A Process for Defining and Validating Learning Competencies for Course‐based Undergraduate Research Experiences in a Biochemistry Laboratory Course

Abstract

There is a move in science education to provide students with more Course‐based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs). As CUREs begin to be implemented, their impact on student learning needs to be thoroughly evaluated. Thus far, educational research on CUREs has mainly utilized generalized surveys, rubrics, and perception instruments to assess students' technical performance and laboratory experiences; with a dearth of research focusing on the assessment of the scientific research attributes and behaviors that these courses are expected to develop in students. The goal of this study was to design a process for the development and validation of a taxonomy of scientific research abilities that students could acquire during a novel biochemistry CURE laboratory, where students predict and evaluate hypotheses for the function of proteins that have a known structure, but no confirmed function. Towards this goal, the following research questions were addressed: 1) which scientific research abilities are key to the competent performance of the biochemistry CURE laboratory? and 2) what educational research process could be developed to identify these scientific research abilities to enable the construction of the taxonomy? To address these questions, data was collected at six institutions from instructors who had participated in the development of the lab teaching materials. The study was framed by the Concept‐Reasoning‐Mode of Representation (CRM) model and focused on the scientific reasoning taking place with the various concepts and representations, either presented or generated as part of each lab. The process included the collection of three types of data: content analysis of the lab protocols to identify concepts and representations, a faculty survey to determine how experts reason with the different concepts and representations of relevance to the lab, and faculty interviews to probe deeper into the nature of students' research experiences and abilities that may be encountered during the performance of the laboratory. Analysis of the data allowed for triangulation and identification of items in common across the data sources which, in turn, permitted identification of student competencies acquired from the CUREs. Proposed ability statements were validated by surveying the faculty members about their importance and whether they expected students to acquire such abilities during the lab. The process proved effective for the identification of research abilities that in the future could be used to develop a taxonomy of student learning for biochemistry CURE laboratories. This taxonomy will be used to inform further curriculum development, including student assessment and more carefully targeted teaching and learning activities. Finally, the process shows potential for application to other lab courses across institutions where the goal is to develop students' abilities to think and perform like a research scientist.Support or Funding InformationThis work was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) grant #1503798. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.