Undergraduate Teaching in Research Integrity

Abstract

The National Research Council’s BIO2010 report calls for modification of current undergraduate science curricula in order to nurture the “excitement of biology” and hone students’ natural curiosity, and the National Academies of Sciences’ Adviser, Teacher, Role Model, Friend emphasizes the struggles of students in science and engineering to build relationships with faculty and acquire mentors. Increasingly more undergraduate courses seek educational outcomes that foster such “unconventional” skills as moral reasoning, near-peer mentoring, and critical understanding of social values, which are also recognized in the APS/ACDP List of Professional Skills for Physiologists and Trainees. At Vanderbilt University, distinct courses and curricular activities aspire to teach undergraduate students professional ethics and research integrity, responding in part to ongoing research that has shown new graduate students exposed to scientific research as undergraduates to be unfamiliar with the standards of Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) promoted by of the Office of Research Integrity. Through challenge-based learning modules that utilize the How People Learn cognitive theory, research integrity courses offered by the Center for Medicine, Health and Society address professional ethics, RCR and the scientific method from an interdisciplinary perspective aimed at developing students’ moral reasoning skills and critical thinking abilities regardless of their educational background. These courses are complemented by activities in other programs, such as professional ethics modules within the VaNTH Engineering Research Center. These initiatives nurture students’ ability to use moral reasoning to understand professional ethical responsibilities as they train to become scientists.