Mentored Research Learning: An Evaluation

Cohort: 2020
Fellow: Michael Findley

Mentored research defies the traditional higher education approach, which separates research and teaching into distinct activities. Instead, mentored research fully integrates faculty research activities and student learning. In this approach, researchers do not simply carry out their research in isolation with a paid set of PhD-level research assistants. Further, students do not simply learn from in-class lectures or more traditional out-of-classroom experiences, such as study abroad. Instead, in mentored research, faculty integrate students of all levels into their regular research activities. Student participation in such meaningful research should enhance their learning and professional development and contributes to the environment of Experiential Learning that UT is trying to build. For the PTF project, I am conducting a systematic evaluation of the impact of mentored research activities. More specifically, I am carrying out a multi-method impact evaluation that consists of a quantitative assessment of learning outcomes for students who have gone through a mentored research lab experience compared to a suitable sample of students who did not. I also intend to carry out a set of qualitative interviews and focus groups to understand student experiences and associated learning to see how our curriculum/training best prepares students. As noted above, I would carry this out at least for the Innovations and Peace and Development lab, but also for other labs to the extent other lab directors are amenable. The objective of this evaluation is to provide lessons learned for future work of myself and the broader campus community. In addition to possible publication material, I hope to produce a best practices tool kit that other faculty could read and incorporate in their own work.