ABSTRACT

Undergraduate research experiences (UREs) can improve student skills, retention, and matriculation to postgraduate study. Traditionally, UREs are available mostly in the natural and biological sciences, which have fewer minority and women majors and thus have disproportionately excluded these groups from such experiences. One effective solution is to diversify and increase course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) within the social sciences. Models are few and research is limited on the impacts of parallel social science research experiences, but both are crucial to the goals of diversifying postgraduate success. Using a survey, we retrospectively assessed, qualitatively and quantitatively, past students’ (n = 87) career and personal learning impacts and outcomes in social science CUREs. These courses led to perceived improvements in understanding research processes and ethics, self-confidence, perseverance, and collaboration. Comparing to data from natural sciences, overall impacts were similar, including the intention to complete postgraduate education among first-generation students.

摘要

本科生研究经历 (URE) 可以提高学生的技能、保留率和研究生入学资格。传统上，UREs主要在自然科学和生物科学领域提供，这些学科的少数族裔和女性专业较少，因此不成比例地将这些群体排除在此类经历之外。一种有效的解决方案是多样化并增加社会科学领域基于课程的本科生研究经验（CURE）。模型很少，对平行社会科学研究经验影响的研究也很有限，但这两者对于实现研究生成功多样化的目标都至关重要。通过一项调查，我们对过去的学生进行了定性和定量的回顾性评估（n = 87) 社会科学 CURE 中的职业和个人学习影响和成果。这些课程使人们在理解研究过程和道德、自信、毅力和协作方面有了明显的提高。与自然科学的数据相比，总体影响是相似的，包括第一代学生完成研究生教育的意愿。