1-Education - Ivy Gentry, Ryan Lauterbach, Erin Wiley
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Christine Loyd
Poster Title: PBI and PBL as a Delivery Method for Research Exposure in FYE Courses
Abstract:
Introduction: Project-based Instruction (PBI) and Problem-based learning (PBL) are two teaching pedagogies often employed by teachers seeking to encourage autonomous discovery. Freshman Year Experience (FYE) courses are introductory courses for undergraduate freshmen designed to improve academic performance and boost retention. Our aim was to determine if incorporating PBI and PBL into FYEs is an effective way to give freshmen authentic research experiences as defined by our team.
Methods: A subset of 35 papers tagged with “FYE” were gathered from a larger systematic literature review which pulled abstracts from 4 databases: ERIC, CINAHL, SCOPUS, and Academic Search Premier. Prior to reviewing papers, each reviewer underwent training and a definition for undergraduate research was developed. Our definition of undergraduate research involves five key components: Hypothesis, Data collection, Data analysis, Interpretation, and Conclusion. Of the 35 analyzed papers, 20% were chosen for quality control.
Results: Out of 24 papers, there were 8(33.3%) instances of PBI, 9(37.5%) instances of PBL, and 7(29.2%) instances where neither was employed. All PBI experiences and six of seven PBL experiences met our research criteria; however, none of the experiences where neither PBI and PBL was employed met our criteria.
Conclusions: This data may suggest that PBI and PBL contain the components of undergraduate research identified by the team. It is possible that these two course-based pedagogies may better introduce students to basic research practices that allow them to succeed in later research opportunities.