Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) have become a widespread approach to teaching in
biology laboratory courses. Student perceptions of some research practices in CUREs, such as discovery and
relevance, have been shown to positively impact student outcomes. However, how CUREs are characterized
based on these research practices is highly variable across CUREs. Furthermore, we know little about how CURE
structure impacts student perceptions of research practices in these courses. In this study, we examined
student perceptions of research practices in different types of implementations of the Bean Beetle Microbiome
CURE. Implementations were either half-semester or full-semester. In addition, either faculty specified the
research question addressed or students chose the research question. Neither CURE duration nor the degree of
student autonomy in determining the research question significantly influenced student perceptions of any
measure of research practices. These findings indicate that the Bean Beetle Microbiome CURE, and by extension
other CUREs, may be just as effective when the instructor specifies the research question as when our students
choose the question to pursue. Consequently, the degree of student autonomy instructors give their students to
choose a research question may be less important than providing opportunities for students to make real
discoveries, design experiments, test hypotheses, and conduct other aspects of authentic research in
undergraduate laboratory courses.
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.Ok
