ERIC Number: EJ1323457
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022-Jan
Pages: 11
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0092-055X
EISSN: N/A
Gaining Confidence, Experience, and Knowledge as Researchers among Undergraduate Sociology Students
Medley-Rath, Stephanie; Morgan, Rebekah
Teaching Sociology, v50 n1 p28-38 Jan 2022
Advanced undergraduate students struggle with executing complete research projects that involve data collection and analysis. Research indicates that engaging in undergraduate research is a high-impact practice. The American Sociological Association recommends that sociology majors engage in research beyond their research methods and statistics courses. We used a pre-/post-assessment model across three semesters in all upper-level undergraduate sociology courses at our institution. The assessment measured confidence, knowledge, and experience with research methods. Fifty-eight students completed at least one pre-/post-assessment pair. Of those, 27 students completed two pre-/post-assessments. No students completed three pre-/post-assessments. We find that experience and confidence had statistically significant increases at each survey point. Knowledge increased but was statistically significant for only two groups: the full sample on the first post-assessment (N = 58) and the students with two assessment pairs on their second post-assessment (N = 27) who participated across two semesters.
Descriptors: Undergraduate Students, Student Research, Researchers, Self Efficacy, Student Attitudes, Sociology, Majors (Students), Pretests Posttests, Knowledge Level, Teaching Methods, Learning Processes, Student Characteristics
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A