There's a saying I often pass along to my students ...
"You'll never know when you need to know what you know."
Okay, maybe it's a tad corny, but the message is real. Everythng you learn will help you somewhere in your life. Unfortunately, one cannot predict to what degree it will be helpful. The flip side is to therefore learn as much as you can,
So, you may be asking, what has this to do with UG research? Well, all students come to the table with much more information than they truly realize or, for that matter, that we realize. It is my belief that every student who wishes to engage in research can contribute in some fashion. However, the less a student actually knows, the more we, as educators, may need to be engaged supervising said student.
Oh, how simple it is to mentor a graduate student, someone who often has sufficient knowledge and skills to supervise themselves. But UG students are rarely as accomodating. Do some educators shy away from working with UGs because it is inappropriate, or because the educators choose not to undertake the additional work?
I'm convinced the reason is most often a combination of the two. Yes, it is true that UGs cannot perform at the same level as grads, but they can do work. UGs can experience what true, original research is all about, and perhaps see it as an integral part of their career paths. Most, if not all, professionals undertake research with a lowercase "r" somewhere in their career. If we never engage in original work, we'd never move forward. Therefore, if we wish to encourage students to be (gulp) productive members of society, then why not also encourage them, invite them with open arms, into the world of research? To me, this makes perfect sense.
Getting back to the title of this post, the answer seems to be that whatever a student knows is sufficient for them to begin research, even if it is simply as a junior member of a research team. But now I get to stick my neck out a tad further. I also believe that UGs can engage in original work, with a minimum of supervision, as opposed to simply being an extra pair of hands.
Reason? There are all sorts of probems and issues, big and small, that need to be addressd in a research project. A skilled eye can determine those tasks, that demand original thought, that an UG can deal with successfully. It is work for the educator, but aren't the benefits sufficient?
Nuff said!
I disagree that undergrads cannot function at the level of graduates. The philosophy at my school is that our students must be better than an average professional with 3 years working experience on graduation and it usually works out that way. What this means is that many of our students are able to produce professional quality work long before they graduate, some within the first or second quarter. This isn't because they have prior experience either. Most of our students come to us with no experience at all, 17 years old, and green as a spring leaf.
ReplyDeleteThe key is knowing that they are capable of doing it, then asking them to do it.
AP