This research aims to build economic research skills and stimulate students' interest in the local economy through data-based undergraduate research in entry-level economics courses. The authors developed two assignments and one student survey assessing students' learning outcomes and implemented them in two introductory-level classes from fall…

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) offer students opportunities to engage in critical thinking and problem solving. However, quantitating the impact of incorporating research into undergraduate courses on student learning and performance has been difficult since most CUREs lack a comparable traditional course as a control. To…

Formative research generates different perceptions in undergraduate students, and in order to know more about them, 80 were surveyed, and 12 Communication Science students were interviewed at a national university in Lima (Peru). The results evidence that they conceive of it as: training to conduct scientific research, curricular or…

Background: Faculty tout the value of undergraduate internships and research experience, but the long-term benefits are unclear for students pursuing different careers. Objective: We assessed the self-perceived benefits of internships and research experiences for alumni pursuing different careers, as well as how enduring these perceived benefits…

Articulating the rules, roles, and values that are expected of undergraduate researchers is important as we strive to create a more accessible path into the scientific community. Rules refer to skills required of scientists, roles refer to behaviors consistent with the expectations of a scientist, and values refer to beliefs of the scientific…

We recorded 10 undergraduate law students responding to a research task at the University of York, UK. Analysing these videos was like observing research magpies: darting ruthlessly from source to source in search of the shiniest material to determine, as quickly as possible, the 'content' of the law. These students cast their search widely, using…

This article reports results of a research study at a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) site focused on psychological research with clear applications to the real world. Two cohorts of undergraduates engaged in rigorous research projects with implications for real-world problems such as driving, homeland…

Research skills are essential for lifetime learning. Content analysis is an excellent research method to introduce and practice at the undergraduate level. Utilized by academic and industry researchers alike, content analysis involves higher order critical thinking skills for organizing and interpreting complexity. This article outlines a…

This article presents two in-class exercises designed to develop specific skill sets needed to think critically and make decisions in today's business environment. The first exercise, "Flossing your Teeth" is designed to build information literacy skills needed in the evidence-gathering phase of critical thinking. The second exercise,…

Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) were originally developed by biologists to answer the call for undergraduate curriculum reform and expose more students to authentic research experiences [Wei and Woodin. 2011. Undergraduate research experiences in biology: Alternatives to the apprenticeship model. "CBE Life Sciences…

Research self-efficacy is a key component of college students' career development. This study's purpose was to develop and begin to construct a validity argument for scores from the Sources of Research Self-Efficacy (SRSE) scale in college students. We explored validity evidence for SRSE scores from 719 undergraduate and graduate students based on…

Background: "Psychological literacy" is a set of attributes, which refer broadly to how students apply their subject-specific psychology knowledge to solving problems. However, the extent to which psychological literacy skills are "unique" to psychology as a discipline is unknown. Objective: We assessed whether students…

Information scholars, educators and librarians have grappled with defining the concept of information literacy for decades--at least as far back as the 1970's--with the most prominent common thread being as a set of skills. In pedagogy and practice, what higher education currently calls information literacy is delivered more akin to research…

The design and initial implementation of a project-based directed study course in mathematical research and communication is described. The intention of the course is to expose students to the foundation of mathematical research through inquiry-based learning. Students are asked to approach an exercise in topology as though it is an open problem.…

Little is known concerning chemistry and biochemistry majors' understanding of research and scientific inquiry. In this three-year qualitative research study, chemistry and biochemistry majors were interviewed before and after participating in a National Science Foundation-sponsored Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program at a…