1. What do students gain by doing research?
????????????

2. What Is Research? Brainstorm:
Think of different ways to define “Research”.
Write down at least three different definitions of Research.
Pair up with someone to choose the best ONE of your six-plus definitions.
Share your definitions with the group, one at a time in sequence.

3. What do we want students to gain from their research experience?
What do they actually gain?
Indirect assessments
Direct assessments

4. Research Benefits: Faculty Response
Learning a topic in depth
Ability to work and think independently
Ability to read scientific literature
Oral and written communication
Problem solving skills
Appreciation of science
Practical application of course work
From Lopatto, 2003

5. Research Benefits: Student Response
Enhancement of credentials
Clarification of career path
Understanding the research process
Learning a topic in depth
Relationship with faculty member
Learning to work independently
Learning laboratory techniques
From Lopatto, 2003

6. Direct and Indirect Assessment
Direct = direct observation of the objective
Indirect = indirect measure of the objective (e. g. subjective report, retention)

7. Indirect Assessments of Learning

8. Student Retention: Method

9. Indirect Assessment Summary
Students participating in research:
Have lower attrition rates
Are more likely to pursue further education
Are more satisfied with their education
Report greater increases in a variety of cognitive and personal domains

10. Direct assessments of learnng
Critical thinking and reasoning in science majors.
Analysis of papers.
Critical Thinking and Reasoning – Method
For nursing and chemistry/engineering, those engaged in research showed greater increase in critical thinking

11. Questions ??
Which aspects of the research experience are most crucial?
What makes the difference between successful and unsuccessful programs?

12. I. How is the world changing?

13. Forces changing skill demands
Automation
Globalization
Workplace change
Demographic change
Personal risk and responsibility

14. Automation

15. Globalization

16. Workplace change

17. Demographic change

18. Personal risk and responsibility

19. II. What kind of knowledge and skills will young people need?

20. More important in the 21st Century
Postsecondary education and training
Academic knowledge and skills
Practical literacies: The ability to use knowledge of math, English, science, civics etc. to meet real-world challenges.
Broader competencies: Critical thinking and problem solving, communications and collaboration, creativity, self-sufficiency etc.

21. Broad Competencies: Which are most critical? The 3 C’s!
Critical thinking and problem solving
Labor economists Levy & Murnane call it “expert thinking”
Communication/Collaboration
Levy and Murnane call it “complex communications”
Creativity

22. Critical Thinking & Problem Solving: Require deep content knowledge
Cognitive scientists used to believe that “thinking skills” could be taught directly and then applied to any situation.
Now they believe that’s wrong. Critical thinking is not a generic skill, but rather tied closely to contextual knowledge—deep understanding of the topic in question.
What is “deep knowledge”? Getting below the surface:
WHATs: Factual knowledge about the field, and
WHYs & HOWs: How those facts fit together, how and why things are the way they are, and how things work the way they do.

23. Communication & Collaboration: What are the most critical sub-skills?
Source: Conference Board. (2006, October). Are they really ready to work? New York: Author. (pp , Tables 6-8)

24. CREATIVITY

25. III. Implications