Students as Scholars: Integrating Independent Research into Undergraduate Education

Assessing an Iterative Method for Improving Undergraduate Student Literature Reviews

“…Although specific goals of undergraduate research capstone courses may vary both across and within specific academic disciplines, a common feature is requiring students to engage substantively with discipline-specific scholarly literature related to their research projects. More specifically, research capstones and research methods courses from a variety of disciplines may require students to write a literature review as a component of a research paper or research proposal, e.g., chemistry (Schepmann and Hughes 2006); sociology, psychology, and anthropology Grahe 2010, 2012;McKinney and Busher 2011;Orr 2014); economics (McGoldrick 2008a(McGoldrick , 2008b; and criminology (Rudes et al 2014;Portillo et al 2013). These are usually similar in that they involve a process of identifying, obtaining, understanding, and synthesizing multiple research articles specifically as they relate to a student's research topic.…”

The Development and Implementation of a Faculty–Student Collaborative Research Project

“…While research indicates that students with a range of academic records can perform well in student research (Portillo et al, 2013), the researchers were concerned about the potential risk to the quality of the research project should students fail to perform required tasks or perform them in an unsatisfactory manner. This was not a hypothetical project, but one that involved a criminal justice agency that had expectations for tasks to be completed satisfactorily and on time.…”

“…Again, interested readers are directed to our forthcoming article that highlights the benefits of the project to researchers and the agency (see note 1). experience to put on their resume (see Portillo et al, 2013). Since the completion of the course, all the graduate students finished their degree and have obtained criminal justice positions (one police officer, two probation officers, and a victim service/court advocate position).…”

“…Participation in this research integrates education and experience, as well as encourages active learning for the students. Furthermore, such activities can generate excitement in students to become involved in the discipline and reinvigorate their interest in the field (see Portillo, Rudes, Sloas, Hutzell, & Salamoun, 2013). Scholars from a range of disciplines have argued that undergraduate participation in research enhances student learning and personal development (see generally, Ishiyama, 2002).…”

“…Hartmus, Cauthen, & Levine, 2006), and research activities (e.g. Bolton, 2000;Payne & Monk-Turner, 2005;Portillo et al, 2013) in the discipline.…”