Experiences of Undergraduates and Graduate Teaching Assistants in Biology Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences

Abstract

Evidence of positive student outcomes from course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) has sparked implementation of CUREs in introductory biology laboratory courses, as one approach to boosting student engagement in research. In a CURE, students collaborate with other students and instructors on a research project, where they conduct novel scientific research that has relevance to a local or scientific community. However, previous research rarely considers that graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) often teach introductory labs. The classroom role of GTAs expands in a CURE--they no longer need to simply teach a lab class, but also to serve as research mentors. GTAs, who may be novice researchers and/or teachers, likely vary in their interest and capacity for teaching a CURE, which could impact their students' experiences. In this work, we explore undergraduate student experiences in a CURE, the barriers that GTAs face in learning to adopt evidence-based teaching practices, and the challenges and impacts of utilizing GTAs as CURE instructors. We first aimed to identify the elements of a CURE that influence students' perceptions that they are engaging in an authentic research experience. Through analyzing written reflections collected throughout a CURE, we learned that experiencing failure, in conjunction with perceiving the CURE design element of broadly relevant novel discovery, can be a powerful and productive experience that contributes to student perceptions of engaging in real scientific research. CURE instructors should therefore carefully facilitate student perceptions and experiences with failure and relevant discovery. We then explored how graduate students adopt evidence-based teaching practices in general. Through interviews, we learned that many biology graduate students place high value on evidence-based teaching. However, some struggle to adopt evidence-based practices into their teaching, due to barriers such as training, limited autonomy in the classroom, and perceptions that teaching is not valued within their graduate studies. To explore the impacts of GTA-taught CUREs, we designed a case study at a research-intensive institution, where GTAs teach CURE lab sections in the introductory biology curriculum. We used Expectancy-Value Theory, Self-Determination Theory, and the framework of essential design elements of a CURE to guide our approach to both data collection and analysis. During a single term, we: 1) interviewed GTAs and a selection of their students; 2) conducted in-class student focus groups; 3) administered multiple surveys, including both open-ended questions and the Laboratory Course Assessment Survey to measure perceptions of participating in essential CURE elements; and 4) asked students to complete