New Directions for
Higher Education
Betsy O. Barefoot
Jillian L. Kinzie
CO-EDITORS
Number 169 • Spring 2015
Jossey-Bass
San Francisco
ENHANCING AND EXPANDING UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH: A SYSTEMS APPROACH
Mitchell Malachowski, Jeffrey M. Osborn, Kerry K. Karukstis,
Elizabeth L. Ambos
New Directions for Higher Education, no. 169
Betsy O. Barefoot and Jillian L. Kinzie, Co-editors
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Undergraduate research has been shown to be one of the high-impact practices that lead to substantial impacts on students’ cognitive and affective development in college. It addresses much of what we believe is important in education, as undergraduate research helps develop critical thinking skills and problem-solving abilities; it also improves retention, student success, graduation rates, and postgraduation achievement. Although the positive outcomes of undergraduate research are now well documented, its practice is still far from universal. Why is that the case? Some of the reasons are cultural or pedagogical, including undergraduate research not being part of the traditions of some disciplines or it not fitting into the curriculum in obvious ways. Other reasons are more practical, such as the challenges of gathering resources to support this activity or faculty issues including how undergraduate research counts in workload, and the rank and tenure process. And, of course, there needs to be institutional buy-in at a level that allows for the meaningful engagement of all the participants.
Despite the challenges, there are now many success stories from campuses that have institutionalized undergraduate research. We have been involved with many colleges/universities over the years that have moved to a level of undergraduate research that has led to deep and transformative changes in the campus practices and culture. In this volume, many of those success stories are described by the very practitioners who have made them happen. Six state systems and private/public consortia with whom we have worked over the past five years describe their journeys to harness the power of the collectives to foster the institutionalization of undergraduate research at campuses across the systems/consortia. Their experiences highlight many of the issues that others need to consider as they move toward teacher–scholar and student-as-scholar models. Their institutional commitments to undergraduate research have led to enriched curricula and more creative and dynamic learning environments. At the system/consortium level, these strategic efforts have generated opportunities for meaningful cross-campus discussions on curricula and pedagogy, fostered research collaborations among departments and campuses, and enhanced interdisciplinary activities. We discuss the model of change that systems/consortia have used to move to this new paradigm and consider ways to apply these models to other large-scale initiatives. Enjoy.
This project would not have been possible without the support of the National Science Foundation's Division of Undergraduate Education (NSF-DUE Awards #0920275, #0920286).
Mitchell Malachowski
Jeffrey M. Osborn
Kerry K. Karukstis
Elizabeth L. Ambos
Editors