Despite the increasing popularity of undergraduate research experiences across disciplines, little information currently exists to guide the design, evaluation, and improvement of these experiences. One challenge to generating such guidelines is the lack of evidence related to the processes and contexts in which undergraduate research experiences occur. Our study sought to address this deficiency by exploring the norms of discourse that framed conversations between students and their mentors in biochemistry research as a model to understand the phenomenon of undergraduate research. We used a case-study approach to investigate the conversations that occurred between three student-mentor pairs as they engaged in research. Video-recorded observations of students and mentors working together helped us to identify discursive norms. We employed a stimulated recall interview protocol to identify how participants negotiated and established norms during a research experience. Our analysis of discourse was informed by previous literature on undergraduate research experiences and conversation analysis theory. Viewing our analysis across cases allowed us to identify categories of conversations that framed the research experiences of our student-mentor pairs. Based on these categories, we defined two distinct classes of research experiences present in our study: holistic and targeted experiences. We investigated individual turns-at-talk in conversations to generate findings on the nature of discourse present in each class of research experience. Our work adds to current understandings of the processes by which undergraduate research experiences occur by providing details about the role discourse plays in shaping these experiences. Our work will interest researchers involved in the investigation of undergraduate research as an educational practice. Characterization of these processes is intended to inform and equip the future efforts of stakeholders involved in the design or evaluation of undergraduate research programs. Additionally, educators wanting to improve the research experiences of their undergraduate students may benefit from the practical mentoring strategies revealed through our findings.

Investigating the conversations of undergraduate research experiences

255th National Meeting (2018)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.