Examining the Research Experiences of Undergraduate Biochemistry Students: A Case Study Approach

Undergraduate research is a high‐impact educational practice that provides students with opportunities to gain a variety of advantages. In the past 20 years, a growing body of researchers have sought to identify both the positive and negative outcomes that result from students' participation in undergraduate research. This body of work has confirmed the important role an undergraduate research experience can play in a student's education. Unfortunately, not all students who participate in undergraduate research realize these benefits. The outcome of a student's participation in undergraduate research can vary, not only between research groups but at the individual level. Many factors play a role in the experience students will have when engaging in undergraduate research. Our research focuses on the discursive elements of undergraduate students' research experiences in biochemistry. Using a case‐study approach, we investigate the norms of discourse of and between undergraduate students and their mentors while working in the laboratory. We use video‐recorded observations of student‐mentor pairs working together to identify discursive norms. We have been employing a stimulated recall interview protocol to explore how participants establish and negotiate norms during a research experience, focusing on the invisible processes by which undergraduate students learn to do research. Our approach allows us to examine the complex processes involved in a student's acculturation into the community of practice of biochemistry researchers. Using this approach, we have detected differences between the discursive norms of students and their mentors. We have also observed variation in the discourse that is constructed between distinct student‐mentor pairs. This diversity suggests that, to continue improving undergraduate research as an educational practice, research efforts should expand beyond investigation of programmatic outcomes into the fine‐grain details of students' experiences. By characterizing these discursive processes, we intend to inform and equip the future efforts of those interested in the research, design, and evaluation of undergraduate research programs. Additionally, research advisors interested in improving the experiences of their own undergraduate students may benefit from the practical mentoring strategies we will suggest based on our findings.