectual skills necessary to advance in science, but also the behaviors and temperament necessary to be a scientist. The findings suggest that students benefit from multi-year UR experiences. Implications for UR program design, advising practices, and funding structures are discussed.

Are Medical Students Inclined to do Research?”

“…In a research work carried out to see the contrast in the ideas between novices and experienced research students it was found that, experienced students reported distinct personal, professional, and cognitive outcomes relative to their novice peers, including a more sophisticated understanding of the process of scientific research. Students also described the trajectories by which they developed not only the intellectual skills necessary to progress in science, but also the behaviors and temperament necessary to be a scientist [17].…”

The Development and Delivery of a Multidisciplinary Research Course for First-Year International Science Students

“…By adjusting expectations, instructors were able to spend less time supporting students in understanding research articles and more time on other elements of the research process. Removing the expectation of originality reflected that first-year students can still learn a lot about research if they undergo a project in which the question is new to them, rather than to the field (Thiry, Weston, Laursen, & Hunter, 2012). …”

Challenges and opportunities for measuring student outcomes of undergraduate research

“…Thus institutions and funders seek to expand the availability of UR and reduce its cost per student. Earlier entry to UR is also desired, based on evidence that students benefit from the more extensive experience made possible by an earlier start in research [5] and that early research encourages students from firstgeneration college families and underrepresented minority groups to pursue science degrees and research careers. [1] Thus there is keen interest in developing alternatives to apprentice-model UR that can accommodate more students earlier and at lower cost-especially curricular forms that may be called "research-based courses," "course-embedded research," or "course-based undergraduate research experiences."…”

“…Evaluation studies show that URSSA items can discriminate the level of gains made by novice and more experienced student researchers, [5] identify amplified gains among students from groups underrepresented in science, [6] and show relationships of gains to students' experience of mentoring. [7] URSSA is designed as a postonly instrument because we find that students' understanding of some of the items, especially those in the important domain of "thinking like a scientist," shift as a result of UR experience-making a pre/post comparison unreliable as scale endpoints shift in meaning.…”