Undergraduate Research Experiences for STEM Students Successes, Challenges, and Opportunities (2017) / Chapter Skim
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3 Undergraduate Research Experiences in the Larger System of Higher Education: A Conceptual Framework
3 Undergraduate Research Experiences in the Larger System of Higher Education: A Conceptual Framework
Pages 69-96
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The second part characterizes the multiple systemic factors of the higher education landscape and how UREs are situated within that context. The chapter begins with a review of the goals for student outcomes that have been associated with UREs.
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Synthesizing across the literature and based upon the committee's experience, we identified the primary goals for UREs to include developing and supporting students' identities as researchers, increasing student knowledge of STEM content, increasing feelings of belonging in STEM, improving the understanding of the research enterprise, promoting greater ability to engage with STEM issues they will face as citizens, developing academic skills and strategies, increasing student persistence in STEM fields, and guiding student decisions about STEM courses and careers (Blockus, 2016; Dolan, 2016; Pfund, 2016)
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and the types of INCREASE PARTICIPATION & RETENTION OF STEM STUDENTS Participation in STEM courses (for nonmajors) Retention in STEM major Continued enrollment and/or graduation/degree completion Enrollment in graduate education Confirmation/clarification of career path Develop STEM literacy PROMOTE STEM DISCIPLINARY KNOWLEDGE & PRACTICES Learn content information Utilize disciplinary research practices: • Ask questions and define problems Develop skills/techniques • Develop and use models Understand concepts/research questions • Plan and carry out investigations Know importance of iteration • Analyze and interpret data Appreciate value of teamwork • Use mathematics and computational thinking Reflect on one's work • Construct explanations and design solutions • Engage in argumentation from evidence • Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information INTEGRATE STUDENTS INTO STEM CULTURE Increase interest in STEM field Promote agency and develop STEM identity Increase ownership of project Become enculturated or socialized into STEM community Commit to the discipline Act professionally Perform work as collaborative member of team Develop a sense of belonging/inclusion Recognize and overcome stereotype threat FIGURE 3-1 Goals for students participating in UREs.
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For example, an overarching goal of student participation in UREs, as part of an undergraduate's overall STEM learning experience, could include increasing conceptual understanding of relevant disciplinary knowledge, to learn to conduct an investigation, and to develop "literacy" for STEM. That is, the goal might not always be to persist in a STEM discipline but to be an informed citizen and a savvy consumer of scientific information in order to know how to make reasonable conclusions and arguments based on the strength of evidence.
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Often, new ideas have a fleeting trajectory, and the pre-existing ideas students bring to research experiences (and STEM courses) have been used and refined over multiple experiences.
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. Integrate Students into STEM Culture In addition to promoting STEM disciplinary knowledge and practices, research experiences are intended to promote a sense of agency and identity as a STEM research professional by engaging students in the work and situating them in the disciplinary context.
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Substantial research illustrates that students often feel that the STEM disciplinary topics they encounter in classes are inaccessible and irrelevant to their lives (Barr et al., 2010)
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To follow up on our discussion of goals for students in the previous section (increasing retention and persistence in STEM, promoting STEM disciplinary knowledge and practices, and integrating students into STEM culture) , the committee drew on the robust research base on how to support students' learning in STEM and mapped these goals to the common elements of UREs.
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Make STEM Research Accessible and Relevant UREs can help students recognize the relevance of their STEM courses by situating the investigation in the context of a personally relevant, con
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UREs can make STEM disciplinary knowledge accessible by helping students build on their existing ideas. It is not sufficient for URE instructors or mentors to articulate accurate ideas and expect students to incorporate them into their understanding of the field.
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Linn's (2006) knowledge integration framework calls for engaging students in distinguishing between their existing ideas and new ideas.
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. To assess student ability to investigate research dilemmas autonomously, designers can examine the progress students make in UREs as reflected in the products they create, such as research reports or posters for meetings.
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. Encouraging students to make their thinking visible both when they generate explanations and when they revise them can promote knowledge integration.
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A discussion of each of these three systemic factors and their impacts on UREs follows. National and State Policy As highlighted in Chapter 1, there have been many calls for reform ocused on making undergraduate STEM education "more practical, relf evant, engaging, and grounded in research on how people learn" (Laursen et al., 2010, p.
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An external review conducted by Russell and colleagues (2007) of NSF's funding for undergraduate research suggested that engaging students in undergraduate research was associated
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NSF also has a portfolio dedicated to supporting UREs, called Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) that provides funding for programs and projects that encourage active research participation by undergraduate students.4 Over the years, REU has experienced increases in both the number of awards granted each year and the amount of money being awarded.
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Federal and state policy, including the length of time that individual grants for UREs are awarded, and the funding priorities of major foundations affect the kinds of undergraduate research that are offered at colleges and universities nationally. A large problem is nonrenewable fund ing that is available to launch and start UREs.
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Institutional support for UREs may be less common in community colleges than at small liberal arts colleges and research-intensive universities.
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Decades-long partnerships between predominantly white instiutions and t historically black colleges and universities through undergraduate research programs are one example of such partnerships (Louis et al., 2015)
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Societies of STEM research professionals traditionally have served as a platform for leaders and members from their respective STEM fields and subspecialties to present their research and to discuss challenges and opportunities in their field. These meetings provide opportunities for professional development and provide networking oppor tunities among members at regional and national levels.
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SUMMARY The goals for students participating in UREs are to increase retention/ participation in STEM, promote STEM disciplinary knowledge and practices, and integrate students into STEM culture. These goals, coupled with the design principles -- make STEM research accessible, help students learn from each other, make thinking visible, and promote autonomy -- can set the stage for a robust experience that can help students generate deeper learning.
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. Strengthening Research Experiences for Undergraduate STEM Students: The Co-Curricular Model of the Research Experience.
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Paper commissioned for the Committee on Strengthening Re search Experiences for Undergraduate STEM Students. Board on Science Education, Divi sion of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education.
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. A broadly implementable research course in phage discovery and genomics for first-year undergraduate students.
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. Designing computer learning environments for engineering and computer science: The Scaffolded Knowledge Integration framework.
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. Discipline-Based Education Research: Understanding and Improving Learning in Undergraduate Science and Engineering.
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Paper commissioned for the Committee on Strengthening Research Experi ncese for Undergraduate STEM Students. Board on Science Education, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education.
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96 UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH EXPERIENCES FOR STEM STUDENTS Weinstein, C.E., Husman, J., and Dierking, D.R.
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