The Role of Student-Advisor Interactions in Apprenticing Undergraduate Researchers into a Scientific Community of Practice

Thiry, Heather; Laursen, Sandra L.

doi:10.1007/s10956-010-9271-2

Cited by 228 publications

(251 citation statements)

References 25 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

240

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Overwhelmingly however, findings suggest authentic opportunities to experience the practice of being a researcher are improved by the involvement of mentors (Thiry and Laursen 2011;Lopatto 2007Lopatto , 2010Kinkead 2003;Hathaway, Nagda and Gregerman 2002;Shellito et al 2001 andSabatini 1997).…”

Section: Discovery Pedagogiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Much is written about undergraduate research students' experience(s) in the natural sciences or science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects (see, e.g., Linn et al [2015]; Thiry and Laursen [2011]; Balster et al [2010]; Lopatto [2010Lopatto [ , 2007Lopatto [ , 2004; Shellito et al [2001] and Sabatini [1997]). However there are fewer discussions around undergraduate research where contexts and datasets span, or compare, the natural and social sciences (see, e.g., Jenkins [2009a, 2009b]; Taylor and Wilding [2009]; Russell, Hancock and McCullough [2007]; Kinkead [2003]; Hathaway, Nagda and Gregerman [2002]) and far fewer examples that focus solely on the social sciences (see, e.g., Kilburn, Nind and Wiles [2014]; Todd, Bannister and Clegg [2004]; Ishiyama [2002]).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mentoring is considered beneficial to STEM undergraduates because of the social relationships built within and between research group members (Thiry and Laursen 2011;Lopatto 2010), where more experienced post-graduate students are positioned as knowledgeable others. Key mentor attributes include providing project(s)-guidance, professional socialisation and careers-guidance (Thiry and Laursen 2011;Shellito et al 2001).…”

Section: Discovery Pedagogiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Key mentor attributes include providing project(s)-guidance, professional socialisation and careers-guidance (Thiry and Laursen 2011;Shellito et al 2001). Thiry and Laursen (2011) further conceptualise a, necessary, continuum between Post-print copy of article available at:…”

Section: Discovery Pedagogiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1080/13562517.2016.1183621 Published online: 11 May 2016 apprenticeship models and research-informed teaching; it enables novices to enter into legitimate communities of practice, typically as peripheral members (Thiry and Laursen 2011). In Wenger's seminal work on communities of practice (1998) he argues that practice, rather than being an antonym for theory, can be considered as a source of meaning, as community, and as learning (49).…”

Section: Learning Environment(s)mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Researching undergraduate social science research

Rand

2016

Teaching in Higher Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The experience(s) of undergraduate research students in the social sciences is under-represented in the literature in comparison to the natural sciences or science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). The strength of STEM undergraduate research learning environments is understood to be related to an apprenticeship-mode of learning supported by more experienced (post-graduate) peers, often through ongoing research projects. Studies of undergraduate research reveal that this is not typical in the social sciences, and students report facing specific challenges to the development of their identities as researchers that include fear, intellectual confusion and emotional unsettlement. This paper examines how a social science learning environment, designed as a research study itself, fostered beginning researchers communities of practice, realised a distinct mode of apprenticing based on peers' similarly peripheral community membership, and enabled students to reframe emotional unsettlement. It argues that, effectively mediated, talk can powerfully improve undergraduate social science research students' experiences.Keywords: undergraduate research, social science, researcher-identities, communities of practice, student involvement, emotion Introductory DiscussionThis study developed as a response to feedback from a group of third-year full-time undergraduate students in an English university who, on commencing their capstone dissertation module, reported frustration and disappointment with the summative assessment grades from an Introduction to Research Methods module in their second year of study. This paper illuminates how beginning researchers communities of practice can improve social science undergraduate pedagogy. It explores the role of emotion(s), the Post-print copy of article available at:http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10. 1080/13562517.2016.1183621 Published online: 11 May 2016 significance of talk and a unique mode of apprenticing possible in undergraduate social science research. It argues that creating opportunities for 'student involvement' (Astin 1999) can support social science undergraduates to make connections into and from their researcher-identities.The students were studying a social science discipline: Education Studies.Research is an integral part of the programme, with modules drawing on, and examining, research in each of the three years. Similarly, positioning students as researchers is embedded within the programme -growing from tightly structured first year modules in which students gather and consider original data through interviews, Informal feedback about the second year Introduction to Research Methods module had indicated that students were frustrated with, what they perceived as, low grades in proportion to the effort they expended on the module assessment (a written report of a pilot research project). They had associated increased effort because they had worked on the assessment over an extended period of time (atypically for many, starting to write during the early we...

show abstract

Section: Discovery Pedagogiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discovery Pedagogiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discovery Pedagogiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Learning Environment(s)mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Researching undergraduate social science research

Rand

2016

Teaching in Higher Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Mentoring Within Communities of Practice

Bottoms

Pegg

Adams

et al. 2020

The Wiley International Handbook of Mentoring

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Engaging novice researchers in the process and culture of science using a “Pass‐the‐Problem” case strategy

White

Usher

2015

Biochem Molecular Bio Educ

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Undergraduates having their first research experience frequently have little idea of what to expect. Institutions offering summer research experiences attempt to address this issue through programs that introduce students to the process and culture of science. However, didactic approaches frequently bore students who prefer more interactive sessions. We describe a "Pass-the-Problem" case study approach that engages groups of students in useful discussions about the research environment they are entering. The cases presented here include keeping a thorough laboratory notebook, balancing laboratory and personal time demands, anxiety about formal presentations, unexpected federal regulatory inspection, working in a lab with limited funds, being used as a technician rather than a researcher, frustration with failed experiments, effects of promotion and tenure on laboratory atmosphere, the importance of reading the research literature, and questioning a career in science. These cases alert students to different situations they might encounter and stimulate discussion about how to deal with them. V C 2015 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 43(5):341-344, 2015.

show abstract

The Role of Student-Advisor Interactions in Apprenticing Undergraduate Researchers into a Scientific Community of Practice

Cited by 228 publications

References 25 publications

Researching undergraduate social science research

Researching undergraduate social science research

Mentoring Within Communities of Practice

Engaging novice researchers in the process and culture of science using a “Pass‐the‐Problem” case strategy

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About