Graduation Research in Humanities and Social Sciences Degree Programs: Outline of a Typical Undergraduate Research Style in Japan

Culturally sustaining pedagogy may be used as an innovative theoretical framework to design an undergraduate research course to engage undergraduate students of color at predominantly white institutions. This article presents the theoretical basis for an undergraduate research course, examples of students’ experiences, and the instructors’ assessments of the course’s impact on student retention and persistence. The course presented may be used as a model for other educators to create additional courses that engage and support diverse undergraduate students in research through culturally sustaining pedagogical practices.

Reproducibility crises have arisen in psychology and other behavioral sciences, spurring efforts to ensure research findings are credible and replicable. Although reforms are occurring at professional levels in terms of new publication parameters and open science initiatives, the credibility and reproducibility of undergraduate research deserves attention. Undergraduate behavioral science research projects that rely on small convenience samples of participants, overuse hypothesis testing for drawing meaning from data, and engage in opaque statistical computing are vulnerable to producing nonreproducible findings. These vulnerabilities are reviewed, and practical recommendations for improving the credibility and reproducibility of undergraduate behavioral science research are offered.

This research study examines how undergraduate researchers conceptualize the purpose of research. Researchers distributed surveys to students who participated in a campus-wide research symposium to learn about student perceptions of research. The findings suggest that students recognize the importance of sharing scholarship and view research as a way to enhance their learning. Findings also indicate some disciplinary differences in the way students understand research and that perceptions of research may evolve as students advance through their academic careers.

The programs Minority Access in Research Careers (MARC) and Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement (RISE) are funded by the National Institutes of Health to increase the number of students from underrepresented backgrounds earning degrees in the biomedical sciences. This article estimates the impact of participation in MARC and RISE on grade point averages, degree completion, and entrance into biomedical PhD programs. Supported students graduated at higher rates, had higher grade-point averages at graduation, and entered biomedical doctoral programs at much higher rates than students in a propensity score–matched comparison group. Results are comparable with previous study results of similar programs at other institutions and provide further evidence of the valuable support these programs provide to students from underrepresented backgrounds in achieving success in the biomedical sciences.

Teacher candidates have lower participation in undergraduate research than students in other disciplines. To enable teacher candidates to develop skills for scholarly activities and to engage them in research activities, teacher education programs utilize diverse approaches. This article describes a strategy to promote undergraduate research among teacher candidates using a systematic course-based infusion of skills necessary for undergraduate scholarship. In addition, it reports on the undergraduate students’ performance in research skills such as critical thinking, information literacy, and written communication in scholarly products over a three-year period. The results show an uneven but steady growth in research skills. Also discussed are the course and curricular modifications used by instructors to promote skill development for undergraduate research related to teaching