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Design elements of a high enrollment course‐based undergraduate research experience may lead to inaccurate student conceptions about scientific research
Author(s) -
Cooper Katelyn M.,
Wassef Cyril,
Brownell Sara E.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.30.1_supplement.665.9
Subject(s) - relevance (law) , curriculum , set (abstract data type) , mathematics education , psychology , undergraduate research , engineering ethics , medical education , pedagogy , medicine , computer science , engineering , political science , law , programming language
National calls for more broadly integrating research into the undergraduate curriculum have sparked the development of course‐based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs). In a CURE, students engage in the process of research in a formal lab course by exploring a question with an unknown answer that has relevance to the broader community. As opposed to independent research experiences, CUREs give a greater number of students the opportunity to do science. We present our analysis of the student outcomes of an innovative CURE curriculum focused on the characterization of single point mutations in p53, a tumor suppressor gene that is mutated in over 50% of human cancers. Using a set of open‐ended written prompts that were administered at the beginning and end of the course, we found that the course shifts student conceptions of what it means to think like a scientist from novice to more expert‐like. We further explored student conceptions about aspects of scientific research, and surprisingly found that while some students gained a more sophisticated understanding of scientific research, other students exhibited inaccurate conceptions about scientific research that seemed to stem from the course design. These data indicate that this course‐embedded research experience largely has a positive impact on the development of students’ conceptions and practice of scientific thinking. However specific design aspects of the course may hinder student conceptions about scientific research and need to be further explored.