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Improving Student Outcomes with an Adaptable Molecular Cloning Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience
Published on: November 15, 2024
Graduate students' teaching experiences improve their methodological research skills
David F Feldon1, James Peugh, Briana E Timmerman
1Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education and Center for the Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning-Higher Education, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4261, USA. dff2j@virginia.edu
Science (New York, N.Y.)
|August 20, 2011
Summary
Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) graduate students who teach and conduct research improve hypothesis generation and experimental design skills more than those only doing research. Teaching enhances essential scientific inquiry abilities.
Area of Science:
- Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education research.
- Graduate student professional development.
- Pedagogy in scientific training.
Background:
- STEM graduate students often prioritize research over teaching.
- Teaching provides opportunities to develop critical research skills.
- Inquiry-based teaching can refine methodological competencies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare the development of research skills in STEM graduate students with dual research and teaching roles versus those with research-only roles.
- To assess the impact of teaching responsibilities on the acquisition of scientific methodology skills.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a performance rubric to evaluate research proposals from two groups of early career STEM graduate students.
- Compared methodological skill quality at the beginning and end of an academic year.
- Employed statistical methods to control for pre-existing differences between the groups.
Main Results:
- Students engaged in both teaching and research demonstrated significantly greater improvement in generating testable hypotheses.
- The dual-role group showed significantly greater improvement in designing valid experiments compared to the research-only group.
- Improvements were statistically significant after controlling for initial skill levels.
Conclusions:
- Teaching responsibilities can substantially enhance the development of core research skills for STEM graduate students.
- Integrating teaching into graduate training may be a valuable strategy for cultivating robust scientific inquiry abilities.
- The findings challenge the traditional emphasis on research maximization alone for graduate student development.
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