Undergraduate Research Methods Course Research Articles

Exploring Open Education Pedagogy in Research Methods Classrooms: Diversifying Methods

The benefits of open educational practices that invite students to collaborate and interactively create knowledge are well known. Despite this, it remains underutilized for teaching in research methods classrooms. This article presents a framework for using open pedagogy in undergraduate research methods courses. Drawing upon the knowledge authors acquired from the Open Educational Practices certificate program, this article outlines the development and application of a renewable assignment for research methods, and provides a critical reflection of the students’ experiences. The assignment tasks students with creating an open educational resource that addresses a gap in the existing textbook. Students are asked to identify research methods in other disciplines or look for diverse representations of knowledge acquisition by a community to which they belong. The authors find that this renewable assignment helped students think critically about the potential limitations of the research methods covered in textbooks. Additionally, having students create content that will be used in future iterations of the class increased their level of enthusiasm and excitement for learning. Furthermore, this article discusses how the creation of a renewable assignment in an institutional setting with large minority student representation advanced various aspects of social justice. Particularly, how the assignment and students’ experiences in the creation of knowledge addressed redistributive (having free access to resources), recognitive (views from diverse socio-cultural groups), and representational (self-determination of marginalized peoples) justice. The article concludes with a discussion on the ways to build on the success of this pilot project.

11. ENHANCING EVIDENCE-BASED MEDICINE COMPETENCE IN THIRD-YEAR STUDENTS THROUGH BASIC SCIENCE RESEARCH TRAINING: OUTCOMES AND FINDINGS

Background: In 2022, for the first time, the Faculty of Medicine, Dai Nam University applies scientific research methods to 3rd year medical students.
 Objective: To evaluate the impact of the Medical Scientific Research Methods module on medical students’ skills and knowledge.
 Methods: This pre-test post-test pilot study used a prospective descriptive exploratory method by non-probability convenience sampling of all people participating in the course “Medical science research methods,” which was compulsory for 3rd-year medical students, Faculty of Medicine, Dai Nam University, from August to December 2022. The study invited a total of 89 students from two classes to participate. At the beginning of the course, 82 students completed the survey, while 66 students responded to the second survey after completing the course.
 Result: This study demonstrated that an undergraduate research methods course had a meaningful impact on medical literature search behaviors, understanding of medical research terminology, and confidence in evidence-based medical practice among students. However, despite these positive results, the knowledge and skills of students in evidence-based medicine were limited.
 Conclusion: The scientific research methods course has significantly improved students’ EBM knowledge and skills, albeit with some limitations. However, this study highlights the need for continued training programs and practical experience in medical research to enhance further and maintain learners’ proficiency in EBM.

Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences as a Potential CURE-All for Applied Research Training and Real-World Knowledge Acquisition

Calls have been made for higher education to offer students hands-on and experiential learning opportunities. This paper explores the development and implementation of an advanced undergraduate research methods course offered in fall 2020 and 2022. After initially conducting research on its first offering in 2020, the instructor navigated changes based on self-reflective, student, and community partner feedback. Students, agency partners, and the instructor-of-record participated in mid and end-of-semester evaluations, focus groups, interviews, and follow-up surveys during both iterations of the course with new data offering insights into course perceptions, pitfalls, and impact. Findings suggested that students had generally positive experiences in the class. The course’s applicability and relevance additionally contributed to increased student engagement and motivation. While prior literature identifies the utility of experiential learning in gaining real-world research skills, the applied criminal justice research course additionally highlights motivation and investment as defining characteristics.

Integrating Critical Content into an Undergraduate Research Methods Course to Support Student Learning Outcomes

Background Undergraduate students have reported low utility for research. Drawing from the literature about motivation and culturally relevant and responsive education, we framed psychological research methods as a social justice tool to enhance learners’ understanding of racial inequality and valuing of course content. Objective Two instructors infused critical methods content throughout their undergraduate psychological research methods courses to increase students’ perceptions of systemic racism in research, multicultural perspective taking, and motivation toward the course. Method Undergraduate students’ attitudes were measured at the beginning and end of the semester using an anonymous online survey. The critical research methods content was integrated throughout the semester. Results Effect sizes provided marginal support for increased awareness of systemic racism in research and multicultural perspective-taking. Results also indicated that students who more strongly perceived research as a social justice strategy reported greater valuing of research, and those who perceived higher value reported greater intentions to pursue research in the future. Conclusion Results provide proof of concept for critical methods content in facilitating undergraduate students’ critical awareness and engagement with psychological research methods.   Teaching Implications Teachers can utilize critical content to support students’ critical engagement and goal setting within their learning contexts.

Teaching replication through replication to solve the replication “crisis”

It may be possible to teach students in undergraduate research methods courses about replication, while simultaneously providing the discipline a means to solve what some have called a replication “crisis.” Over the span of three consecutive fall semesters, students replicated Cialdini and Schroeder’s “even a penny will help” (EPH) donation solicitation experiment. A meta-analysis of the three semesters supports the original study’s finding: a larger percentage donated in the EPH condition. However, it does not find support for no differences in contribution size; instead, the standard request generated greater donation amounts. Recommendations for utilizing methods courses for increasing replication attempts are discussed.

Student attitudes toward research in an undergraduate social science research methods course

ABSTRACT This study used a mixed-methods longitudinal design to investigate change in students’ understanding, attitudes, anxiety, perceptions of relevance, and disinterest in a required social science undergraduate research methods course across a semester. Participants were 78 undergraduates (94% women, 6% men; 92% white non-Hispanic/Latinx, M age = 25.62, SD = 7.17) at a university in the United States. Results suggest that participant attitudes toward and perceptions of research methods shifted over the course of the semester. Overall, anxiety decreased, while positive attitudes increased. However, initial perceptions and changes in perceptions varied among the three course sections. Over time, students largely recognized the course’s relevance and conveyed positive attitudes toward research and their success in overcoming the challenge of completing the course. Implications for pedagogy include the need for continued assessment of learners, development of students’ self-concept as researchers, teaching of research as a process, and connection to application.

Redesigning a Research Methods Course with Personalized, Interactive OER: A Case Study of Student Perceptions and Performance

This case study examines student learning outcomes derived from the redesign of an undergraduate child development research methods course, replacing a commercial textbook with Open Educational Resources (OER), which were remixed into interactive lessons. Using survey and exam performance data, two areas were evaluated: 1) students' experiences with the OER lessons; and (2) students' exam results from two OER sections compared to two previous commercial textbook sections taught by the same instructor. No significant differences in exam performance between the two groups were observed; however, student perceptions of the OER lessons indicated strong satisfaction.  Implications of these findings, such as OER benefits for teaching and learning, are discussed.

Decentering whiteness: Rethinking the instruction of undergraduate research methods within developmental science

AbstractMany social scientists are working to course correct the historical mistakes, abuses, and exclusionary practices of the field. To diversify who participates in developmental science, both as participants and as researchers, we argue that more attention must be paid to how we teach the science of developmental science (i.e., research methods). We propose that undergraduate research methods courses offer an opportunity to intervene on the academic pipeline and invite students of color into research through course curriculum. In this essay, we discuss guiding principles instructors should consider to transform their curriculum in the research training of undergraduate developmental scientists.

Integration of the Disaster Component into Social Work Curriculum: Teaching Undergraduate Social Work Research Methods Course during COVID-19

AbstractThis article aims to develop community-contextualised pedagogical innovations to embed disaster components into core social work curriculum through a research methods course. Professional social work education continues to lack a community-contextualised curriculum and professional training that reflects the complexities of extreme events associated with community and human service. This absence jeopardises the advancement of social work engagement in better providing humanitarian support for individuals, families and communities affected by extreme events. Through an undergraduate social work research methods course, this case study qualitatively analysed the instructor’s teaching experience, self-reflection and in-class observation. The study presents three major community-contextualised pedagogical innovations of integrating disaster components into the research methods course: public media critique, amidst-disaster community-based participation and observation and practice situation discussion. These pedagogical efforts support the students’ exploration and development of various research paradigms and strengthen their ability to connect research with practice, thus addressing the community-driven, short-term necessities and long-term development requirements. This contextualising process, which forms a community-based living laboratory, inspires instructors to integrate community-driven characteristics into their pedagogical instruments. The process illustrates a potential pedagogical framework for research methods courses, in particular, and for social work curriculum, in general.

Teaching Ethnographic Research Methods in the Time of COVID-19: Virtual Field Trips, a Web Symposium, and Public Engagement with Asian American Communities in Houston, Texas

This article presents a detailed description of how I adapted an undergraduate ethnographic research methods course to a fully online format during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on my recent experience designing and teaching a new course titled Ethnographic Research in/of Houston Asia in Fall 2020 at Rice University, I illustrate the virtual learning environment I maintained in this course through ongoing collaboration with members of the Zoroastrian, Sikh, and Chinese Buddhist communities in Houston, Texas. Specifically, this article describes how I incorporated virtual field trips and a web symposium – two activities that I organized with the support of Rice University’s Course Development Grant – into my teaching of ethnography on Zoom. Such online activities, which are by necessity intensively interactive and community-oriented, enabled the course to cultivate a deep level of public engagement that arguably would not have been possible in the pre-COVID-19 period.&nbsp

Reflexivity and Practice in COVID-19: Qualitative Analysis of Student Responses to Improvisation in Their Research Methods Course

The improvisations needed to adapt to COVID-19 teaching and learning conditions affected students and faculty alike. This study uses chaos theory and improvisation to examine an undergraduate communication research methods course that was initially delivered synchronously/face-to-face and then transitioned to asynchronous/online in March 2020. Reflective writings were collected at the end of the semester with the 25 students enrolled in the course and follow-up interviews conducted with six students. Thematic analysis revealed that available and attentive student-participant, student-student, and student-instructor communication complemented learner-centered and person-centered goals, but unavailable or inattentive communication, especially with participants and students in the research team, contributed to negative perceptions of learner-centered goals. Implications explore how communication research methods pedagogy may achieve greater available, attentive, and learner/person-oriented goals through modeling, resourcing, reflexivity, and appreciation in online and offline course delivery to enhance shifts in communication pedagogy, whether voluntarily or involuntarily initiated by faculty.

The Gender Citation Gap in Undergraduate Student Research: Evidence from the Political Science Classroom

ABSTRACTPrevious studies documented a “gender citation gap” in political science whereby women are less likely to be cited in published research and course syllabi, especially by male scholars. However, no previous study examined citation patterns among students in political science courses to determine if similar patterns are evident in their research. This article analyzes an original database of individual as well as group research assignments from an undergraduate research methods course. Our analysis indicates that male students are significantly less likely than female students to cite research published by women—whether as first authors, any of the authors, or the average percentage of authors per team. However, in a subsequent group research assignment, gender diversity had no discernible effect on group citation patterns. We discuss the implications of these findings for current pedagogical practices and the future state of the discipline.

A Comparison of Students’ Perceptions on Research Methods Pedagogy in Social-Work and Sport Management Courses

Educators often grapple with the task of teaching a research method course in a manner that would engage and sustain students’ attention throughout the semester. The pedagogical dilemma, for the most part, is connecting students’ knowledge and attitude to engage in abstract thinking in the research method course appear to be nebulous. The current study aimed to investigate students’ perceptions about ethics, values, social justice, and diversity in the research methods curriculum, which will provide frameworks for pedagogical understanding between groups. An understanding by comparing the perception of students will be useful in learning methodology for teaching research-related material on both graduate and undergraduate levels. Sixty graduate and undergraduate students from Florida A & M University were surveyed to assess their perceptions of ethics, values, social justice, and diversity in three different research method courses. The researchers used the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) to analyze the data and find the outcomes. Data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA to show comparisons between groups in the learning environments with the students in graduate and undergraduate research methods courses. The implications for addressing ethics, values, social justice, and diversity in the research methods were hypothesized.

Scientific and Medical Communication: A Guide for Effective Practice: Scott A. Mogull [Book Review]

"Scientific and Medical Communication: A Guide for Effective Practice" serves as a comprehensive resource for readers who want practical information about writing and publishing in two related academic fields. S.A. Mogull combines studies in scientific and medical communication (SMC) and interviews with journal editors, and information from journal websites to create an inclusive view of the process. Mogull's audience is novice scientific and medical researchers, so the tone and information are well suited for undergraduate and introductory graduate research methods courses. More experienced researchers may also find the volume useful as a handbook filled with reminders and checklists that their teams can use to ensure effective communication of their research. Scientific and Medical Communication is an outstanding contribution to research methods pedagogy. Mogull effectively combines scholarly research, recent examples, and personal experience to create a volume that should support the needs of students and instructors alike.

Building undergraduate STEM majors’ capacity for delivering inquiry-based mathematics and science lessons: An exploratory evaluation study

Recruiting and preparing STEM majors for teaching has become one of the major efforts at improving mathematics and science teacher quality at secondary level. One question is whether STEM majors who have not had the chance to experience active learning in mathematics and science classes as secondary students themselves know what inquiry pedagogy is. Secondly, it is unclear whether those who experienced inquiry in their college introductory discipline courses will be able to utilize the pedagogy in teaching secondary content. We address these questions through studying an undergraduate research methods course designed to improve STEM majors’ capacity for delivering inquiry-based mathematics and science lesson. Analysis of data from pre-and-post course surveys and students’ written research reports including students’ reflection on their inquiry projects suggests that offering future STEM teachers opportunities to conduct inquiry and reflect explicitly on how inquiry can be used to teach secondary content is important and beneficial.

Information Literacy for Everyone: Using Practical Strategies to Overcome ‘Fear and Loathing’ in the Undergraduate Research Methods Course

ABSTRACT 1 Because the research methods course is critical in helping students to better understand political outcomes, one would expect the subject to be of great interest to political science majors. Evidence suggests, however, that undergraduates often approach the methods class with substantial fear and generally avoid or postpone taking the class. Using data gathered over a 17-year period from 25 sections of the course conducted at two different institutions, we demonstrate that, on average, students self-report moderately strong levels of apprehension about the course, low ratings of their math skills, and the perception that the course is quite difficult. We then describe several practical strategies that we have employed to address these barriers to engagement with, and mastery of, the material – ranging from the philosophical approach to the course to specific assignments and activities for research methods classes. Based on qualitative evidence provided by end-of-semester course evaluations and a small sample of student reflections from an anonymous post-class questionnaire, the results suggest that these strategies have been successful in reaching students who initially showed debilitating anxiety or a lack of interest in the topic.

Engagement in peer review, learner-content interaction and learning outcomes

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose a reciprocal peer review approach that resembled the scholarly peer review process using the Moodle e-learning system. The authors investigated interrelations among engagement in providing peer feedback, engagement in responding to peer feedback, learner-content interaction and learning outcomes. Design/methodology/approach An experimental intervention study was designed. A total of 45 students who enroled in an undergraduate research methods course completed the assigned project. Reciprocal peer review was adopted, in which the participants provided a peer review report on a randomly assigned peer’s research proposal. Subsequently, participants revised and submitted their proposal along with a response letter that highlighted the revisions. Findings This study highlights that the engagement in providing peer feedback exerts an indirect effect on learning outcomes through learner-content interaction. Learner-content interaction fully mediates the causal relationship between engagement in providing peer feedback and learning outcomes. Practical implications Learner-content interaction fully mediates the causal relationship between engagement in providing peer feedback and learning outcomes. Thus, e-learning practitioners who engage in peer review should first construct high-quality course materials to enhance learning outcomes. Originality/value Learning outcomes can be enhanced if there is a high level of engagement in providing peer feedback among learners. However, learner-content interaction fully mediates the positive effect of engagement in providing peer feedback on learning outcomes. Furthermore, engagement in providing peer feedback will enhance the learner’s motivation to intensify his or her learning from the course material.

Teaching Undergraduates R in an Introductory Research Methods Course: A Step-by-Step Approach

The statistical computing and graphics software R, despite its many advantages, is sometimes considered too complex to be introduced to undergraduate political science majors. In this article I showed that when taught appropriately, R could be a valuable and well-received aspect of an introductory research methods course. It is important to teach R throughout the semester and take preventative measures to deal with common problems. I began with a comparison of four frequently used software in undergraduate research methods courses and a discussion of the pros and cons of teaching R. I then introduced a R sequence that I developed and implemented with success in my introductory research methods course, including example course notes, homework, and common problems and solutions, with the goal of providing research methods instructors a template to develop their own R workshops as part of an introductory political science research methods course.

The Use of Published Articles With Questionable Conclusions in a Research Methods Course

Reading and critiquing journal articles is a way in which instructors can promote learning and critical thought among students, particularly in the undergraduate research methods course. However, a...

Working With Avatars and High Schoolers to Teach Qualitative Methods to Undergraduates

Learning to conduct qualitative research is a complex endeavor. In this article, I introduce mixed reality simulations as a scaffolded learning tool to support student mastery of learning and knowing how to conduct qualitative research. Like flight simulators used to train airline pilots prior to flying an actual airplane, mixed reality simulations provide active practice opportunities to interact with avatars in order to practice newly learned skills. I discuss this in the context of my experiences using mixed reality in an undergraduate youth participatory action research methods course as a scaffold before joining research teams with high-school-aged coresearchers.