Faculty/student interaction in an undergraduate research program: Task and interpersonal elements.

Abstract

Conventional wisdom and research suggests that interaction with faculty can promote positive academic and developmental outcomes for undergraduate students. This study clarifies how faculty/student interaction within the context of an undergraduate research program (task-based interaction) leads to student intellectual gains, academic skill development, increases in educational aspirations and enhanced career motivation. The participants in the study were students and faculty involved in research partnerships in conjunction with an undergraduate research program at The University of Michigan. Interviews and focus groups were conducted with student researchers, and interviews with selected faculty sponsors. The focus groups and interviews were transcribed verbatum and content analyzed. The results revealed that the student outcomes from task-based faculty/student interaction are closely tied to social cognition within the context of the research partnership. Student satisfaction and effective performance are found to be related to clarity of task definition and social support within the research environment. Students who experienced dissonance between their expectations for the research partnership and assigned tasks were less satisfied than those whose expectations were congruent with their cognitive and social experiences in their research placements. Some students who experienced dissonance were able to affect changes (reconstruction) of their tasks such that they were more meaningful or challenging. The findings confirm that students who restructured their tasks felt empowered, respected, and academically competent in their research placements. In addition, the findings suggest that student interaction with graduate students and post doctoral fellows in the research environment may be positively related to student satisfaction, and that both quality (i.e., intellectually stimulating, active participation in shared tasks) and quantity (i.e., actual time expended) of interaction with these individuals and faculty influence student outcomes from the research partnership. Students participating in these research experiences reported high levels of satisfaction with the research work when the assigned tasks were challenging, the environment included social support for their work, and when they were able to affect changes in their tasks. Participating students generally reported lower levels of satisfaction when they were assigned tasks that were lacking in intellectual challenge, when they were given little social support or supervision, and when their tasks did not have a clear connection to a larger research effort.