Effects of an undergraduate research course on cognitive development

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a research methods course on undergraduate nursing students' cognitive development, or reflective judgment, level. The sample was comprised of 50 volunteer, female senior nursing students at a public Western university; half were enrolled in a research course and half served as controls. A cognitive development measure, Reflective Judgment Interview (RJI), was administered to both groups prior to and after the course. Data were analyzed for baseline levels of reflective judgment and by two-way repeated measures ANOVA to determine whether there were significant differences in pre-post reflective judgment scores between experimental and control groups. Baseline cognitive development levels were in the middle ranges of the seven-stage Reflective Judgment Model (RJM). No significant differences in reflective judgment level were found. Statistically significant differences between groups were found on one component of the reflective judgment measure, suggesting a positive growth trend that may have resulted from the experimental intervention.