Professional Development Challenges and Undergraduate Research Opportunities at Teaching-First Universities Laura Wilson (University of Mary Washington) Paula Mullineaux (Hamline University) Michael Knepp (University of Mount.
Download
Report
Transcript Professional Development Challenges and Undergraduate Research Opportunities at Teaching-First Universities Laura Wilson (University of Mary Washington) Paula Mullineaux (Hamline University) Michael Knepp (University of Mount.
Professional Development Challenges and
Undergraduate Research Opportunities at
Teaching-First Universities
Laura Wilson (University of Mary Washington)
Paula Mullineaux (Hamline University)
Michael Knepp (University of Mount Union)
Elizabeth Vella (University of Southern Maine)
Purpose of Symposium
Over the past decade and a half, there has been a growing movement in academia to further integrate
undergraduate students into the research process (Blanton, 2008).
Although much of the focus has been on conducting undergraduate research at larger, research-oriented
institutions, Hu, Kuh, and Gayles (2007) found that baccalaureate programs with a focus on the liberal arts
may be growing undergraduate research programs at an even faster rate than their larger counterparts.
Webber, Laird, and BrckaLorenz (2013) found that being at smaller institutions increased the likelihood of
student engagement in research.
The purpose of this symposium was to provide an avenue for APS members from primarily teaching-first
schools to see what others have done to increase their research opportunities as well as integrate the
learning back into the classroom.
The goal was to share successes along with the various issues that have arisen for each speaker with their
undergraduate laboratory work.
Setup of Symposium
Dr. Laura Wilson of Mary Washington will cover the benefits and challenges experienced
as a first year faculty member
Dr. Paula Mullineaux of Hamline University will explore the practice of student-faculty
collaborative research
Dr. Michael Knepp of Mount Union will discuss how to maintain and schedule laboratory
projects while integrating material into the classroom
Dr. Elizabeth Vella of the University of Southern Maine will focus on creating a publication
record conducive to tenure
Being a New Faculty Member at a Small,
Teaching Intensive Institution
Dr. Laura Wilson
Association for Psychological Science
2014 Convention
"Piled Higher and Deeper" by Jorge Cham
The Disconnect Between Graduate School and Your
New Job
• Graduate school (Gaff, 2002)
• Research is priority
• Very little teaching training
• Most graduates feel ill-prepared for faculty positions
• Your new job
• Research is no longer your priority
• Teaching-Research-Service expectations
• “Hit the ground running” (Whitt, 1991)
• Get over “the imposter dream” (McCormick & Barnes, 2008)
What’s the Reality? It’s Stressful
• Many new faculty members report feeling isolated,
receiving little mentoring, and feeling overwhelmed
by the large number of (often competing)
responsibilities (Gaff, 2002)
"Piled Higher and Deeper" by Jorge Cham
The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
• Ugly
• You were hired for your teaching, but the reality is your teaching abilities
may be largely untested.
• Bad
• Even though teaching is your priority, the research and service expectations
are still high.
• Good
• The relationships with colleagues and students, and academic climate.
Get a Feel for Your Institution
• Find a faculty mentor
• Attend faculty workshops
• Find ways to interact with faculty outside your department
• Know the evaluation process
• Start to ask questions about the tenure process
(Gazza, 2004)
Teaching
• Be thoughtful when scheduling your courses
• Limit the number of new preps
• Ask about campus presence expectations
• Ask for syllabi, textbook recommendations, course descriptions,
requirements
• Ask for student feedback throughout the semester
• Select a textbook you can use for several years
• Request an advising-free year
• Get to know your students
Research
• Typically the most stressful part of the job
• Internal and external collaborations
• Find funding
• Be smart when requesting start-up funds
• Have multiple projects and papers going at once
• Use successful writing strategies
• Find great undergraduates
• Some class projects may be publishable
• Schedule time
(Silverman, 2000; Thorsen, 1996)
Service
• Find something that you’re passionate about
• Become involved with student organizations within your area of interest
• Start at the department level and then expand out
• Learn to say “no”
• Don’t sacrifice activities that are key to tenure and promotion
• Service can be lots of different things
(McCormick & Barnes, 2008; Powers, 2004)
New Clinical Psychology Faculty
• Clinical practice or not?
• You are not your students’ psychologist
• Establish boundaries in class
• Expect students to bring crises to you
• Clinical skills can come in handy
Life Outside the Department
• Self-care
• Family and friends
"Piled Higher and Deeper" by Jorge Cham
Thank you!
Engaging in Student-Faculty
Collaborative Research at a
Teaching Focused Institution
Dr. Paula Y. Mullineaux
High-Impact Educational Practices
What are they?
◦ Educational experiences which foster..
active engagement by the student
learning that goes beyond the class room
Application to their personal or work lives
◦ Undergraduate Research
Involve students in active, systematic investigation and research—
complete research cycle
Utilizes empirical observation
Increases in Undergraduate Research at Small
Universities
Psychological research has become a core component of
undergraduate psychology curriculum (Dotterer, 2002).
Smaller colleges and universities face many challenges when
engaging in undergraduate psychology research.
◦ Little internal support
◦ Higher teaching loads
◦ Absence of graduate or postdoctoral students
Common Types of Undergraduate Research
Research
Assistant
Research
Methods
Student-Faculty
Collaborative
Research
Project
Independent
Study
Honor’s
Project
Student-Faculty Collaborative Research Project
How is S-F Collaborative
research different?
◦ Differ in how they are
conducted
◦ Differ in outcomes expected
S-F Collaborative
Research Project Goals:
◦ Deeper understanding of topic
◦ Result in some scholarly
product
◦ Facilitate authentic interaction
between the student and faculty
member
Benefits of Student-Faculty Collaborative
Research
Students
◦ Further develop critical thinking
and scientific inquiry skills
◦ Academically challenging and
deep learning experience
◦ Helpful in graduate school
admission
Faculty
◦ Fresh perspective of
undergraduate students
◦ Allows for more time to focus
on other responsibilities
◦ Often results in products
valuable to both parties
Student Attributes to Consider
Intellectual curiosity
Highly motivated
Ability to work well with others
Committed
Socially-emotionally mature
Some psychology research experience
Family Interaction and Development Lab
Ongoing, longitudinal study examining social emotional
development in middle childhood
◦ Multi-method and multi-method informant approach
(observational and questionnaire data)
Participants: 6-11 year old sibling and twin pairs
Procedure: parent-child interactions in two cooperative
tasks and family interaction in a competitive task
Student-Faculty Collaborative Research in the Family
Interaction and Development Lab
Team Approach (Faculty-driven Program)
A primary student collaborator with the support of foursix research assistants
Parental Cognition Project
Initial collaboration supported the establishment of the lab
Additional collaboration resulted in increased
Empathy Development Project
Resulted in an ongoing, related research project
Increased main study sample
Student Collaborators
Faculty Benefits
Literature review
Clarification of research question
Protocol development
Data collection
Lab management
Data analyses and presentation
Presentations at: NCUR, MUPC, MPA,
and APS
Fresh perspectives and infusion of
energy for project
Freed up time to attend to other
teaching, research, and service
obligations
Imposed a strict timeline
Moved forward own research
activities while counting toward
teaching
Results of the SFCR Team Approach
How to Stay on “Track” When Engaging in Student-Faculty
Research Experiences
Consider the time investment
Create a research culture and
invest in your students
Work within a faculty-driven
research framework
Use a student-faculty
research agreement
◦ OTRP
Utilize a team approach
Take advantage of existing
programs
◦ CUR
FIND THE RIGHT BALANCE BETWEEN
TEACHING AND RESEARCH
Michael Knepp
University of Mount Union
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT CHANGES
4 pillars to tenure at Mount Union
Teaching Effectiveness
Professional Development
Campus Service
Service to the Community
A changing landscape
Teaching Effectiveness has been and continues to be the main component for continuation and
promotion
As the academic landscape changes, the professional development piece takes on greater importance
A focus on higher impact practices
MODEL CHANGES AT MOUNT UNION
4-credit model
Faculty move from 4 3-credit courses to 3 4-credit courses
Goal 1: To lower course preparations and allow for more professional development
Goal 2: Within the classroom, allow more time to move beyond the lecture aspects of a course
Goal 3: Integration of written and oral communication across the general education requirements
Expectation Changes
3-credit model: Continue to show scholarly and professional development that can be used within the
classroom
4-credit model: Focus on assessment of professional development outcomes both in and out of the
classroom
Differences: Moving from presentations and potential published works to needing a publishing record
to support teaching effectiveness
DEPARTMENTAL FOCUS ON RESEARCH
The Psychological Sciences
General Education Requirement
Written and Oral Communication focuses on learning how to conduct background research to build
arguments
Research Methods 1 and 2
A combined methods and stats class
Both courses involve designing a small research study to run in the classroom and early work with
writing a research report
Senior Research 1 and 2
Fall Term: Teams of students prepare a research proposal with full IRB approval
Spring term: Collect/Analyze Data, Present at University conference, Write full report
THE UNDERGRADUATE LABORATORY
Independent Study
The research design counts as a course
2 credit or 4 credit option with the difference in hours worked per week
Developed for students primarily interested in going to graduate school
Lab meetings are weekly at first, then biweekly each term
Laboratory Team
Between 4 and 8 students so far
Each student works on every project; Projects created by faculty mentor
All aspects of the project: Background Research, Data Collection, Data Quantification
Beyond the Course
Conference Presentation Opportunities
Publication opportunities
RESEARCH SETUP
Recruitment through the SONA system
120 majors across psychology, neuroscience, and human development/family science
180 minors and 125-150 introductory students
Not all courses provide extra credit
2-3 studies at any given time
Fall Term: 1 neuropsychological study and 1 psychophysiological study
Early Spring Term: 2 studies in our neuropsychology room; Senior Research uses physio equipment
Late Spring: Begin new psychophysiological study
Balance: Quicker task-based studies or questionnaire-specific research
Typically have less independent study students in the spring due to recruitment competition with senior research
Key Balance: Staggering study beginning and ending periods
LABORATORY WING FACILITIES
BALANCING THE SCHEDULE: FALL TERM
July/August
Submit IRB application for new neuropsychological/task based study
Set up topic areas for literature searches
Incoming IS students complete human subjects training
Strongest returning student(s) typically assist as laboratory managers
First weekly lab meeting is determining work schedules and explaining psychophysiology study
9am to 5pm for potential timeslots; In fall term, there is overlap due to two rooms in use
First 2 weeks of term
Students conduct background research on all studies
Requirements on amount of literature found
Practice psychophysiological study until ready for subject running
Weeks 4 and 5 of term
Begin training on neuropsychological study
Continuing literature searches and psychophysiological study data collection
Once a student is ready, they spend half of their time on each study or split their time across three studies if we are running multiples
END OF FALL TERM SCHEDULING
Late October/Early November
Solicit feedback for spring term research study interests/ideas
Determine number of returning IS students; recruit from relevant classes to maintain 5-6 IS students
Submit revisions from summer journal articles
End of Fall Semester
Literature reviews for manuscript
Give one month; Student submissions due at end of semester
Organize conference submissions
Relevant authors work on abstracts for submission over winter break (receive data analysis portions when completed)
Psychophysiology study ends at least two weeks before end of term
Time for data quantification to be done by IS students
Winter Break
Submission of IRB for next psychophysiological study
Spring student human subjects training
Submission of psychophysiological study paper week before the semester
SPRING TERM OVERVIEW
Early Spring Term
Only neuropsychological/task based studies during senior research
Train and re-train; potentially add a smaller study to give more data collection time
Conference abstract submissions
Spring Break
Begin training on new psychophysiological study
Conference poster creation
Before registration, larger recruitment email sent to all majors about IS opportunities
Invite to meetings and laboratory tours
Continue targeted recruitment
All other details mirror spring term/including revisions
End of Spring Semester
Mirrors fall term with neuropsychological study in place of psychophysiology projects
Could have two studies finishing if shorter study used to balance is done
Neuropsychological manuscript goal is June
TEACHING THROUGH RESEARCH
Literature Search Skills
Focus on the practical skills of the literature search, strategies to use on course papers
This year: Bibliography write-ups
Data Collection/Quantification
Diversify projects
Use different tasks and study designs to entice strong students to take multiple terms
Skill set focus for improving CVs
Having a returning undergraduate is important here
Revision process
Invite students as part of the presentation and publication revision process, not just the initial stages
Show samples of changes throughout drafts to improve their own writing samples
THE LAB IN THE CLASSROOM
Journal Article Days
Bring in relevant topic articles in 200 and 300 level course
Out of class work to read the paper with in-class discussion
Laboratory demonstrations
Show various examples of past research in the classroom and relate it to the topic at hand
Seeing is believe; greater buy-in
Related Written and Oral Communication
Experiential projects that recreate previous works
Grant proposals that hit at different skills
Oral communication assignments that build towards graduate experiences
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Graduated Students
Erin Krafka, Sam Stilson, Kevin Joyner, Ashley Boutin, Morgan Myers, Angela Paridon, and Logan Cook
Current students at Mount Union
Rebecca Kritschil, Emily Quandt, Veronica Zaczyk, Alex Tomaino, and Erica Druzina
Fall Students
Erin Bell, Chad Gentry, Amanda Glorioso, Rachel Horseman, Casey Lambert,
Natalie Ricciutti, Dekota Toot, and Jeffrey Yoza
Lab Mascot and Materials
Samson the cat
Establishing a Research Program Conducive to
Tenure in an Exclusively Undergraduate
Department
Elizabeth Vella
Associate Professor of Psychology
University of Southern Maine
Pre-tenure Landscape
Increasing need to master juggle and strike balance amid
teaching, research, and service.
Junior faculty at contemporary liberal arts colleges may
find themselves pulled from multiple directions
simultaneously
Demonstrate teaching excellence
Establish a productive research program
Provide service to department, campus, and local
community.
Successful candidates will excel in time management skills
and ability to blur the lines across the 3 areas of
evaluation.
Focus: Integrative Models to Maintain an Active
Publication Record
Like Mount Union, USM has a research-driven
undergraduate psychology curriculum.
Stats, Research Methods Lecture & Lab, Upper Level Research
Assistantship.
Faculty teach 3-3 load, and expected to average 1 senior
author pub per year.
Goal: Establish models conducive to maximize
publication record, in addition to annual conference
presentations.
Model 1: Lab-Based (blend teaching with research)
Model 2: Field-Based (blend service with research)
Getting Started
Use Your Time Strategically
First things First: If you have publishable data left over from
graduate school or postdoc, use the summer before year 1 of
professorship to write it up.
Seek out top performing students in your classes to work as
undergraduate research assistants (particularly if teaching
research methods/stats)
Select service opportunities that will both nurture your
development as a campus citizen and further your development
as a researcher.
Institutional Review Board Service
Psi Chi Faculty Advisor
Summer Institutes Presentations/Faculty Workshops
Model 1: Lab-Based Science
Organize your time during the summer to achieve 2 key tasks
Protocol generation for late summer/early fall IRB submission
Prepare manuscript(s) for publication review
If you are successful in using your summer months for these purposes,
it will essentially ensure regular data generation during the academic
year, and regular manuscript review conducive to annual publications.
Avoid teaching summer session if possible; protect this time for scholarly
work.
Additional Strategy: Plan teaching schedules during fall and spring
terms to permit clear blocks of time scheduled exclusively for manuscript
preparations (e.g., McCormick & Barnes, 2008).
Aim to develop lab protocols that incorporate elements of
undergraduate research assistant interests.
Enhances quality of faculty-student relationship
Facilitates assignment of assistants to take the lead on poster presentations
The Lab-Based Scholarly Cycle
Summer: Protocol
Development &
Manuscript Preparation
Spring: Finish data collection
on lab study & Conference
presentations
Fall: Begin data collection on new
study & Analyze data from old study
for conference abstract submission
Winter Session:
Prepare conference
presentations & Address
manuscript reviews
Model 2: Field Based Science
Many junior faculty may be charged with the lofty pursuit of
maintaining an annual publication record w/o a lab space
Under these circumstances, faculty may benefit from exploring program
evaluation research opportunities.
Make connections with colleagues and community partners that will
enable you to establish a productive research program.
Potential Campus Resources:
Office of Community Service: http://usm.maine.edu/cbl/
Office of Research Development: http://usm.maine.edu/researchadmin
Examples of Program Evaluation Research
Pilot study: Retreat intervention predicts improved quality of life and reduced
psychological distress among breast cancer patients (Vella & Budd, 2011).
Participation in outdoor recreation program predicts improved psychosocial wellbeing among veterans with PTSD (Vella, Milligan, & Bennett, 2013).
Wayfinder Schools: Psychosocial and physiological correlates for those
undergoing alternative residential high school program for at risk youth.
Thank you!